Troubleshooting: Ultimate Guide To Fixing Bread Machine

Bread machines are making a comeback into the culinary world! There are many beautiful, new (and improved!) bread machines on the market today. Also, you can almost always find a good, used bread machine at your local thrift store or yard sale.

1) Top inflated, mushroom‐like appearance:

Possible cause —

Too much yeast
Too much sugar
Not enough salt
Substituted fast‐acting yeast for amount given for active dry yeast
Yeast was not added according to manufacturer’s directions

Solution —

Decrease yeast or sugar in recipe
Try adding a little more salt
If substituting fast‐acting yeast for active dry, decrease amount by 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon

2) Top and sides cave in:

Possible cause —

Too much liquid
Used canned fruit but did not drain well
Liquid off‐balanced by addition of cheese
Used coarser flours such as whole wheat or rye

Solution —

Try reducing liquids 1 tablespoon at a time
If using more than half coarse flour, try increasing yeast slightly or reducing coarse flour and increasing bread flour

3) Soggy sides:

Possible cause —

Did not removed bread from pan soon enough

Solution —

If possible, remove bread immediately when baking is finished

4) Center of loaf is raw or not baked through:

Possible cause —

Used coarse flours such as whole wheat or rye
Used moist ingredients such as yogurt or applesauce

Solution —

For coarse flours, try adding an extra knead cycle. To do this, after the first knead, let dough rise then restart machine at the beginning of the cycle as for a new loaf
If too many moist ingredients are used, try reducing liquids 1 tablespoon at a time

5) Gnarly, knotted loaves:

Possible cause —

Not enough liquid
Too much flour

Solution —

Increase liquid 1 tablespoon at a time or reduce flour 2 tablespoons at a time

6) Didn’t rise or flat loaves:

Possible cause —

Yeast was omitted
Yeast was old
Liquid used was too hot or too cold
Too much salt was used

Solution —

Make sure yeast is fresh
Make sure to use room temperature water
Taste the bread to see if it is too salty; if so, reduce salt by 1/4teaspoon at a time

7) Lower volume or shorter loaves:

Possible cause —

Used stone ground and whole wheat flours
Not enough liquid
Not enough sugar or no salt added
Wrong type of flour used
Wrong type of yeast used
Not enough yeast used

Solution —

Try substituting bread flour for part of the stone ground or whole wheat flour
Try adding more liquid, sugar or yeast
Check to make sure bread flour, not all‐purpose flour, was used
Check to make sure yeast amount suggested was for the type of yeast you were using