Bread Machine Mishap

[matt819]

When I bought my bread machine a couple of years ago, I used it several times a week. Then I stopped - novelty wearing off, etc.

I decided to start up again and stuck with the tried and true - whole wheat. Came out great - I use Beatrice Ogakangas's cookbook.

Well, I've been cutting back on wheat as part of a diet and thought I'd try my hand at spelt bread - spelt mostly, with a little buckwheat. Results were less than impressive. Actually, they were even less than unimpressive. Didn't exactly come out looking like a food product. I believe my problem was with water - not using enough, even though I added water during the kneading phase. Also, the recipe called for two tbs of yeast, rather than the usual 1 1/2 tsp. I'll try it again, changing the liquid component, and see how that goes.

But, if anyone here has experience using spelt or any of the other "ancient" grains, I'd appreciate any input.

[Major Nikon]

1. Ah yes, you've run into the creative limitation of the bread machine

I'm a big fan of machines in the kitchen. I just did a count and I have no less than 9 machines which reside on my countertops, all of which I use on a daily basis or at least a few times per week. A bread machine is not one of them even though I dearly love to make bread and do so often.

I tried using a bread machine for a while and did a lot of experimentation, but eventually gave it up. I'm not going to say that you can't get great results with a bread machine, because I know you can, but for me it just puts too many limitations on the entire bread making process. If you really want to get into making artisan bread, I just don't think a bread machine is a great way to go about it.

I do have a couple of tips that should be of value to you even if you want to use your bread machine. One is to stick to 4 ingredients and 4 ingredients only. Those are flour, water, salt, and yeast. Countless varieties of the best bread in the world are made with only those 4 ingredients. The other is to only measure your flour by weight, never by volume. The key to successful breadmaking is consistent and repeatable methods and you just can't do that if you are measuring by volume.

[matt819]

5. Regarding four ingredients

Would I need to compensate for the absence of butter, oil, or honey that is in some recipes?

[Major Nikon]

6. It's hard to say

Certainly there are exceptions to the 4 ingredient rule for things like butter croissants and layered breads. But in general for yeast leavened breads you shouldn't need to do so. The recipes that have those things are often doing so to add taste which is lacking in breads that specify relatively quick fermentation times. You'd probably be better off to just avoid those recipes entirely. Stick with recipes that only include the 4 ingredients and focus on adjusting the proportions of those ingredients, along with adjusting the amount of time spent kneading, fermenting, proofing, and baking. Personally I never was able to get great results with flours other than whole wheat, bread flour, or a/p flour in my bread machine, but I didn't really spend a lot of time with it before I gave up.

There's a lot of good books on making artisan bread at home that have come out in the last few years. I have the kindle version of this one on my ipad. It is NOT for bread machines and the recipes are designed for making bread completely by hand. I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to try to adapt them for a bread machine. However, it contains all sorts of information on the challenges involved and how bread making works. Rather than recipe books, I like books that teach me how and why things work the way they do. That way I can better adapt the recipes for my own uses. If nothing else it's a pretty good read because it details the journey the author took from giving up his suit and tie and opening up his own artisan bakery.

[wildeyed]

2. Gluten free breads are not worth it in the bread machine.

At least in my experience. The nice thing about the machine is it does the rise and punch automatically. With gluten free, there is not much of that. Easier to just mix it up and throw it in the oven. Frankly, I don't much care for gluten free breads period. I too have had to eliminate gluten from my diet I keep a loaf of Udi's in the freezer for when I really, really feel the need for a sandwich or peanut butter toast. Other than that, I don't mess with it much. I still make an occasional regular loaf in the machine for the kids, but honestly, it is such an temptation, I should really get rid of it altogether.

[Warpy]

8. I've found only quick breads to be worth it, at all

Glutino does the best job of making bread and English muffins and if I get a wild hair and want either, I just bite the bullet and get a loaf or package from the freezer section in the health food store. As time goes on, the stuff is lasting longer and longer.

Keep the bread machine around for the kids and their snacks after school and for the occasional fresh loaf for company. However, the chemistry around gluten free baking is not something you can do well in a bread machine.

[hvn_nbr_2]

3. In what way was the result "less than impressive"?

"Less than impressive" and not "looking like a food product" doesn't really tell us much. What about the final result makes you think the problem was water?

I'm wondering if the problem is gluten (or lack thereof) rather than not enough water. Sometimes the results can be similar.

I don't know much about spelt--some people claim that it's gluten-free but people who seem (to me) to be more knowledgeable (such as the Celiac Society--not sure of the exact name) say that is not true as it is definitely in the wheat family. Maybe it has less gluten than more commonly used kinds of wheat. Buckwheat is not wheat (despite the name) and is gluten-free.

Two tablespoons of yeast for one loaf of bread seems like a huge amount. I'm guessing that that's either not right or else is that high to compensate for something about spelt and buckwheat.

[matt819]

4. Description

It was not a loaf. It looked like some took handfuls of a dough-like substance and threw it into the bread machine, with no attempt at kneading, consistency, etc. Or picture this. You put the dough in a bowl, add the water and other ingredients, and then spend a minute or two mixing it all around. You then take this mixture - about the amount you can hold in your hand - and then throw it on the kitchen counter. Then you take maybe 6-9 more handfuls and throw those on and around the first drop. Then take that end result and somehow slide it into the oven and back it for a few hours, so it is completely dried out - as a brick might be after a while in the kiln. The finished product has the color of bread, sure, but certainly not the look or consistency we expect in our bread. It was edible, in its way - dry, lumpy, but not really all that unpleasant in taste - but you couldn't toast it or make a sandwich out of it. And the bread knife did not, shall we say, cut through it like butter.

It could have been the absence of gluten, but that was the point of the bread in the first place. The only reason I think it was the water was because it was very dry, and clearly the dough was not kneaded consistently.

I know that spelt is in the wheat family, but it is a gluten-free grain. The buckwheat, I gather, is in the grass family. In any case, I just don't think the recipe quantities compensated for the variations from conventional wheat flour.

[wildeyed]

7. Did you use the gluten free setting?

My bread machine is older and does not have one, but I was able to find the times from the manual for the same brand machine, but more recent model and custom program it into mine. I got something that looked ok, but tasted baaaad.

Gluten free bread does not hold together as well as real bread, even when it is properly made. And it gets stale fast, so store it in the freezer if you are not going to eat it right away. I just get the Udi's GF bread at Trader Joe's now and call it done.

[Warpy]

9. You have to compensate for the lack of gluten

by adding guar or xanthan gum. The chemistry is incredibly fussy--too little and you get a brick, too much and you get something that is breadlike at first but contracts into a brick in a few hours.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who said to hell with it and ran to the freezer section. Quick breads that are supposed to be a bit crumbly are much better than any attempt at yeasted bread has been.

[matt819]

10. This did have xanthan gum

as well as tapioca flour. From your description of precision regarding the xanthan gum, that's got to be it.

Actually, the bits that I could pry off were not bad, if not exactly bread-like.

Thanks for all the comments. I'll try other gluten-free recipes and see how they go, so stay tuned.