The rye bread, and the wheat bread, out of my Panasonic breadmaker has been coming out stodgy and half-risen the last few weeks. (Yes I am using fresh yeast and the recipe properly etc etc).

I spoke to Panasonic and they say a lot of flours are low gluten at the moment due to the climate and harvest last year. They listed a couple of wheat flours that they say are working well – if a loaf from one of those comes out good there’s nothing wrong with the machine.

I did, it did, there isn’t.

But I still need to make rye bread. What rye flour is working for folks at the mo? (Doves, and the brand that comes from Holland and Barrett, aren’t for me).

I know it isn’t rye, but the spelt from Waitrose is rising like a mad thing at the moment.

TBH rye works better as a sour IMO. ‘Fresh’ yeast hasn’t enough ‘go’ for it.

Thx, what does “better as a sour” mean?

I believe flap jack means ‘sourdough’, which is fermented by something natural, other than yeast.

they say a lot of flours are low gluten at the moment due to the climate and harvest last year

true enough. Are you going to tell us which are the good ones then? My new machine had a note slipped in the box telling me to try and get US grown flour but I’m not sure if thats general advice or specific to the poor harvest in the UK last year

As an aside….. If you can get hold of some Beremeal (I think the only place milling it is Barony Mill in Orkney but its available online) 10-20% of that mixed with regular white flour is fricking delicious.

you can make a rye sourdough starter relatively easily (google it) then when it comes to making it, use the breadmaker on ‘dough’ and leave it until it’s risen to your satisfaction. then bake it in the oven.

I always use the ‘dough’ option even when using yeast, and leave it until it looks ready to bake. That can be all day at this time of year. When you’re happy, whack your oven up to full blast and bake for 35 mins, baking in the breadmaker tin (it’ll survive). Turn the oven down to 220 after you’ve put it in.

@mac Panasonic said:

We have been experiencing a lot of problems recently with poor gluten content in the flour. This is due to the poor wheat harvest last year. We usually find that poorly risen loaves are caused by poor gluten in the flour. Here is a little explanation of the role of gluten in bread making.

…………

As a test I would recommend making a basic white loaf. For best results flour with good gluten quality should be done on the longer bake cycle to allow the gluten to develop. The bake rapid program is better for bread mixes with the yeast already added. I would open a new sachet of yeast measuring out what is required. Flours that have worked well for us recently are Waitrose own organic white and whole wheat, Allinson’s Premium White Very strong white and wholemeal and Aldhi white bread flour.

hth. I did Waitrose organic white, it came out good. But I want rye.

Flap_jack thx I look into it.

– M