topic Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom in Kitchen

Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

qualityshopper — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 13:53:34 GMT

I recently bought a Cuisinart bread maker and finally made my first loaf of white bread yesterday. I followed the instructions to the letter and carefully measured all of my ingredients, but for some reason, the end of the loaf that was in the bottom of the pan has very hard crust (I'd say about a fourth of the loaf). The rest of the loaf seems fine. Could anyone please explain why this would have happened? Could it possibly be due to the fact that the heating coil is located near the bottom thus baking that part of the bread more? Thanks!

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

4kitties — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:12:35 GMT

Have a Breadman bread machine that I bought in the mid 90's. I love it for making dough, but I do not like the way it bakes the bread and the paddle that I have to dig out ruins the bottom of the bread.

I just make my dough in the machine and then take it out and bake it in a traditional bread loaf pan. Or if making yeast rolls I shape them and bake in the proper baking pan or on a sheet pan.

Even if I did like the way the machine baked the bread, I prefer a traditional loaf shape.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

Dusty1 — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:33:03 GMT

@qualityshopper I don't have that brand, but I do take my bread out of the bread machine 7 minutes before it is set to be done.
I don't like mine too brown.

Maybe just setting a timer & taking it out of the break maker earlier would work?

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

Sweet Kitties — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:37:01 GMT

I don't have a bread maker. So I'm not sure if my answer is relavant. When I remove my bread from the pans I rub the loaves with butter as it's cooking. It makes the crust soft.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

Imaoldhippie — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:38:03 GMT

@qualityshopper ..........I have a Cuisinart. What setting do you have your crust set on? On mine there is a light, med and dark. I always set mine on light.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

CAcableGirl2 — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 14:39:34 GMT

@qualityshopper I have a Cuisinart too and don't remember having a problem with it being hard on the bottom, but I always choose the light or medium crust option and I believe it's the 1.5 pound size.

Maybe it's your recipe? I always use bread flour and have a recipe where the liquids are put in first, and then you wait 10 minutes and it kind of bubbles a little while the yeast works, and then you put in the dry ingredients.

I would try a different recipe and a lighter setting.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

BlueFinch — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:36:14 GMT

Hm, that doesn't sound right. I have a bread maker and the loaf is always the same texture and crust color basically throughout. The crusts always as expected. A medium texture; never hard, or tough. Pretty loaves.

You may have to experiment a couple more times adjusting settings. You should have a darkness setting. Not sure that will work either, though, if it's over baking closest to the coils. It shouldn't do that.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

Sooner — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:40:00 GMT

@qualityshopper wrote:
I recently bought a Cuisinart bread maker and finally made my first loaf of white bread yesterday. I followed the instructions to the letter and carefully measured all of my ingredients, but for some reason, the end of the loaf that was in the bottom of the pan has very hard crust (I'd say about a fourth of the loaf). The rest of the loaf seems fine. Could anyone please explain why this would have happened? Could it possibly be due to the fact that the heating coil is located near the bottom thus baking that part of the bread more? Thanks!

@qualityshopper Is the machine still under warranty? If s, send it back and get another. Sounds more like a machine issue than anything else to me. All the ones I've had have cooked consistently.

If not, try making two or three loaves using different recipes in a day if you can.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

SharkE — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 17:07:42 GMT

I'd turn the setting to 'light' first and try that. I have mine on 'medium' dark would be burned looking. Cuisinart , is a good brand. you might find some Q&A questions online or in the instruction booklet.

I got a Zorushi machine and don't use it but once twice a yr.

You have to be so accurate and do everything so so I'd rather make

it the old fashion way and know it will still turn out fine if everything is not

accurate to a T.

I don't butter anything till it's out of the oven. Butter burns fast and gives the bread a burnt looking over done look

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

Sooner — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 17:36:51 GMT

@SharkE To you and others reading who may be new: You really don't have to be as persnickety with the Zo's as some would have you believe. Put the liquid in first and the yeast in last not mixed in with the salt and sugar.

Measuring? You do not have to weigh stuff. It works either way because flour is never the same from day to day and bag to bag. What I do is scoop the cup in the flour, dump it out back into the bag then measure by letting the flour sort of fall into the cup, not packing it down by scooping unfluffed flour (if that makes a lick of sense) and leveling off the flour to the top of the cup.

They are scaring people about Zo machines now especially one popular poster on Facebook--it MUST be weighed to the 1/10 of an ounce! You MUST weigh the salt (weigh SALT?). We've made great bread in a ZO for at least 15 years before we ever weighed anything.

