Bread not working out

[meganjane]

Quirk, I understand your pain!! Even though I thought I'd cracked the bread making lark, I've been having failures lately.
I've worked out that the room is too cool, since the weather is cooling down. I'll need to put the tin in the car in future. I also sponge my yeast first as Depome suggests.

I do disagree with Depome, the TMX handles bread dough brilliantly. I used to make dough in my bread machine, but the TMX is way better, quicker and more efficient.

Don't be too stressed about less handling after the first rise. That hasn't made any difference to my good loaves.

[Depome]

Could be the room temp, could be the yeast batch, could be a change in humidity. But each batch of flour is different too, and sometimes it just isn't as strong as it usually is. We had a period in NQ when mid-yeast tub our bread suddenly became dense and short (not tall loaves, I mean  ). We had changed flour bags, that's all. We must've made about six loaves just to prove the annoying point. All we could use it for in the end was pizza dough (where gluten stretch isn't so desperate) and regular baking.

I am still hating TMX dough! The breadmaker recipes are too wet for the TMX, making a horrible mess, and I don't like the drier doughs - they take ages to rise because they're tough and heavy compared to breadmaker dough. Oh well! We can disagree

I am now using the (quick) pizza dough setting on my breadmaker and literally throwing ingredients into its pan, no measuring anymore  Still works It's really cooling down here, and it's years since I lived here in winter so it will be interesting to see how this affects my breadmaking 

[achookwoman]

Depome,  the one thing that I have learned about bread making is , each to his own method.   Do what produces the best loaf for you.   I love to experiment,  and I do have a lot of failures .  The chooks eat very well!!! , and I have a freezer full of bread crumbs.   Today I cooked sour dough with oats.  It is a lovely loaf so I took a photo and will post it tomorrow on my Blog.   It is getting colder here but we haven't lit the wood fire yet so the second rise took 4 hours,  instead of 1 1/2. to double.  keep experimenting and have fun

[meganjane]

Yep, chookie, you're right. It is everyone to his own. I love making bread in my TMX, but hated using the Breadmaker. I guess because it also didn't do anything else, but took up a huge amount of space on my bench!

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Very true - each to his/her own.  I swap between my breadmaker and TMX depending on what I want to make and how busy I am. I must admit though that I actually put my breadmaker in the cupboard yesterday as I wanted some more bench space.  Thermie has never been in the cupboard.   

[meganjane]

No one puts Thermie in a cupboard!

Apologies to Patrick Swayze and Dirty Dancing.....

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

That's so funny!!!