"Anthony Frost" wrote in message
...

Or more generally, treat the recipes as suggested starting points. Play
about with the quantities of ingredients until you get your ideal loaf,
and be prepared to repeat the process if you switch to different flour.

With my Panasonic machine I find the recipes have too much water, yeast
and sugar, and not enough salt. The dough rises too fast and you end up
with huge bubbles at the top, making it a bit drier helps keep the
bubbles where they form, and using less yeast and sugar and a bit
more salt (it acts as an inhibitor) gives a much more even finish.

That was the other reason I didn't like the breadmakers we had, the
instructions insisted that the recipes had to be followed stringently. They
produced bread which was far too sweet and rich (I don't use fat or sugar in
most of my bread) and far more yeast was asked for than is necessary.

I suppose if you like commercial bread the recipes are fine but we prefer a
robust bread with its own flavour, not that of additions.

We always uses organic flour, mostly wholemeal, yeast, salt and water.
Recipes do say that salt is a yeast inhibitor but you need an awful lot to
kill the yeast or even reduce its activity. Over more than forty years I've
tried - either deliberately or accidentally. Too much salt or no salt makes
the bread not good to eat, that's all.

The breadmake was no good at rye bread, in my experience, and we like that a
lot. We also enjoy oat additions and spelt bread.

Mary

Mary

Mary

Anthony