Kitchen

[SharkE]

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.

[qualityshopper]

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.

[gardenman]

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. 

[DeeJoyce]

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.

[qualityshopper]

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

[qualityshopper]

@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.

[brandiwine]

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

[Sooner]

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@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.

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@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. 

[SharkE]

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

[4kitties]

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@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

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@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!