Introduction

I bake medium loaves (1.5 lbs); low sodium; in a Panasonic SD-YD250.  I make comparisons to the source recipe, and annotations:

• {what I did} vs [the source recipe says]
• * low sodium; *M low sodium and machine
  

The salt measurement is a normal low sodium adjustment  – reduce salt and yeast by equal proportions.  The yeast measurement is customized for the Panasonic SD-250;  it may work in a machine with similiar features and cycle but may not work in many other machines.

The Challenge

Processing authentic pumpernickel is outside the capabilities of bread machines. There are retail/craft/home formulas for this style with rye flour, e.g.  King Arthur Classic Pumpernickel baked in an oven. 

Light rye breads are soft  breads made with wheat flour, with rye flour or rye meal for flavour and texture, or light rye flour. There are dark or sour styles (retail/craft/home/bread machine) with wheat flour, rye flour and

• cocoa or ground coffee for dark colour,
• vinegar or sour cream for acidity
• corn meal, oatmeal or sunflower seeds for texture
  

Also, there are (retail/craft/home) rustic rye and rye sourdough styles.

Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook has several recipes for Light Rye Breads. 

Rogers Foods mills Dark Rye Flour is available locally, and priced as a staple instead of a luxury good. Rye flour, even “dark” flour tends to make brown rather than black bread. Rogers does not directly publish a volume to mass conversion. The food facts label indicates 1 cup = 120 grams = 4.2 oz.  Food Facts for Dark Rye flours from other mills are consistent.  120 grams is in the range of published values, which is confusing and wide.  Online Conversion’s converter said 1 cup of dark rye flour = 4.5 oz. = 128 g.  Also, Aqua-Calc converter dark rye flour.   The rest of the range:

• BLBMC; Reinhardt’s Bread Bakers Apprentice – no factor stated
• The Bakery Network conversion chart – 1 cup “rye flour” = 4 oz. = 113.4
  
• Aqua-Calc converter light rye flour (or medium rye flour) – 1 cup = 102 g = 3.6 oz.
• The Traditional Oven’s  converter – 1 cup = 102 g. = 3.6 oz.  light rye?
• King Arthur Flour’s Ingredient Conversion chart – 1 cup = 3.625 oz.  light rye?

Panasonic’s manual asserts rye flour leads to dense bread when used to replace other flour, and warns that mixing rye flour might  overload the motor.   It has less of the proteins that build gluten than wheat flour. Intensive mixing does not enhance rye dough. Without gluten, gas is not trapped – which is why gluten free baking requires alternative to fermenting leavening

A formula with 2 cups of bread flour and from .75 to 1.25 cup of rye flour will be about 70% wheat flour by weight and will form gluten with the intensive mixing used in a bread machine.  This amount of rye flour is manageable; the paddle keeps turning and the dough ball creeps around the pan.  My machine vibrates  but does not appear to strain. The dough is dense and elastic – it holds the ball shape until late in the rise phase but flows and rises.

The BLBMC light rye bread recipes are balanced.  They work in my machine. Adding water or increasing yeast weakens the loaf. These formulas should be measured out precisely.

The BLBMC recipes use caraway, fennel and anise seeds and orange peel or zest for flavour.  These ingredients can be used in varying amounts and combinations. Olive oil can be used to replace other oils. 

BLBMC Scandinavian Light Rye (p. 134)

On {Multigrain} [basic bake] cycle:

• {261 g. (1.875 cups) Canadian All Purpose} flour [BLBMC bread flour]
• {135 g. (1.125 cup) dark} rye flour [BLBMC medium rye]
  
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1.0 tbsp caraway seeds [BLBMC 1.5 tbsp]
  
• {1 tsp fennel seeds}
• {4.3 g (.75 tsp)*} salt [BLBMC 1.5 tsp]
  
• {0} gluten [BLBMC 1 tbsp + 1 tsp = 4 tsp]
  
• {1.6 g (>.625 tsp) *M} instant yeast [BLBMC 2.5 tsp SAF instant]
  
• 1.5 tbsp {olive} oil
  
• 1.125 cup water
  

Introduction

A medium loaf (1.5 lbs); low sodium; in a Panasonic SD-YD250.  I make comparisons to the source recipe, and annotations:

• {what I did} vs [the source recipe says]
• * low sodium; *M low sodium and machine
  

The salt measurement is a normal low sodium adjustment  – reduce salt and yeast by equal proportions.  The yeast measurement is customized for the Panasonic SD-250;  it may work in a machine with similiar features and cycle but may not work in many other machines.

