(Newswire.net — March 15, 2018) — A bread machine is a very useful appliance to have in your kitchen. It gives you the opportunity to give up store-bought bread, which is loaded with chemicals and preservatives, and make your own bread at home with minimum effort. Most bread makers are pretty intuitive, and if you follow the machine’s instructions, you shouldn’t experience many problems. However, from time to time you will run into some minor inconvenience, which mostly have to do with the ingredients that you use. In the following lines, we will share with you some useful baking tips to help you achieve a fluffy and delicious loaf of bread on each try.
Dealing with common baking problems
– The bread doesn’t rise– If your dough doesn’t rise at all, or it doesn’t rise sufficiently, the main culprit is likely the yeast. Make sure that your yeast is fresh and that you are storing it properly (the fridge is the best option). Moreover, if you are using the delayed cycle, make sure to add the ingredients in the right order (first the liquids and then the dry ingredients), and that the yeast doesn’t come in contact with the liquids, the salt or the sugar. Using too much salt or sugar in a recipe can also kill the yeast. Moreover, keep in mind that if you are using whole-grain or all-purpose flour, it is normal for the bread to end up shorter and heavier than usual.
– Bread top problems – If your loaf has either a mushroom or a sunken top, it is most likely that your ingredients were out of proportion. A mushroom top can also happen when the pan is too small for the amount of dough or when you use too many sweet ingredients. On the other hand, a sunken top can happen if you forgot to add salt to the dough, if the dough had too much liquid or if the top lid remained open during the baking cycle. As far as the crust goes, if you want to achieve a crispier crust, try reducing the oily ingredients, and use water instead of milk. On the other hand, if you end up with a very thick crust, it could be because you left the bread in the machine for too long after the baking cycle was complete.
– Texture problems–If your bread presents gummy unappetizing areas, it could indicate that you are using too much of wet or fatty ingredients like applesauce, fat or eggs. This can also happen if the machine is used in a very cold room. On the other hand, if the bread texture is too coarse, you might be using too much yeast or too much water. If you are using wet fruits and veggies, make sure to dry them with a paper towel before adding them to the dough.
Baking secrets
While you don’t need to be an expert cook to use a bread machine, there are some tips that you can only learn with time. But don’t worry, as we will save you some time and we’ll let in you in on the best kept baking secrets.
– Checking the quality of the yeast– To make sure that your yeast is not too old, mix one tablespoon of yeast with one tablespoon of white sugar and ½ cup of warm water. Mixt it well and let it sit. If the yeast is good, it should start foaming after 15 minutes.
– Know the right temperature for your ingredients – Aside from the water which should be warm, the rest of your ingredients should be at room temperature. If you are storing some ingredients in the fridge, heat them up a little before use. Moreover, keep in mind that the room temperature can affect the baking process. So, do your best to avoid baking in extreme temperature and humidity conditions. Moreover, since the humidity affects the baking process, you can use slightly less flour in the summer, and a little more in the winter.
– Tips for special ingredients – If you are a big fan of bread specialties loaded with nuts or dry fruits, we advise you to invest in a bread machine with an automatic ingredient dispenser. Read some reviews on https://breadmachinemom.com/ to see which are the best machines with this feature. Some machines can also feature a sound signal for adding special ingredients at the right time during the kneading process, but that means that you must stay near the machine to wait for the signal. If your machine doesn’t properly integrate nuts and dry fruit, you can add these ingredients along with a teaspoon of flour. The flour will help the dough open up and absorb the new ingredients. Last but not least, if you’re recipe calls for easily perishable ingredients like cheese, eggs or milk, you should never use the delayed cycle with that recipe, because you can risk a serious food poisoning.
Experimenting with new recipes – When you try out new recipes, the main thing that you need to keep in mind is the proper ratio of the ingredients. You should use ½ teaspoon salt for each cup of flour, 1 1/4 cups liquid for 3 cups flour. As far as sweet recipes go, you should never use more than ¼ cups of sugar or other sweet ingredients.