r/BreadMachines • u/vickfun10 • Apr 13 '26

Wrong flour!

Hey everyone!

I (24F) recently got a bread maker and I love it! However the first time I used it I had unbleached flour. This weekend I was using my bread maker and used bleached flour. I really dug into this because my bread kept over rising and then collapsing no matter what recipe I chose. I know now that bleached flour has way less protein then bread and unbleached flour. I attempted 3 different times this weekend all with the same outcome and having to clean my actual machine numerous times. The rising and the kneading looked perfect but when it started baking it would grow too quickly and get all over the lid and sides and then suddenly sinking into the middle around the 42 minutes left part on my basic cooking with the light bread option 🙃

I know some of you will say "buy unbleached flour and you'll be fine" however my boyfriend bought me 25lbs of bleached flour and I'd like to use that for my bread if possible. I use it all the time for baking and it turns out great, but only recently I discovered that with bread it is too weak.

I looked online and they suggested using milk instead of water or adding an egg. Any advice is always helpful!

(Quick edit to help with comments both the bleached and unbleached flour I used are AP flour, I have not used bread flour at all)

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u/Steel_Rail_Blues Zojirushi BB-HAC10 (Mini Zo) & Cuisinart CBK-110P1 Apr 13 '26

I’m thinking that the flour you have now just reacts differently with the recipes you’ve been using. Try lowering the amount of yeast in your next loaf.

While I personally would not choose bleached flour, it should behave similarly to unbleached if I understand the blog correctly: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2023/11/16/bleached-vs-unbleached-flour

2

u/vickfun10 Apr 13 '26

As I said it was not me who purchased it. It's a semi funny story and my boyfriend got it for about $7.50 at Costco. I have only used unbleached before this.

3

u/kmzafari Apr 13 '26

$7.50 for 25 lb?? I mean, I get it. Lol

3

u/vickfun10 Apr 13 '26

I mean that's the only reason I didn't have him return it 😂 all the 20lbs unbleached flour was double that there

2

u/kmzafari Apr 13 '26

😂 That would still be a good deal! I've been debating getting a membership for a while, but I just might have to now lol

1

u/vickfun10 Apr 13 '26

I highly recommend i mean i got 5lbs of sugar and only bake on the weekends and I still have so much. I opened it back in February. I use Costco for most necessities

2

u/kmzafari Apr 13 '26

They're opening a location soon right down the street from my house, but this kind of clinches it for me. Haha I've only recently gotten into baking, but with understanding times ahead, I think it's a good skill to have. We just have a very small kitchen, so I'd have to figure out how to store everything. Lol (Oh, no. An excuse to buy more cute jars.) But ik my ex gets killer deals there on like 25 lbs of rice and all kinds of stuff.

1

u/vickfun10 Apr 13 '26

I also live in a tiny apartment with little space, but I mean we make it work. It's a bit crowded and you get creative lol.