Bread Maker

[perose]

I have just bought a bread maker and have now made two loaves, the texture of the bread (wholemeal) is lovely but the bottom crust comes out very dark and hard. I reduced the crust setting to light and used milk instead of water but it is still very hard. The top crust is fine. Any answers please ?

[Smowball]

What breadmaker do you have?

[perose]

I have the cookworks !

[Smowball]

Ive got the Kenwood. Ive never had that issue but am just going to go and look in my booklet at the troubleshooting page and see if it mentions it. Back in a sec....

[friedgreentomato]

do you mix wholemeal with white flour? and put the mixture in the correct way - ie all liquids first then all flour then yeast and sugar?

[perose]

Thankyou Snowball !

[perose]

Yes, wholemeal flour mixed with white and all put in correctly !

[dennisb66]

This might help...


External Bread Appearance







Symptom

Causes



Crust too dark

- Oven temperature too high or wrong bread machine setting.
- Excessive milk or sugar.
- Excessive baking time.
- Over proofing.



Crust too light

- Oven temperature too low or wrong bread machine setting.
- Insufficient milk or sugar.
- Insufficient baking time.
- Insufficient proofing.
- Insufficient mixing.



Crust broken

- Insufficient proofing or wrong bread machine setting.
- Insufficient liquid.



Crust too hard

- Oven temperature too high or wrong bread machine setting.
- Insufficient proofing.
- Insufficient sugar or shortening.
- Excessive steam.
- Insufficient liquid.
- Baking time too long.



Crust too soft

- Oven temperature too low or wrong bread machine setting.
- Excessive sugar/egg yolks/shortening.
- Excessive oil/margarine as a wash.
- Insufficient steam during baking.
- Baking time too short or wrong bread machine setting

[Smowball]

Doesnt mention base of bread being hard, just the crust,

But - you do have to put the ingredients in in the exact order it says in the recipe. What about trying a load with white flour?

Or I guess there is the teeniest possibility that there is a fault with the breadmaker and the base is getting far too hot?

[Smowball]

loaf! lol

[perose]

Thankyou all, will have to have another try with different settings !

[Alagopus]

Don't know this brand but lots of reviews here:
http://reviews.argos....b/4229399/reviews.htm

Some comments from the site:

"Best wholemeal loaves made by running dough programme for 15 - 20 minutes, until ingredients well mixed. Then switch off and put on basic programme, but increase time delay to about 7 hours, eg over night."

"... if you don't like very crunchy crusts I would suggest spending a little more money on another model. Alternatively, play around with the cooking times and remove the loaf approximately 20/30 minutes before the end of the baking programme."

"... if you like your crust to be softer rather than too hard - when you take the hot loaf out of the machine, cover it completely with a clean tea towel and allow it to then cool naturally. This helps keep the crust softish even to the end of the loaf."

"Advice-keep colour down and don't leave the loaf in the machine once the time is up as it will keep cooking and the crust will be too thick"