We are using a fairlty new Panasonic breadmaker. A ‘problem’ has developed. Something like 90% of the bread we make has a split top - usually down one side. We are using the same Lidl flour that we have used for some years. The bread tastes and looks OK.
A bit of Googling suggests that gas is doing this as the loaf is baking. We bake white and wholemeal and use the standard Panasonic suggested setting.
It’s not a great problem but I’m just curious and would be grateful for any suggestions on how to deal with this.
Not the end of the world. What you’re experiencing won’t affect the taste of the bread like you have said. It’s more about aesthetics.
Venturing a hopefully educated guess here. The weather is much colder now and while your bread machine should be good at keeping the right temperature constant it does seem to be suffering. What you’re experiencing is under proofing so it’s got a bit of runaway oven spring.
Some ideas you can try…
1: Find a warmer spot in your kitchen.
2: Using warm water.
3: Adding a touch more yeast so it’s further proofed when it comes to baking.
Your machine should be able to take changes in temperatures as it should be heat controlled but it seems it might just be a tad off.
There is one more idea but it’s a bit more fiddly. Try a dough only option. Then take it out of the machine, remove the paddle and shape it back into the loaf pan. Wait until it’s just under doubled then choose a bake only option.
We’ve just swopped the yeast to see if that made any difference but it hasn’t.
The breadmaker is a new Panasonic but interestingly the manual does mention Time required for each process will differ according to room temperature. Presumably I can up the time by a few minutes, something that I’ve never tried. What additional time would you suggest please?
The machine is in an inside room which has central heating so it doesn’t experience a wide range of temperature swings.
Edit - I’ve just checked the manual and it suggests that we may be using a little too much water that creates too much ‘steam’ !
It’s a Panasonic SD-YR2550. The flour is from Lidl and we usually run the standard programmes 1 or 7. However I think that the problem is solved! We reduced the water content by 20ml and have just done wholemeal loaf which came out perfectly.
I’ll try reading the manual first next time we have a problem
