UKC

I had a Panasonic brand maker for 15 years. A couple of months ago the bread quality dropped. I thought a change was needed and brought a newer version of Panasonic but the results have not been great. 

Now I am thinking that its something to do with the ingredients. Keep in mind that for the past 15 years I did not have issue with the same ingredient brands. Its possible that the older model did not have issues!

For people in the UK I have used Allison's as well as Marriages.

Anyone facing the same thing? Any ideas?

In reply to Jt911:

Have you tried some different, fresher yeast?

T.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

Yes bought new yeast as well. Do you recommend any specific brand?

In reply to Jt911:

I use Allinson's easy bake.  Loaves rise a little less as the end of the tin draws closer.

You haven't had a senior moment and bought something other than strong flour?  Easy done if you're rushed.

T.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

Senior moment! The thought did cross my mind and I baked a fresh one just to be sure - ha ha!!

Ingredients used:

Allison's strong white flour

Allison's easy bake yeast

In reply to Jt911:

Ok, here's what I do.

Put into the bread maker, in this order:

1 tsp yeast

500 g strong bread flour

1 1/4 tsp fine salt

350 ml water 

Put your bread maker onto a standard white loaf program (1 on my Panasonic) that takes four hours.  Press go, and come back four hours later.

That's never failed me and I'd be interested to hear how you get on.

T.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

No sugar?

In reply to Jt911:

No.  Yeast, flour, salt and water are all you need.

T.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

Will get back in 4 hours 

In reply to Jt911:

Good stuff!  

T.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

I add an egg into the water measure, then take it up to the 350ml - means for a firmer loaf

In reply to Jt911:

At the risk of sounding like a hipster, I mostly make sourdough

And at the risk of sounding like a complete hipster, I get my flour from a local mill, but...

Chatting to the Miller, he says flour strength varies quite a lot from year to year. Big producers can accommodate that by blending, but it might just be that your flour is a bit weaker than usual. Can you tweak the proving cycle with a bread machine?

In reply to Jt911: I don't use a bread maker but do make a fair amount of bread and pizza dough . I mainly make sour  dough bread but use fresh yeast for pizza dough . As I've had mixed results with sour dough pizzas  . After much experimentation My go to strong bread flour is doves farm green bag , when I tried allisons I didn't rate the results . Have a go with doves farm ?

In reply to Jt911:

Off topic, as I don't use a bread maker, but the bread flours from Wessex Mill are amazing. 

In reply to Jt911:

Maybe your flour supplier has changed their wheat supplier.

Does anyone know the time frame between growing, milling and ending up on the shop shelf? A lot of crops were damaged last year due to the wet weather so maybe they are buying in or maybe excess water causes faster or slower growth and that changes the taste. 

In reply to Jt911:

I've been using my current Panasonic for a good few years now and haven't noticed any decline in quality. I use a 50/50 mix of white and wholemeal flour and usually just buy the basic own brand stuff from Sainsbury's. Occasionally I'll splash out on a fancy flour, but I don't think it makes a huge difference TBH. To this I'll add Allison's yeast, starting with a 3/4 spoon from a new tin and increasing to a heaped spoon by the end of the tin. 1tsp salt,  25g of olive oil and water.

Could it possibly be something with your water? Clutching at straws a bit here.

In reply to Jt911:

What is it that's not great about your bread these days? The rise? Crust? Texture /crumb? Flavour? Could help track down the problem if we knew.

My main breadmaker problem is a tendency for white loaves to be too light and fluffy and not have a decent crumb structure. I'm not sure what's responsible - I've tried tinkering and the only partial cure I've found is putting in half to a third of white spelt flour.

In reply to Bob Kemp:

Half and half white/spelt flour makes a good loaf.  If you want something that's a little denser, add rye flour - but no more than 15 grammes of your 500 total, otherwise it becomes far too dense (for me, anyway).

T.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

I use up to 40% Spelt, and up to 40% Buckwheat, and the rest is wholemeal bread flour from either Waitrose, or Allinson's: Plus I use their quick dry stuff in a small tin for yeast. My recipe has 280Ml water, milk powder, sugar, freshly squeezed lemon and salt. 

I vary the amount of Spelt and Buckwheat, just for change. The total amount of flour just has to add up to 500g. Result I love the bread, which is fairly dense, but lasts a reasonable amount of time.

My machine is a Kenwood. About 8 years old.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

I often put some rye flour in - as well as making it denser it produces a really crisp crust, if that's what you want. In fact I find that if I overdo the rye flour I get a loaf that's practically armour-plated - needs power tools to slice it.

In reply to Jt911:

Is that not enough sleeper puppet accounts now?

In reply to Hooo:

I keep my Allinsons yeast in the fridge once opened.  I might have got the idea online somewhere, I can't remember exactly.  It seems to stop it getting "lazy" once the tin's been opened so I don't have to remember to up the dose as I get towards the end of the tin.  It's warmed up to normal temperature by the time the machine pitches it into the dough.

In reply to Tony Buckley:

I made the mistake of making a 100% rye loaf. Well, brick would be more accurate.

To the thread: who new panasonic bread makers were so popular. I have one too, about 25 years old. Still going strong.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers: 100% rye ? We’re you p1ssed ?

In reply to mike123:

Probably 

In reply to toad:

How do you get on with SD in a breadmaker? I've had a lot of issues with acid reactivity with tin and non stick bread tins, only silicone or glass doesn't have that problem. I'd imagine a bread machine wouldn't last very long before staining and rusting. 

In reply to subtle:

Did the one without the eggs and its much better than before. thanks. I still don't understand why something that was working a few weeks ago has suddenly stopped working!

In reply to Jt911:

Glad it was an improvement.  My own opinion is not to bother with the egg, but to each their own.

T.

In reply to Longsufferingropeholder:

UKC is the obvious forum to sign up to for breadmaker advice...

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

Never tried it. I use a stand mixer to knead and mostly use a proving basket for 2nd rise

In reply to captain paranoia:

Is anyone making a list? Been a lot of these signups recently. He's obviously building back up the reserves.

In reply to Jt911:

try Allinson's very strong flour- good results with my pizzas..

In reply to captain paranoia: Jesus wept . If sone covid nut job takes the trouble to ask about bread makers on ukc , knowing that they are very likely to get sone advice and start a bit of bread chat , then I might well dig out my tin foil hat and start listening .

In reply to mike123: Listening but still not agreeing 

In reply to mike123:

The experienced bread maker has moved on to silicone liners...

In reply to Martin W:

I never thought of that, I'll give it a go.

In reply to magma:

Hi.  What is better about your pizzas with very strong flour?  Is it taste?

I'm now using that exclusively for pizza too.  It was all that was available once during the pandemic flour shortage.  Now, I'm hooked.  Because suddenly I find that the pizza base actually has (a bit of) taste - a bit like European breads/pizzas.  With normal supermarket bread flour the bases just tasted like bland filler.

In reply to BruceM:

Have you tried 00 flour for bases?

In reply to MG:

No.  Is that the real key to the flavour?

In reply to BruceM:

More texture I think.  But it's good, and I think what is largely used in Italy.  Recommended.

In reply to MG:

OK.  Cool.  Thanks.  I must try it then.  It's never been in any of my local supermarkets.