Bread Machines For Dummies (47 page)

If you want a harder, chewy crust, brush the bread with warm water while it's still warm.

The fruits and nuts are in the bottom of the pan

Oh well, the bread is still delicious. Maybe jam or jelly will help.

The most common reason why the fruit and nuts do not incorporate into the dough is that the dough is too stiff. There are two ways to avoid fruit-and-nuts-on-the-bottom syndrome. First, always check the condition of the dough after five minutes of kneading. If it's too stiff, add water, a tablespoon at a time. Then, check the dough a few minutes after you've added the fruit and nuts to be sure that they've worked into the dough and are not riding around on the outside, between the dough and the pan. If they don't mix into the dough during the kneading cycle, take the dough out of the machine and work the fruit and nuts into the dough with your hands. Then return the dough to the machine to rise and bake.

There's flour on the outside of the bread

Brush the flour off and serve the bread.

You probably have flour sticking to the corners of the pan. Especially with quick breads that have a shorter mixing time, the flour will stick in the corners and not be incorporated into the dough. We use a rubber spatula and help mix everything into the dough.

The bread is yeasty when it's baked in the oven

If you let your bread rise too long or if the rising place is too warm, the yeasty odor will be more noticeable and you may detect a yeasty taste. Some people really like that to happen — it brings back childhood memories of fresh bread baking in the kitchen.

The crust gets all wrinkled

Wrinkled crust is a sign that the bread has risen too much, making the crust too thin. If you're baking the bread in your machine, try cutting back a tad on water, like maybe eliminating 1 tablespoon. If you are baking the bread in your oven, shorten the rising time. Remember to test the readiness of the dough for baking by gently pushing in with your finger on the side. When the indentation remains, it's ready to bake.

We've heard it said that the crust wrinkles if the bread is cooled in a draft. Maybe we've never baked and cooled bread in a drafty enough place, because our loaves haven't wrinkled for that reason.

Frozen dough makes bread with white spots on it

Take the attitude that you planned for it to happen this way. Consider it unique.

As the dough was thawing, not enough air circulated to evaporate the moisture. The white marks are caused from the condensation of the liquid on the dough as it comes to room temperature. The trick is to have enough air circulating around the dough to remove the excess moisture, but not too much air, which makes the dough overly dry. You can accomplish this task by taking the frozen item out of the freezer wrapping and loosely covering it with plastic wrap while it is defrosting and coming to room temperature.