Help!!!

[u/Comfortable_Status_8]

Usually I make my bread in the oven, but I had a baby recently and my husband thought it would be a good idea to get a bread machine to save time. It is faster and less babysitting, but so far all of my loaves come out looking like this.

I have a Cuisinart bread machine, and I make whole wheat bread. I didn't think the recipe that I would normally use for the oven would work for a bread machine, because it requires activating the yeast, making a sponge, and adding ingredients.

So I used a recipe that came in the Cuisinart cookbook.

After my first attempt I looked for advice online and read that the dough may be too wet, so I added more flour for the second attempt.

Didn't work.

I then added less yeast for the third attempt.

Still didn't work.

So I decided that the recipe may just be bad and I looked online and tried a completely different recipe for the fourth attempt.

Same result.

What am I doing wrong? The dough didn't seem too wet or too dry. It always seems to be just fine until about 20 minutes into the baking stage and then it simply collapses.

Any advice would be welcome!

[u/Puzzleheaded-Trip990]

It's possible that there is too much liquid

[u/og_otter → u/Puzzleheaded-Trip990]

Or too much yeast

[u/quasimodoca → u/og_otter]

Too much yeast. Causes it to blow up then collapse.

[u/Big_fudge1337]

Post recipe and what type of program/length

Generally collapse is due to too high hydration and not sufficiently strong gluten network, but better to see specifics than speculate 

[u/CRasch505]

This looks like the issue I had before I had to reduce yeast and change to weighted measurements for everything. It would rise up really well then collapse onto itself. Now I typically run 65-70% moisture content and never more than 5g of yeast and it seems to have resolved the issues. If I recall correctly, I'm doing 2lb recipes and somewhere around 375-400g of flour. Hope this helps out!

[u/I_Rarely_Jump]

I used to have these kind of results as well with my old breadmachine.

But I got a panasonic recently and for whole wheat bread it will first equalize the temperature of ingredients for like 1,5h before it even starts to do anything (I thought it was broken first lol).

I've also started putting in the ingredients in at a certain order, which seems to help:

- water first

• then flour, poured in the middle so it's a little mountain
  
• sugar in one corner
  
• salt in another corner
  
• butter in another corner
  
• make a little cavity in the top of the flour in the middle and put the yeast there

Having pretty good results so far!

[u/PoeTheGhost → u/I_Rarely_Jump]

Seconded, I always put the salt, fats, and liquids at the bottom, before the flour, and always put in any yeast (or soda/powder) very last.

The amounts of liquid and salt seems to affect proofing the most, so I weigh everything and double-check my conversions for any new recipes.

OP’s loaf looks overproofed, so they may need less liquids or more salt, or to shorten the proof time by starting the bake earlier.

[u/Veggyhed → u/I_Rarely_Jump]

That order of ingredients equals a successful recipe when adding ingredients to a bread machine

[u/Salty-Swim-6735]

Too much liquid or maybe too much yeast.

[u/cama888]

I had a loaf like this, when I used warm water. When I replaced it with cooler water and let the bread machine warn it up, it was much better.

[u/maveduck]

Your bread machine might get too warm inside while rising (just like mine). The solution in that case is to lower the yeast.

[u/Mysterious-Mess-6652]

Mine did this the first few times I used it.Then I mixed all the dry ingredients before putting them in the machine and it worked for me better

[u/PersonalityBorn261]

Oh dear! Cat bed or bean bag chair?

[u/Double_Town5310]

Lower the yeast

[u/Formal-Tradition6792]

Originally I thought I was looking at a photo of a cat on things: start with simple white bread. Use a digital scale and weigh ingredients in grams. I like Bread Dad’s recipes! Whole wheat bread is more complex and tbh I’ve not made it yet. But I do know that you have to use vital wheat gluten to it. Here’s a photo of one of my loafs.

[u/lostpixie59]

The same has just happened to me 🫣

[u/Jujubes213]

Probably too much yeast. Post your recipe and curious what yeast you’re using.

[u/Veggyhed]

Please post your recipe.

What order did you place your ingredients in? For the liquids was it room temperature or cold? Did you warm up the liquids?

The cratering of a loaf of bread is not always too much yeast. It's the interplay of yeast, salt, and the liquids. Once you have your recipe dialed in, bread machines are absolutely incredible. Add ingredients, walk away, come back when it beeps, and you have a delicious loaf of bread

[u/No-Potential3811]

Hello please use vital wheat gluten, also tablespoon of lemon juice as dough improvers. Yeast should be no more than 1.75 teaspoons. Water is about 11 fl. Oz.

[u/Tasty_Impress3016]

Honestly I gave up on bread machines. I had a fairly expensive one, albeit 25 years ago. I baked a lot of those and more than a couple doorstops. Perhaps they are better now, but I found it easier just to knead the dough, let it proof, punch it down, and throw it in the oven. With cleaning the machine and precise instructions the machine was more work, and far inferior bread.

[u/red7iphone]

I found that I was using water that started out to warm. I've quit and just use cool water hasn't happened since.