Need advice on using Cuisinart CBK-100 breadmaker

[windyacres]

Last spring I purchased a Cuisinart CBK-100 breadmaker.  It has multiple settings for white bread, whole wheat bread, quick breads, etc, but have been unsuccessful in getting an acceptable loaf of bread yet!  Most of what I've tried are the whole wheat bread recipes that are in the recipe booklet that came with the machine.  Every single time the loaves have turned out fallen and dense. Too dense to eat.  The last time, I carefully monitored the mixing process and added a couple of extra teaspoons of water because the dough was too dry.  Before the last rise, I took the paddle out (when the signal sounded) and shaped the dough into a loaf myself, then put it back in the bread machine.  I monitored the rising process and it rose nicely with a nice dome-shaped top.  I was SURE it was going to be a good loaf, but, alas, upon taking it out of the machine at the end of the baking process, the loaf had a flat top and was very dense, even gummy. 

 

I am using vital wheat gluten, so do not think that is the problem.  I am so disappointed and wonder if anyone else has this machine and has had success with it.  I have begun to think something is wrong with the machine.  Maybe it is just the whole wheat cycle.  I did try a white rosemary bread that I had success with in my very old off-brand machine.  Even it had the top fall in, but the dough may have been a little too wet on that one. 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Lisa Shock]

What yeast are you using? Try prooving it, just to make sure it's ok. (add yeast to lukewarm water, see if it blooms) You might also check the temp inside the machine while it is supposed to be letting the dough rise. If that is too hot, the machine might be killing the yeast.

 

Are you trying 100% whole wheat? WW flour can be tricky, the bran bits act like razor blades and cut gluten fibers up so you never get as much rise as a white loaf. I'd recommend trying a bread that has a biga/poolish of white bread flour, with WW added towards the end.

[lindag]

IMO the only bread machine to own is the Zojirushi...perfect loaves every single time...many, many satsfied owners.

i am sorry about your experience with the Cusinart, they make great appliances but maybe you just got a lemon.

i wish you had returned when you still had a window to do that.

[Barrytm]

windyacres,  I agree with Lisa,  start with the usual suspects -  yeast ,  and hydration.   Are you measuring your ingredients by weight-  you will get much more consistent results that way.   BTW,  some people use bread machines just to knead the dough, then proof it and then bake in it their home oven.    Also,  it sounds like the machine is under cooking your bread - check it with a thermometer next time, the loaf should be above 200F when it is done.  

[windyacres]

The yeast is fine.  As I said, on the last loaf, I checked it at different stages and it rose nicely, but was flat and dense when I took it out of the machine.  I am trying to get a good whole wheat loaf.  At first, I only tried the recipes in the Cuisinart recipe.  When I couldn't get a satisfactory loaf from those, I tried the King Arthur 100 percent whole wheat bread and weighed all the ingredients.  It was better than any of the others, but still was too dense and hardly edible. 

 

I am trying one of the white bread recipes today to see if that comes out better.  I'll let you know how it works.

[Lisa Shock]

When baked goods deflate it means that there isn't enough structure to support the air bubbles. I suspect that either the dough is over-worked (the wheat bran has cut up too much gluten) or, over proofed.

 

Also, remember that 100% whole wheat loaves (real artisan ones, not supermarket ones with 19 additives) are always very dense. 100% whole rye, the kind you slice paper thin is the only denser type. Both of these are traditionally baked in smaller (not 9"x5") loaf pans to get as much rise out of them as possible. There's a chance that your recipe would cook better in the oven in two smaller pans.

[lindag]

What I'd like to see you do is to mix up all the ingredients in the breadmaker and set it for dough only.

Then remove the loaf after it's fully risen and bake it in your own oven.  I think you may find that you will finally get a satisfactory loaf.  In my experience (and I've owned at least a half dozen breamakers, they just don't bake to my satisfaction).  Even with my Zo, I always bake in my own oven, that way I get to control color, final temperature and doneness.

