Have been trying out different recipes that came with the breadmachine and none, NONE!, of them are moist after baking. The crust is nice and not hard or deep brown so I don't think it's baking too long. Just doesn't seem to be any moisture in the finished loaf. Recipes call for very little butter or oil and I'm wondering if this makes a difference. I'm very very new at bread making, so I'll really appreciate some advice from those more experienced.

Happy Holidays, folks!

-- Carol - in Virginia (carollm@rockbridge.net), December 20, 2001

Answers

Try putting an egg in it. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.

Is it possible the dough isn't rising enough yielding a dense, dry bread? Are you making sure the liquid ingredients are at room temp. (ie not cold water/milk) to better aid the yeast in doing it's job?

Or try selecting a country white bread so that you're able to select the "lightest crust" option so baking time will be at the minimum.

-- Buk Buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.

Add an egg or two, add a quarter cup of honey, and bake the risen dough in the oven, NOT in the machine.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 20, 2001.

Carol,

This recipe works well for us and it is moist.

1 and 1/8 c. water 2TBSP oil 2 c. whole wheat flour 1 c. white flour 1 tsp. salt 1TBSP dried milk 2 TBSP sugar 2 tsp. yeast 1 heaping tsp. dough enhancer

Be sure to add the ingredients to the bread machine in this order.

-- Kari (prettyhere@truevine.net), December 21, 2001.

When I was in college, my roommate was a pastry chef. He would make bread twice a week. He told me that if I paid for the ingredients, he would bake whatever kind of bread I would like. I told him that I liked very soft bread with no crust featuring oatmeal.

At some point he said making my bread was easy. He just added more oil to make it so soft.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), December 21, 2001.

Add more liquid to the mix and see how that does. You can't make good bread, by machine or by hand, if the dough is too stiff. With the machines, since you aren't doing the kneading, you may not notice that it needs more liquid. Bread recipes are fine, but the moisture content of flour can vary and it affects how things turn out. Make sure the dough is just short of too sticky and I think that makes the best bread.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), December 21, 2001.

My wife makes her's from scratch so I don't know if it applies to bread machines but she says that the problem is probably too much flour. Also, she prefers shortning or lard over veg. oil. Her bread is VERY moist, sometimes too much so, but don't you dare tell her I said this.

-- David (daoelker@seidata.com), December 26, 2001.