Don’t Loaf; Check On Your Bread Machine

You’ve put the ingredients in your bread machine in the right order and turned it on. Now all you have to do is wait several hours for the perfect loaf. Right? Wrong, says a bread machine expert.

Glenna Vance, consumer service administrator for Red Star yeast, says if you don’t peek at the dough after it’s been kneading about five minutes, you could end up with a loaf of bread that is short, too dense, too coarse or collapsed.

The main reason for opening the lid is to check the balance between dry ingredients and liquids. Flour varies in its absorbency, which means even if you measure carefully, you still may need to adjust quantities slightly to achieve the correct dry-liquid balance.

Look at the dough after it’s been kneading about five minutes, Vance suggests. If the dough looks soupy, add flour in one-teaspoon increments. If you don’t, you’ll likely end up with a loaf that’s sunken in the middle.

If, on the other hand, the dough looks too stiff, that’s a sign there’s not enough liquid, which will yield a small loaf, Vance said. Add liquid in one-teaspoon increments.

What you want is dough that forms a soft smooth ball around the blade, she said.