I am new to this list, and to bread baking. And I could use some help and
advice. So far, I am making bread with a machine, the Regal Kitchen Pro.
Many of the recipes in the accompanying cookbook have turned out fine. I
have even experimented and produced a really good cracked wheat loaf;
however, certain recipes never turn out.
The two problem recipes are for sourdough and cinnamon raisin bread. For
the sourdough, I made the starter as per instructions in a glass dish, put
in with the rest of the ingredients, including yeast, and produced a
cannonball. As far as I can tell the loaf never rose at all. It is the same
story with the Cinnamon Raisin. The loaf increased in size about 10% in the
rise cycle.
It seems to me that some component of each recipe must be inhibiting the
yeast. The same yeast works fine in other breads. In the sourdough recipe
it must be something in the starter because every other ingredient (honey,
milk, flour etc.) works fine in other loaves. In the Cinnamon Raisin, I
suspect the Cinnamon(very aromatic, from Penzeys). Again, all the other
ingredients present no problems in other recipes.
What to do? I want to make both these types of breads, and I want to do it
in my bread machine. Is this an impossible quest? Please help.
Christopher J. Flann
cjflann@imt.net
Montana. The Last Best Place.