Love My New Bread Machine

A loaf of sourdough bread.

90/10 white/whole wheat sourdough. Don’t usually use that much white flour, but here we are. #breadsky

A decorated pie with intricate handcut snake and flowers made out of pastry.

May the Year of the Snake bring you wisdom, elegance, and boundless opportunities. Happy Lunar New Year!Gong Xi Fa Cai! 🐍🎊🧧 #pie #lunarnewyear #baker

A front on view of a loaf of sourdough bread on a cooling rack. To the left is the side of another loaf, which is mostly out of shot.

A front on view of a boule of sourdough bread on a cooling rack. To the right is the side of another loaf, which is mostly out of shot.

A cross section of a loaf of sourdough bread, showing the ‘crumb’. There are a few medium sized holes surrounded by small holes in the crumb. Out of focus below the bread is a golden cocker spaniel looking at the loaf.

20% Merchants Mill light spelt, 76% hydration. Definitely lighter than expecting so might play well with a wholemeal flour. Someone’s interested already! #sourdough #breadsky

A picture of a golden brown pastry

The only way I can keep walking every day is to reward myself once in a while. I treated myself to a hot pepper sausage pastry for breakfast. 🍜

Photo of bird sick with ‘angel wing’ disease from eating BREAD. Please do not feed bread to wild birds.

Two loaves of sourdough bread

Sourdough bread loaf

Inside of loaf of sourdough bread

25 Rye from The Perfect Loaf

#bread #baking #sourdough

Crusty and seedy bread used for a Muenster cheese and dill pickle sandwich

Closeup of cheese sandwich cut in a beautiful triangle and showing the filling

I'm not a big sandwich person anymore...20 years working in a Deli will do that, but this hit the spot today:
Muenster cheese and dill pickle sandwich with mayonnaise and black pepper on yesterday's seeded golden wheat bread. 😋
#food #sandwiches

Photo of a round loaf of white bread on a wooden chopping board

Put some #bread on to prove while I went to yoga earlier. Came back and put it in the oven while I showered and now it’s done #baking

Purely by accident while I was checking similar recipes to see the proportion of honey to flour, I think I ran across your specific recipe. It describes the loaf as dense, which matches your description. So I doubt you did anything wrong, its not supposed to rise very much, is my guess.

Whole wheat flour isn't going to produce as much gluten as regular flour, so you shouldn't expect it to rise as much as say, sandwich bread (the bran shards cut gluten strands). The more whole wheat flour, the less the rise will be, in general.

OK, I ran the baker's percentages on these ratios (grain cereal doesn't count as "flour"). The salt percentage was a little high (3% versus a norm of 2%) so I might reduce the amount of salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons next time, and the grain cereal probably weighed down the dough, but nothing can help that

Couple more ?s. Did you temp the warm water w/a thermometer? Any chance it was over 120 degrees? Can you give me the measurements of each kind of flour, salt, yeast and honey? I want to calculate the baker's percentages to see if there was too much salt or honey (both in excess can inhibit rise).

My first thought is that the yeast and salt came into contact with each other too soon, and that's why the loaf didn't rise (salt, especially with a recipe containing too much salt, retards the activity of yeast, and can even kill it) but there are other possible explanations.

I can probably help you figure out what the problem was, but I'll need more info. Was the 7 grain recipe you used a bread machine recipe or something you hoped to adapt? What order did you put them in the machine? What make and model machine do you have (or if you don't know, is it a 3 lb capacity)?

A round, brown loaf of sourdough bread sitting on top of a white stove, in front of grey pot covered with a silver lid, and next to a separate red lid.

Started baking bread five years ago to calm my anxiety during the pandemic lockdown. And again, baking is helping me get through this tough week.

Pretty pistachio cake, light green, with whipped cream and pistachio crumble on top, sitting on a blue and white plate with a shortbread cookie perched on top.

Dessert?

Hot pistachio cake with butter, whipped cream, crushed sugared roasted pistachio crumble on top.

Weird but tasty.
A shortbread cookie on top.
Had this with a cup of hot chai latte.

Crumb shot of a machine-mixed sourdough. The crumb was much fuller and denser than my hand-mixed sourdough. I initially liked it but later found it to be a bit too much bread.

Crumb shot of hand-mixed sourdough. This is my normal bread. It's quite light and airy.

Sourdough crumb shots.

The first image shows machine-mixed dough (gentle stir for two minutes). The second is hand-mixed dough. Everything else was the same.

Machine-mixed was fuller/denser, needing to chew a lot more.

This was only one experiment. I'll do more. :) #breadsky

A recipe title: Four-ingredient condensed milk cake above a picture of the aforementioned four-ingredient milk cake, a fluffy beige square with a golden brown top that’s dusted with powdered sugar. The cake is sitting on a boring white plate. It is the star

making a condensed milk cake tomorrow let’s go bad bitches #baking

The Common Misconception About Cast Iron Cookware You Need To Ignore - Tasting Table Many of us are hesitant to buy cast iron cookware because we think it's going to be a challenge to clean -- but that couldn't be further from the truth.

The Common Misconception About Cast Iron Cookware You Need To Ignore | @TastingTable.bsky.social https://buff.ly/4dKacab

#Cooking #Baking #CastIron

Yes, the dogs apparently found it so. We had no idea. (The sugar content comes courtesy of rye grains, its not added sugar in the bread recipe.)

My family's dogs were unusually fond of rye bread, which was a bit of a mystery until I found out that it has an unusually high sugar content. LOL - mystery solved!

Crazy Cake Mix: 2 c. Sugar 3 c. Flour 6 Tbs. Cocoa 1/2 tsp. Salt 2 tsp. Baking Powder 2 tsp. Baking Soda Make 3 holes and add: 2 tsp. Vanilla 2 tsp. Vinegar 6 Tbs. Oil Stir in 2 cups cold water and mix until free of lumps. Bake at 350f for 30-35 minutes. For cupcakes, bake at 375f for 15-18 minutes.

Vanilla Crazy Cake Mix: 2 c. Sugar 3 c. + 6tbs Flour 1/2 tsp. Salt 2 tsp. Baking Powder 2 tsp. Baking Soda Make 3 holes and add: 2 tsp. Vanilla 2 tsp. Vinegar 6 Tbs. Oil Stir in 2 cups cold water and mix until free of lumps. Bake at 350f for 30-35 minutes. For cupcakes, bake at 375f for 15-18 minutes.

Because of the price of eggs, I give you the classic Great Depression-era recipe for Crazy Cake, both in the original chocolate and vanilla versions. No eggs, no milk, all deliciousness.

two loaves of bread, two baguettes and two baps; all freshly made and cooling down ready to eat

Just a selection from a morning's baking. All naturally leavened.
#bread

A beautiful, bodacious loaf of homemade sandwich bread

I made freakin SANDWICH BREAD

photo of two crusty “artisan” style bread loaves

If anyone needs me I will be smashing this delicious bread I made all day

A photo of a fresh loaf of bread with one slice cut

Have been trying to keep busy and avoid the news. Took refuge in making my first sourdough bread loaf of 2025. Came out pretty good! 🥖🍞

A loaf of sourdough bread on white plate.

At least there’s still sour dough in the world.

Loaf of bread in parchment paper

I fear I have entered my bread baking era

the real night cap

spelt bread

My best results have been with using a mixer for the first stages, but using stretch and fold during 1st proof to complete the job.