Topic: Wholemeal Bread (Bread Machine) Question

[Duke Ellington]

Hi

I can make wonderful white loaves in my bread machine and can make a really good loaf when I mix white flour and wholemeal flour to make bread. However, whenever I make a 100% wholemeal loaf in my bread machine it's unsuccessful.  The top of the loaf falls and I end up with a huge crater in the top of my loaf.
I have been using Allisons extra wholemeal flour.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome this?

Duke

[valmarg]

Sorry Duke, but I'm not a fan of 100% wholemeal loaves.  The nearest description that comes to mind (from experience) is 'brick'.

My advice, if you needed it, would be to stick with what you know works, ie 50/50 white and wholemeal flour. ;D ;D

valmarg

[Twoflower]

I put yoghurt in mine, it keeps the mix wet put not soggy. I must admit that i like 50/50 better and the yoghurt makes the bread really light :)

[Duke Ellington]

Thanks I will try yoghurt in it ! Someone has since told me to try to add some lemon juice too !

Duke :)

[carrot-cruncher]

I put yoghurt in mine, it keeps the mix wet put not soggy. I must admit that i like 50/50 better and the yoghurt makes the bread really light :)

Question: how much of the water do you replace with yoghurt please, because I tend to have the same problem with my 100% wholemeal loaves as Duke Ellington.

Cheers

CC

[Twoflower]

roughly the same volume, but i just keep an eye on it when it starts to mix to see if it is too dry.

[tomatoada]

I think I read somewhere that you should not use all granary flour or it will damage the pan.   May be wrong. 

[Columbus]

Hi Duke, Hi all,  :)

What kind of yeast are you using? If you use a whole satchet of yeast it may be too much and that causes the bread to collapse. I use one teaspoon of dried yeast bought in little yellow tins to three cups of flour. This is dissolved into a half-cup of water with a teaspoon of sugar and left for 15 minutes or so before you start the actual bread making.

You can get bags of German bread mix from Lidels for about a pound, these will make two loaves of very tasty and perfect-every-time regional German breads with only water to add. Otherwise I use Sainsburys el cheapo bread flour about 79p and get perfect bread as long as I make sure the yeast has frothed up first. (If it doesn`t froth throw it away and start again, it was probably too warm)

Col

[Duke Ellington]

Thanks for all your suggestions..
Columbus_ I use easy blend yeast but only use 1 1/2 teaspoons to 500 grams of flour as per directions in my Bread Making cookbook. I store the rest of the yeast in an airtight container in the fridge until its used again. I never keep the yeast for very long. I have never used the yeast that you mix with water I have only ever used the easy blend yeast.

Duke

[realfood]

I have seen the concave top of the loaf that you describe. I find that it happens if the bread mix is too wet, or too much sweetener or least has been added. This allows the bread  to "overprove", and the trapped gasses to escape when the baking starts. I would suggest slightly reducing the amount of liquid added, or reduce any added sweetener.
Also you could try using a shorter program.

[Deb P]

My mum gave me the tip to use honey in place of sugar for wholemeal bread to stop 'collapsing' syndrome. It worked for me and the bread tasted nicer and was evenly moist, I found it a bit dry before I used honey.Worth a try?

[Duke Ellington]

Deb p :) did you replace the honey as the same quantity for the sugar?

Duke :)

[Deb P]

Yes, in my dough recipe I think it was 2 scoops (tblspns) of sugar, I just replaced it with the same amount of honey...a bit more difficult to measure out though, I floured the scoop first so it just fell out!!