Hi Ron,
I certainly agree with your comments to Isa. The volume of the loaf is
really what counts. We usually eat bread by the slice, not by its weight.
On the other hand, it is easily possible to make a larger than 2 pound loaf
in the Zoji S-15A! The trick to doing this is the recipe. The density of
whole grain wheat is higher that that of refined flour. In addition, whole
grain breads do not usually rise as much as refined flour breads. The
reason for this is that the bran particles are quite sharp and tend to
puncture the bubbles the yeast produces. As a result, it is possible to
make a 100% whole wheat bread in the Zoji, using four cups of wheat. It
will weigh about 2-1/4 pounds! Because of the outstanding kneading process
of the Zoji S-15A, you can actually make this bread on the quick cycle! If
you would like the recipe, contact me at any of the following E-mail
addresses: irwin@prodigy.com irwinf@juno.com
I'm sorry that you didn't get your other questions answered by Zoji. In
general, yeast breads do not require more than 60 minutes of baking time.
Cake recipes, on the other hand, may require more time when there are very
wet ingredients in the recipe. These include bananas, zucchini, carrots,
apples, etc. I had the occasion to measure the moisture content of fresh
carrots a couple of weeks ago and found that over 85% of a carrot is water.
In baking, this water is evaporated to get the batter to bake to a
consistency that we like. In fact, until the water is vaporized and boiled
out of a cake or bread, the temperature of the item is limited to the
boiling point of water! Only after the water is boiled off, can the
internal temperature rise to the point where the batter is baked. This
usually is about 350 degrees Farenheit. At that temperature the sugars in
the loaf caramelize and the flavor and color develop. Yeast breads have a
reasonably small range of moisture ratio. Usually the ra
tio of liquid to flour is 1:3. That takes a lot of variables out of the process.
Now you ask, "If I need more than 60 minutes in the Home Made Menu cycle,
how do I get it?" I'm afraid you can't get it from the Zoji or any other
ABM! If you have a bread recipe that requires more baking time, please let
me know and I'll suggest a way to get around the 60 minute limit.
You also ask why the times in the Zoji manual are given in ranges rather
than in minutes. These machines are made to operate in a considerable range
of varying conditions. Not the least of these variables is the local power
system voltage. A nominal 117 VAC power system may vary from 112 to 122
volts. A variation of voltage of about 4 %. Since baking is dependent upon
energy, the energy variation is about 8%. That accounts for the range of
time given If the time for each cycle were given in minutes, Zoji would
receive calls from thousands of customers who would want to know, "What is
wrong with my Zoji? The manual says the 2nd knead cycle is 40 minutes and
my machine kneads for 45 minutes." If you think this is silly, let me tell
you about our experience with the preheat cycle. The older Zoji S-15s (no
A) had a preheat cycle that operated when additional warming was needed to
bring the ingredients to a temperature that was appropriate for the yeast
to make the dough rise properly. Th
e Zoji computer would determine whether the additional heat was needed.
Sometimes, even if the ingredients were cold, preheating was not necessary
since normal heating would bring the temperature up to what was necessary.
At Delta Rehab, we received hundreds of calls from people who said their
Zojis weren't working! These calls were always referred to me and when I
would ask what was wrong, I was told, "My machine's preheating cycle
doesn't work!" I devised a test for these people and waited on the
telephone for them to do it. (We were paying for the call on our (800)
line. The test was to put 4-5 ice cubes into the bread pan with + cup
water. After a couple of minutes, when the machine was turned on, the
preheat cycle would start. There was not one single machine that I know of
in which the preheat cycle didn't work! Nevertheless, the calls kept coming
in. Can you blame Zoji for not giving exact times in the owners' manual?
Interestingly, I don't know anything about the machine that
does what you were told and will have a more exact timer. I suspect that
the tech you were speaking to make that up!
Actually, Ron, I answered your questions several weeks ago. Unfortunately,
I didn't realize that there was a limitation to the note length and most of
my reply got lost. That was discouraging!
Irwin