About two months ago, I bought me a Sunbeam Breadmaker at a rummage sale for $15. I blogged about it at Elementary Chef. The first few loaves I did turned out awesome. Since then I haven’t had the best results. The bread is still edible but it doesn’t rise as much. Since I’m doing the same process, I’m not sure what is going wrong.
It has me wondering if the weather has anything to do with it. It seems high humidity days are not the days to make a loaf of bread. Another possible reason could be the well water. We switched to well water not too long ago. If it’s hard water, then that could be the culprit. The next loaf I will use bottled water, which is probably a good idea anyway since it’s already at room temperature.
If I can’t make bread in high humidity, then that will only leave about two months of the year I can bake. Ah the joys of living in the deep south. Oh well, at least I only paid $15 for the breadmaker.
May 1st, 2009 at 11:54 am
I’ve noticed filtering the water before baking things can help them turnout much better. Definitely try the bottled water next time.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
The water will make all the difference! I had this problem before and changed to bottled water. My bread is delicious again! Regards!
May 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
i am not a baker so i can not be of much help, but if i will consider the reason behind the rising of the dough, then, the quality of water can help a lot since the impurities can affect the activity of the yeast.
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Wow…who would’ve thought that water can have that much of an impact on the making of one’s bread…interesting…for myself I’ll stick to your humidity line, living in the tropics we’re never without high humidity, means I can check that off the must buy list from the kids for mothers day, birthdays and chrissi…lol
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:39 am
I have one, and we live in Florida. Granted we do not use it a lot but it does get extremely humid here, and our bread always comes out good. We use our air conditioning though when the humidity is high, maybe that makes a difference.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Hi, I’m visiting from MBC. Great blog.
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I can’t wait to try the bottled water. I may have to wait for a high humidity day to help rule out the weather as the culprit.
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I love my bread maker but don’t use it as often as I would like. It is great to set up the bread maker at night and have fresh bread in the morning for breakfast.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I was going to mention the weather. It’s definitely impacted recipe testing in our kitchen.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:02 am
I love my bread maker. I think both the weather and water can be a culprit. The water is and easy fix. Hope your next loaf turns out great!
May 15th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I still cannot bring myself to buy a bread maker. Call me old school but there is something about making bread by hand. Turning out those non uniform loafs is always funny.
I’d be interested to hear how you got on with the bottled water too.
Thanks,
Joanne