Any ideas?
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The case of the collapsing bread loaf...
Kevin is on a health kick lately and bought a fifty pound bag of wheat, and a manual grinder. He has been trying to make some bread but every loaf is coming out all sunken in the middle...any ideas what might be causing this? We just bought a brand new jar of yeast that doesn't expire until April 2011. He's even tried mixing in regular store-bought flour and those all collapse too. He has been following the recipes to the letter (he's tried 3 now) and still no luck.
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My recommendation would be to try a loaf with your yeast and just the store bought flour. I have a feeling it's the wheat, not the yeast. that is causing the dough to be too heavy. I used to bake my own bread years ago, but didn't grind wheat. So I'm only partially qualified to answer your question......
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mitzi -- I think it's the wheat. It's possible that it's been ground too fine. I remember my grandmother (an OUTSTANDING baker) having the same trouble with cakes collapsing in the middle. She finally figured out that my mother had switched and bought pre-sifted flour and then my grandmother was sifting it again, as was her habit. The flour was too fine. Once she stopped re-sifting the pre-sifted flour, the cakes came out great.
ReplyDeleteHe's going to try a loaf with store bought flour and see if it is the wheat. I don't think it is too fine, it looks really "chunky" to me-like maybe it should be ground again! :)
ReplyDeletei was just reading some of your older posts and saw this -- we used to use a bread machine for our bread, and sometimes i had this problem if i used the full length cycle. does your machine have a "quick" cycle? if so, have you tried it? sometimes if the yeast rises too much before the bread bakes the loaf will collapse. that being said, heavier flours can be tricky to work with.
ReplyDeleteHi Cindy Lou!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!! I'll have to check to see if it has a "quick" cycle! What great advice!! We were stumped as to what was causing it to sink.