Bread Machine Nightmare

[BakerTim]

I have a breadman bread machine I made a 1.5 lb loaf and it seemed to fit pretty good in the pan when it was done but it was very bubbly and light so i figured too much of something no biggie. When I attempted to make a 2lb loaf it pretty much attempted to push the lid off the machine. I am using bread machine yeast and I am pretty confident I used the proper amount of ingredients. The recipe called for dry yeast is this different from bread machine yeast. Or am I supposed to have a bigger pan for a 2lb loaf. I looked for more info on the machine but there doesn't seem to be any support for it. The machine has settings for 2lb and 1.5lb and it only came with one pan. I just ressurected this bread machine from the closet can anyone give me some advice.

[Donna M.]

First of all, what recipe are you using? Is it posted on 'Zaar? What was the consistency of your dough? Was it sticky and wet? If you can post here the ingredients and amounts of each, maybe we can figure out what is wrong. The yeast shouldn't make much difference. Sounds to me like maybe you needed more flour.

[UnknownChef86]

I found that when it came to my bread machine, I had to play with the amount of the yeast, as I was running into some of the same problems you're talking about, or mine would rise too much and then fall before it had a chance to bake off. Bread machine compartments are great places for dough to rise...warm, humid...everything a happy little yeast blob needs to rise.

Personally, I don't ever use special bread machine yeast. I simply buy the two pound bag of regular, dry yeast at Costco and store all but about 1/2 cup at a time in a large, airtight jar in my big freezer. the 1/2 cup I store in a small jar in my kitchen freezer. It's much cheaper than the fancier, divided packets, and works just as well, imo. The original bread-machine recipe (for my "standard dough") called for two teaspoons of yeast, but for a 2 pound loaf, I found it was just too much. I use 1-1/2 teaspoons of yeast. Not sure how it would work for you, but it works great for me. I'd say just play around with the yeast amounts til it's right for you.

I don't know if you'd feel comfortable doing this, but there have been times my dough has over-risen on the final rise (but hadn't started baking yet). My bread machine has a separate "bake" feature, so what I did was hold down the on/off button, which ends the cycle. I then reprogrammed it to start over, which begins the kneading process again. After the dough was kneaded a few times, knocking it back down, I turned the bread machine off again and set my kitchen timer for the amount of time I thought it needed to rise...about 20-30 minutes, I believe. I just kept an eye on it until it was just peeking over the top of the pan. I then turned the "bake" feature on which, on my machine, bakes it for an hour. At the end of the baking cycle, I had a loaf that wasn't threatening to take over my kitchen and was baked just right.

Something else to keep in mind is that if you want, and it hasn't started baking yet, you could always pull the dough out of the bread machine, form it into a regular loaf, and bake it off. What temp and how long depends on the bread. I find 400ºF for approximately 30 minutes (depends on the bread) is fairly standard.

Good luck! Hope some of this helps!