Kitchen

[qualityshopper]

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!

[4kitties]

 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.

[Dusty1]

@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?

[Sweet Kitties]

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. 

[Imaoldhippie]

@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.

[CAcableGirl2]

@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.  

[BlueFinch]

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. 

[Sooner]

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@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!

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@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.  

[SharkE]

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

[Sooner]

@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!