When we first acquired our breadmaker, we were surprised to find a lack of
consistency in repeated productions of the same recipe. Sometimes the bread
would come out higher, sometimes denser, and once it hardly rose all. We were
pretty careful about our measurements and put the difference down to changes
in humidity.
But the problem vanished when we started _weighing_ the flour instead of
using a measuring cup, (we bought an inexpensive kitchen scale from K-Mart).
When we checked the weight of our usual three cups of flour (and repeated
the test three or four times), we found that that the results ranged from 12
to 15.5 ozs -- a variation of about 25%! We settled on 13.5 ozs and haven't
had a problem since. The other change we made was to use distilled rather
than tap water, for the chlorine content of the latter is quite high, at
times, and we thought it might be weakening the yeast.
While we like Donna German's French Honey Bread, the white bread we make most
often is the Breadman's recipe. Fresh out of the machine it makes great
sandwiches, and wonderful toast when it's a day old. For a 1 1/2 lb. loaf:
9 ozs (1 cup + 2 Tbl.) Water
2 Tbl. Canola Oil
1 1/2 Tbl. Honey
13.5 ozs (3 cups) All Purpose, Unbleached Flour
3 Tbl. Non-Fat Dry Milk
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
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