We have been baking our own bread for years. We use an almost new, top of the range, Panasonic. Every now and then we get a wholemeal loaf that looks like this:
We use the same flour and yeast and the same settings. The bread is fine.
Not a big problem but just interested in what’s gone wrong.
Even the same brand of flour might differ. Unless the flour is sourced from the same place and the same time of year it’ll be impossible to get the “same flour”. Even if it is sourced from the same place and same time of year the differences in weather will affect the crop. This is where baking by hand vs. a machine comes into play. When baking by hand one can feel the differences in the dough and make adjustments. When it comes to a machine you put all the ingredients in and press start.
If the flour you buy says “wheat sourced from more than one country” on the packet then the hydration will probably need to be tweaked each time. Hence sometimes it comes out perfectly and other times a slightly odd shape.
Which brand flour do you buy?
We get it from Lidl. I’ve thought about the flour but can almost guarantee that the next loaf out of the same bag will be OK.
If it does then we’ll need to put our thinking caps back on.
Same bag of flour, same yeast, same everything:
The bread doesn’t taste any different but just puzzled by the change. Doesn’t happen often.
Both loaves sort of have the same shape, the first loaf is just exaggerated. See the pink and long orange lines.
By any chance are you rolling the dough to shape it? Or letter fold like ciabatta?
I think the issue here is they’re both machine baked. Originally I thought it could be the hydration but @InTheMoors just baked the same loaf from the same packet of flour. Perhaps when the machine mixes the dough sometimes it just does it better. I have another idea… maybe this just happens when it is a small loaf, a machine will have 3 dough sizes for the same pan, and because it’s a small loaf it all depends on the roll of dice. After all the machine isn’t “watching” the dough. If done as a larger size dough it’ll fill the loaf pan more with less room for odd shapes.
I saw it as the way he dough is folded. Perhaps the machine is inconsistent in how it does it. The idea of it being related to a dough size setting makes the most sense.
The cycle of a bread machine is to mix the ingredients, knead (with a paddle), rise and the shaping is a quick knead which is really a deflating. It’s allowed to rise again and it’s then baked. So there’s no shaping as such. However the dough deflates will affect the rise and how it is shaped. If it does a good job then it’s even but every so often the results might not be the same. I would think this would affect the smaller doughs rather than the larger doughs which would fill the bread pan more so. That’s the only thing I can think of especially as this is the same recipe and flour.
It would be useful to see an internal photo of the crumb. It might help to determine if the flour quality is playing a role, such as low gluten quality, or if, as this is probably a standard recipe, the hydration is too high for this flour.
If these characteristics are at the limit, any fluctuation like the one explained by Abe can give the different results experienced.
Here’s a picture of the inside of the loaf:
We make the smallest loaf that we can so the bin is never full.
Never had a problem with white bread.
Perhaps as the whole-wheat dough could very well be dryer it is more prone.
Hiw much flour and water in this recipe? Crumb does look like it might benefit from more water.
Hi Abe
Standard Panasonic recipe - 400g flour and 280g water. The bread doesn’t taste dry.
Thats quite a low hydration for a whole wheat bread and it might not be spreading properly. For an unenriched whole wheat bread 80% hydration is about right. For 400g of flour that would be 320g water. Is there any oil or butter in the recipe.
There is also butter, salt and suger.
Try increasing the water to 80%. See what happens. If you can choose a longer or darker bake to make up for the higher hydration then try that too.
Just been talking to OH about this. This is our fourth Panasonic and she told me that the wholemeal recipe with the last one had 300g of water. Will try more water.
Thanks Abe
Took the water up to 300g and it has made a slightly larger than usual loaf. Crumb looks better:
I wonder why Panasonic reduced the water in the recipe? Puzzling.
Very nice loaf! Agreed, far better. Good crumb, excellent oven spring and shaped well.
