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Every kitchen and every baker is different. Use this helpful Tips & Troubleshooting guide to help you navigate your way through baking with yeast. This guide includes common mistakes and solutions for traditional bread baking, bread machine baking and gluten-free baking.
Explore the most common reasons why dough doesn’t rise or rises too slowly, along with common solutions:
1. Insufficient yeast or expired best before date
2. Liquid was too hot – destroyed the yeast enzymes.
3. Liquid and/or other ingredients were too cold – slowed down yeast activity.
4. Too much salt was used which will inhibit or slow down yeast activity.
5. Too much sugar or not enough will inhibit or slow down yeast activity.
6. Rise temperature was too low or too high
Below are some of the most common reasons why your dough is too sticky and our solutions:
1. Not enough flour was used.
2. Flour was too old or too low in gluten.
3. Too much kneading
View the most common reasons for crumbly and coarse bread and our solutions:
1. Dough rising period too long
2. Too much flour was used
3. Oven temperature is too low
4. Dough not kneaded long enough
Below are some of the most common reasons bread collapses in the oven and tips to prevent collapsing in the future:
1. Flour used was too weak
2. Dough was over-proofed / over-risen
3. Oven temperature was too low
The following issues may have caused your crust to be too thick:
1. Oven temperature was too low
3. Dough was too dry
Here are some of the most common issues that cause bread to be too dense or gummy:
1. Oven temperature is too hot
2. Bread taken out of the oven too soon, and is not fully baked.
Below are key reasons your bread may have turned out too large or poorly shaped:
1. Rising period was too long
2. Too much yeast was used
1. Bread not cooled properly
Here are the key reasons your bread is too solid and compact and our solutions:
1. Dough rising period was too short
2. Flour used was too weak
Below are the most likely reasons there are holes in your bread:
1. Dough was poorly moulded/shaped
2. Dough allowed to rise too long
A bread machine combines convenience with flexibility. If you enjoy a fresh loaf of bread, but don’t have the time or space to bake from scratch, a bread machine is for you. For those with special dietary needs, it is easy to create special recipes without a lot of time and effort.
The bread machine cycles offer you flexibility to optimize your bread characteristics. Each cycle has a specific time and temperature to maximize dough performance. Typically a whole wheat cycle has a longer rise and bake time. For your specific machine cycles, refer to your owner’s manual.
Bread machine cycles can be picked to control crust color and crispiness. If you prefer a soft and light crust, choose a light cycle. For the darker, crisper crust, choose a darker cycle. If your bread recipe has a lot of grains or sweeteners that can cause it to brown quickly, choose a light crust cycle.
Use Yeast in any bread machine on any cycle. For Active Dry Yeast – use 3/4 teaspoon of yeast for each cup of flour. Active dry yeast is not recommended for one-hour or less bread machine cycles. For Instant Yeast – use 1/2 teaspoon of yeast for each cup of flour. For one-hour bread machine cycles, yeast amounts must be doubled or tripled; suggested liquid temperatures vary with machines.
Always use liquid temperatures at 80°F and other ingredients at room temperature.
1. Crust is too thick
2. Bread collapses during baking
3. Bread does not rise
4. Loaf is short and dense
5. Bread has coarse texture
6. Bread has doughy center
7. Unbrowned top
8. Large mushroom top
9. Flour on side of loaf
10. Crust too dark
11. Rancid taste
While bread machines offer freshly baked bread at the push of a button, some people have baked more “hockey pucks” or “mushroom loaves” than they’d care to admit. Below are some tips you might find helpful when baking with the bread machine.
Breads
This classic sweet dough is lightly enriched and gets double cinnamon and pecans, once in the filling and then in the streusel on top.
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