 

[mgaretz]

I acquired one of these recently, and the wheat bread recipes that came with it were terrible.  I played with quite a few wheat bread recipes and after a lot of adjustments, here's what finally worked for me.  Note that this is just the ingredient list, follow the loading instructions that came with the machine.  This also makes the smallest (1 lb) loaf, so set the machine accordingly.  I also used the lightest crust setting.

 

Bread Machine Wheat

 

1 cup water

1 cup AP flour

1.25 cups whole wheat flour

1.5 tbs oil or butter

1 tsp salt

3 tbs sugar

2 tsp yeast (regular dried yeast, not fast rise or bread machine yeast)

 

 

[windyacres]

Thanks both lindag and mgaretz for the suggestions.  Perhaps it is just the recipes that came with the breadmaker.  I know for a fact that at least one of them has the incorrect amount of water.  The 1.5 lb loaf called for LESS water than the 1 lb loaf!  Mgaretz, I will try the recipe you gave and see how it goes.  

 

The main reason I purchased the breadmaker was so I would not have to heat my oven up in the summer.  When the weather gets cooler, I will try just using the breadmaker for mixing and my oven for baking.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Consider if you have counter space for a Cuisinart CSO-300N steam oven.  If you don't, make room.

[dtremit]

This is a late reply, but I have the same breadmaker, and also got terrible results with the included recipes. 

 

I have had much better luck with recipes from good bread machine cookbooks -- if I had to get only one, it would probably be Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. I've also had good luck with recipes from King Arthur Flour's website. (Note that there are a *lot* of used bread machine books available cheap on Amazon or Alibris or elsewhere.)

 

My SO is fond of a particular commercial whole grain sandwich bread, and I wanted to come up with a recipe -- this is what I have landed on. It's adapted very loosely from a KAF recipe.

 

Healthy, Nutty Bread

Ingredients:

• 300g lukewarm water
• 25g olive oil or vegetable oil
• 78g maple syrup
• 350g White Whole Wheat or Whole Wheat Flour
• 50g rye flour
• 25g cornmeal
• 25g sunflower, sesame or flax seeds, or a combination (I use a TJ's seed blend sometimes)
• 35g nuts
• 1.5 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Directions:

1. Put all of the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. 
2. Select whole wheat bread setting, and press Start.
3. Remove the bread from the machine when it's done. Either cool on a rack, or turn the "keep warm" setting off and prop the machine door open to prevent the crust from wrinkling.

Edited August 25, 2016 by dtremit (log)

[windyacres]

Thank you so much!  This sounds like a terrific recipe.  Which size loaf setting do you use?

 

 

 

[dtremit]

This one is for a 1.5lb loaf. Hope you enjoy it!

[windyacres]

Well, I made the recipe that Mgaretz posted.  It tastes great, but the top sunk in some.  At least it is not hard as a rock like the 100% Whole Wheat recipes I have tried.  I guess that is because it contains AP flour, as well as whole wheat flour.  I've attached a picture of it. 

[mgaretz]

1 hour ago, windyacres said:

Well, I made the recipe that Mgaretz posted.  It tastes great, but the top sunk in some.  At least it is not hard as a rock like the 100% Whole Wheat recipes I have tried.  I guess that is because it contains AP flour, as well as whole wheat flour.  I've attached a picture of it. 

 

 

I am glad that you liked it.  Lately I have been reducing the amount of yeast from 2 to 1 tsp and that has virtually eliminated the sinking, so give that a try.

[Anna N]

On August 25, 2016 at 2:41 PM, dtremit said:

This is a late reply, but I have the same breadmaker, and also got terrible results with the included recipes. 

 

I have had much better luck with recipes from good bread machine cookbooks -- if I had to get only one, it would probably be Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. I've also had good luck with recipes from King Arthur Flour's website. (Note that there are a *lot* of used bread machine books available cheap on Amazon or Alibris or elsewhere.)