We often make little containers of flour, salt, sugar and any other ingredients then when we decide to make bread, we add the butter or oil to the machine pan along with the liquid, dump the pre-measured ingredients in, and making a dent in top for the yeast. It works great. All dry ingredients except yeast get dumped in at once.

Being bread, like it has been made for centuries, you look in after it starts to knead and add any needed flour or liquid. Easy peasy. It's sad one Facebook and YouTube woman has so many people uptight and fearful about bread. . .

I know you are a sensible person, so wanted to say, we've never had issues with the four Zo's we've had about measuring. It's bread. You know what dough looks like!

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

SharkE — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 18:03:53 GMT

I had one of my paddles at the bottom refuse to turn 1 time. I oil the paddles now they really don't tell you in the ZO machines if the paddles are suppose to be facing one way or the other.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

qualityshopper — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 04:11:27 GMT

Thanks everyone for responding to my post!

Some of you asked about my settings, which I should have included previously. I made a 1 1/2 lb loaf of white bread using bread flour and bread machine yeast. I chose the medium setting for my crust. I don't know if choosing the light setting would have helped or not. The color of the crust seems fine--it's just that the bottom end is kind of hard.

Think I'll try making a couple more loaves where I'll experiment with the ingredients and settings, and if there's no improvement, I'll return the unit. Unless, of course, I decide to keep it just to knead the dough and then bake the bread in the oven. No doubt, a better outcome.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

gardenman — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 13:09:41 GMT

Bread machines are more or less made to be a set and forget type device. If you've opened the top during the baking cycle to take a peek, it may have let enough hot air out to force the coil to heat up more than anticipated overcooking the bread closer to the coil.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

DeeJoyce — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 18:55:19 GMT

Have a Cuisinart and always used the light crust setting. Always got crust too brown and hard. Now I use it on the dough setting and bake in a standard oven. Or set a timer to remove loaf from the bread machine at least 10 minutes early. To see if the loaf is done you can stick a thermometer in it. Should read about 190 degrees.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

qualityshopper — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 05:48:33 GMT

@gardenman--No, I only opened it up when the signal went off to remove the paddle. Never bothered it while it was baking.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

qualityshopper — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 05:58:34 GMT

@DeeJoyce --These are all things I need to try before I decide to return it. As I stated before, I used the medium setting, which I thought should be fine. In fact, the color actually looks lighter to me than what I thought medium would look. So, color is fine, but it's just hard on the one end.

One thing I wonder about is my flour. The recipe in Cuisinart's booklet calls for all-purpose unbleached flour rather than bread flour. I decided bread flour would be better, but maybe not. Could doing so have made it come out a little denser than I'd like? I don't know. This is going to be one of my many experiments--using the recommended flour. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

brandiwine — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 14:24:04 GMT

Call Cuisinart CS and explain the problem. I've been making bread since the machines came out. Never a problem. Sounds like your machine. Good luck

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

Sooner — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 15:18:11 GMT

@SharkE wrote:
I had one of my paddles at the bottom refuse to turn 1 time. I oil the paddles now they really don't tell you in the ZO machines if the paddles are suppose to be facing one way or the other.

@SharkE I can answer that question! Word from the company by conversation and mouth many many years ago with the first machine.

It doesn't matter how they are positioned. And I haven't worried about it since. It doesn't seem to matter. Our first Zo made some lopsided loaves unless I reshaped the dough and put it back in before it baked them. They were fine to eat, but lopsided. The three machines since are fine.

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

SharkE — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 17:19:38 GMT

I learned yesterday that I can't use my fancy Platninum yeast in the bread machine it's too powerful. Gotta use that Fleischman's or one of the tamer types. Platninum raises way too high and mine was bursting out of the machine and never browned.

So the Bread Queen learned something in her old age. LOL

Re: Need advice on why my homemade bread crust is hard on bottom

4kitties — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 18:21:19 GMT

@SharkE wrote:
I learned yesterday that I can't use my fancy Platninum yeast in the bread machine it's too powerful. Gotta use that Fleischman's or one of the tamer types. Platninum raises way too high and mine was bursting out of the machine and never browned.

So the Bread Queen learned something in her old age. LOL

@SharkE

Thanks for letting us know about that platinum yeast. I recently bought some but have not yet used it. I would have used it in my machine and had a mess!