> Interesting post, Mr. Hosler, and one that I agree with for the most part.
>
> However, in my bread machine (and we are talking solely about bread machine
> breads, right?), I've never had a successful loaf without salt. The machine
> has a timer that is inalterable, at least in my case. Any time I've tried to
> go salt-free, the loaf has risen and fallen -- collapsed, really, with no
> hope of rebounding within an uninterrupted cycle -- creating an impossibly
> dense loaf.
>
> RE: sugar, I should have worded my post differently so it said the loaf
> doesn't rise "as quickly" rather than "as much". I did NOT say the loaf will
> not rise -- obviously it will. Every breadmaker knows -- or should -- that
> starch = sugar. Again, though, omitting sugar from a bread machine recipe can
> be a problem sometimes with timed cycles that don't allow a longer rise, if
> necessary.
>
> If anyone has found a way around the problem of timed cycles in cases like
> these, I'd love to know what it is. I've often wished my machine would let
> me skip right to the bake cycle when I want to, but it won't.
>
> -Elizabeth Harbison
I found that in order to make salt-free bread in my WB machine I had to be
precise about the measurement of water and particularly yeast, whose small
volume means that small inconsistencies make a bigger percentage
difference. I played with each recipe, adjusting the yeast by 1/4 tsp at
a time. Eventually I found a way to make salt-free breads of all types -
pumpernickel, light rye, French bread, raisin-oatmeal whole wheat, spelt
bread - everything I tried. But if you use too little yeast you get a
doorstop, and too much causes collapse. The margin of error isn't big,
but it's not so small it's scary; You need no measurer finer than 1/4 tsp.
I got some bad loaves during the adjustment period for each new recipe.
But once I had the amounts right they worked every time. The ones that
were most persnickety about the amount of yeast where the no-sugar loaves.
(I've since discovered that if I put a little bit of salt in my bread,
more of it is eaten by my wife than if I make only salt-free bread. We've
compromised - I now use half a tsp per loaf of "Lite salt", which is half
sodium chloride and half potassium chloride -- 500 mg sodium/loaf. This
allows me to resume measuring by eye.)
I don't know of any solution to the timing problem except a generation of
bread machines that don't yet exist.
I have solved some of the timing problems - as above - by controlling
water, yeast, salt, and sugar. But of course the machine remains rigidly
attached to its narrow rules. Why is this true? Perhaps manufacturers
fear giving up the simplicity of current machines. How many people would
buy a machine that cost significantly more but offered completely flexible
programming and control? If each reader of this list would tell the
manufacturer of his or her machine that they want one with complete
programmability, it would increase the probability that such a machine
would exist in the future.
And why not a machine that detects the volume of dough, with a photocell
or even a small paddle the dough lifts as it rises - to tell when to start
the next phase of processing?
Thanks for your response to my note.
Jay Hosler