 

My SO is fond of a particular commercial whole grain sandwich bread, and I wanted to come up with a recipe -- this is what I have landed on. It's adapted very loosely from a KAF recipe.

 

Healthy, Nutty Bread

Ingredients:

• 300g lukewarm water
• 25g olive oil or vegetable oil
• 78g maple syrup
• 350g White Whole Wheat or Whole Wheat Flour
• 50g rye flour
• 25g cornmeal
• 25g sunflower, sesame or flax seeds, or a combination (I use a TJ's seed blend sometimes)
• 35g nuts
• 1.5 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Directions:

1. Put all of the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. 
2. Select whole wheat bread setting, and press Start.
3. Remove the bread from the machine when it's done. Either cool on a rack, or turn the "keep warm" setting off and prop the machine door open to prevent the crust from wrinkling.

 

I made this conventionally (not in a bread machine) and I must say it made a lovely loaf. I intend to make it again adding my own tweaks. Thanks for sharing. 

[windyacres]

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 11:52 PM, mgaretz said:

 

I am glad that you liked it.  Lately I have been reducing the amount of yeast from 2 to 1 tsp and that has virtually eliminated the sinking, so give that a try.

Thanks.  I will try it again and reduce the yeast.  Stay Tuned!

[windyacres]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 4:04 AM, Anna N said:

I made this conventionally (not in a bread machine) and I must say it made a lovely loaf. I intend to make it again adding my own tweaks. Thanks for sharing. 

I will try this recipe, but have to get some rye flour first.  I really like multigrain breads. 

[Lisa Shock]

1 minute ago, windyacres said:

I will try this recipe, but have to get some rye flour first.  I really like multigrain breads. 

 

You might want to read up on baking with rye. It needs to be handled completely differently than wheat flour, and blends do not always work well, unless the rye is less than 15% of the overall flour. If you use the same settings you use for wheat bread with rye, you'll get an overworked gummy mess.

[windyacres]

19 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

 

You might want to read up on baking with rye. It needs to be handled completely differently than wheat flour, and blends do not always work well, unless the rye is less than 15% of the overall flour. If you use the same settings you use for wheat bread with rye, you'll get an overworked gummy mess.

Thanks for the advice.  I am somewhat of a novice when it comes to baking anything except old-fashioned white bread.  in the recipe in question, the overall measurements are 350g Whole Wheat Flour, 50g rye flour, 25g cornmeal.  So 50/400 is 12.5%, 400 being the sum of 350 wheat flour and 50 rye flour.  But if you throw in the cornmeal (I'm not sure if this is considered flour or not), then we have 50/425 or 11.7%.  Looks like I'd be okay.  Sorry to be so technical, but I majored in Math.  :-)

 

Or, what if I just left out the rye flour and decrease the liquid some?

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, windyacres said:

Thanks for the advice.  I am somewhat of a novice when it comes to baking anything except old-fashioned white bread.  in the recipe in question, the overall measurements are 350g Whole Wheat Flour, 50g rye flour, 25g cornmeal.  So 50/400 is 12.5%, 400 being the sum of 350 wheat flour and 50 rye flour.  But if you throw in the cornmeal (I'm not sure if this is considered flour or not), then we have 50/425 or 11.7%.  Looks like I'd be okay.  Sorry to be so technical, but I majored in Math.  :-)

 

Or, what if I just left out the rye flour and decrease the liquid some?

I had no issue with the rye flour.  In fact I have never run into difficulty using rye flour. Perhaps I'm just lucky?

[windyacres]

21 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I had no issue with the rye flour.  In fact I have never run into difficulty using rye flour. Perhaps I'm just lucky?

Thanks.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I will try it like it is. 

[Lisa Shock]

The formula you mention will probably work, but it will be a denser bread than the loaf you pictured earlier.

 

I spent a year baking nothing but rye loaves before i was satisfied that I could do it well.