Susan asked how she could get her bread to stop over-rising in her bread
machine. Here are a couple of tips taken from a ridiculous amount of reading.
1. Use active dry yeast. That instant stuff is icky. The active dry is
slower. Definitely use active dry yeast in hand made, oven baked bread. The
instant is like a sprinter, works really fast, really quickly and then poops.
2. Check your water temperature. it should be room temperature unless you
live in Death Valley with no air conditioning, in which case that would be
bad, very bad. Let's say 70 F or there abouts.
a. use an instant thermometer, the kind with the dial are nice and cheap.
In addition it can be used when you bake in the oven to test if the bread
is done, 190 F. WARNING: don't leave it in the oven. My sister-in-law
melted mine in the Thanksgiving turkey last year :(
b. if you are too lazy, cheap or lack the anal retentiveness to use a
thermometer then use your fingers. It should feel neither warm or cold to
your skin.
c. if you want to make absolutely sure your bread will not over-rise,
cool the water to even cooler- let's say 60 F. If the cooler water doesn't
work an exorcism may be in order :)
3. Skip the gluten all together unless the recipe has a lot of whole grains
or sweeteners. The ` point of the gluten is to help out the grains that are
low in--- duh duh ta duhhhh- you guessed it- gluten. Otherwise you will see
gluten called for in recipes high in sugar, because too much sugar impairs
the rising. I think this is God's way of telling us to stay away from high
sugar recipes, but alas, I am a sinner in need of grace.
4. Go ahead and give the all purpose flour a shot. However, you should only
use it in the plainer breads. If you try to use it in a sweet or whole
grain bread it won't rise enough. HELLO! That is what you are looking for
so go ahead and use the all purpose flour.
a. although ap flour doesn't rise as much as bread flour I don't think
the difference is monstrous
b. ap flour results in a nice soft bread.
c. ap flour doesn't absorb liquid as much. You might want to back off a
hair on your liquid. Or is it the other way around I am sure I will get
hung from the highest tree by the bread list clan if I am wrong on that.
5. Don't cut out the yeast on the sourdough recipes, chances are GREAT you
will end up with bricks.
6. Cut back on the yeast as a last resort. I find most recipes to be
correct if you follow all the precautions.
7. Read, read, read, and read some more. Here are two of my offerings.
a. the Bread Machine Cookbook series by Donna Rathmell German
b. The Bread Book by Besty Oppeneer. She has a website, I believe it is
http://www.breadworks.com
c. one word Library
I could write more, but I think these are the major things to look for.
That and most people are probably tired of reading this long message. Hope
this information helps.
Fellow Bread Fiend,
Pedro