The Challenge

My sister makes a bread machine Flax Seed Whole Wheat bread with 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of white flour, oatmeal, sunflower, flax and poppy seeds, flax meal, and 1.75 cups milk.  The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (p. 118) formula uses 1 cup whole wheat flour,  2 cups of bread flour.  So does a formula on the web Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread. I used this formula, with a shift to more whole wheat flour; and adding the ingredients of my sister’s recipe.

When milk, real or reconstituted (powder plus water) is used, lactose, the natural sugar in milk is added to the formula.  Sugars in the dough tend to carmelize when the dough is baked – i.e. the crust is firm and brown. Unpasteurized milk can lead to surprizes. Some bakers think milk,  real or reconstituted, should be scalded to denature proteins that may inhibit the action of the yeast, and for other reasons. I skipped this step. Whole milk has more fats, which may give a loaf a little extra shelf life.

The whole wheat flour, rolled oats and flax meal absorb fluid.  At the level of fluid in BLBMC formula, the dough ball was shaggy and took a while to relax; even with added water. In the first trial, pan flow was not good = lopside loaf. The result on further tries and with other changes is a little lopsided but good. It had tasty firm crust, not crunchy; a dense crumb holds up, sliced. It needs the honey for flavour and hydration. 

The formula

On whole wheat cycle:

• 9.75 oz. (2 cups) whole wheat flour [BLBMC 1 cup]
  
• 4.875 oz. (1 cup) Canadian All Purpose flour [BLBMC 2 cups bread flour]
  
• {3 tbsp ground flax}
  
• {3 g. (.5 tsp) salt *} [BLBMC 1 tsp]
  
• {3 tbsp} flax seeds [BLBMC 2 tbsp]
  
• {1 tbsp poppy seeds}
  
• {.33 cups rolled oats}
  
• 1 tbsp. gluten
• {1.4 g (.5 tsp) instant yeast *M} [BLBMC 1.5 tsp]
  
• 2 tbsp {olive} oil [BLBMC canola]
  
• 3 tbsp honey
• {1.5 cups skim milk} [BLBMC 1.125 cup water + .25 cups dry milk]
  

Trial Recipes

These are summaries of bread machine formulas I baked June-August 2018, working out my approach to bread machine baking in a Panasonic SD-YD250. Most of them are in the Table [T]. Some are for Panasonic machines, and may not work in other machines.  Others are Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC”) formulas.  In the recipes I list dry ingredients before moist ingredients and fluids. That’s the way my machine works. Some machines want fluid loaded first.

In the table I identify the recipes by short names.  In these loaves:

• Flour measured in cups
• Wheat flour, by Rogers, a Canadian mill.
  • All-Purpose flour; 1 cup = 4.875 (4 7/8) oz = 138 gram. Bread Flour for White Bread; Whole Wheat flour; 1 cup = 4.875 (4 7/8) oz = 138 grams. Whole Wheat Bread Flour (a blend of Whole Wheat and white flour, and added gluten);
    
• Rye Flour. In one trial, Nunnweiler Organic Dark (I had a bag in the fridge). Rogers Dark Rye Flour
  
• Yeast
  • in tsp; in some trials in grams; 1 tsp = 2.8 g.Trials 1-6 Fleishmann’s Quick-Rise; others SAF Red Instant dry
    
• Salt in grams (For table salt 1 tsp = 5.7 grams); the % of the salt in the published recipe;
• Cm column
  • is a rough measurement or estimate of the height of the loaf; ^ gassed and rose to top of the pan or ballooned / lopsided or asymmetric; * a manual step to deflate the dough.

[T] Panasonic Basic White Loaf

Panasonic Manual or online. Basic bake cycle

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1.5 tbsp. dry milk
• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp (instant) yeast
• 1.25 cups water

Panasonic French Bread

Panasonic Manual. French bread bake cycle:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp (instant) yeast
• 1 5/16 (1.25 cups + 1 tbsp) water

[T] Panasonic 100% Whole Wheat

Panasonic Manual or 100 % Whole Wheat. Bake Whole wheat cycle:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1.5 tbsp. dry milk
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp (instant) yeast
• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 1.5 tbsp molasses
• 1.25 cups water

[T] Chuck Williams’s Country French

BLBMC (p. 200).  70% white flour in the style of country breads. Pain de campagne, with whole wheat (not rye) flour.  Adapted from Williams Sonoma recipe for La Cloche device. Basic or French bread cycle:

• .75 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 2.25 cups bread flour
• 2 tbsp. gluten
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1.75 tsp instant yeast
  
• 1.25 cups water

[T] Dakota Bread

BLBMC (p. 119) or Beth Hensperger blog: Dakota Bread. Basic cycle:

• .75 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 2.25 cups bread flour
• 2 tbsp. gluten
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1.75 tsp instant yeast
  
• 1.25 cups water

[T] White Whole Wheat Bread

BLBMC (p. 127).  Also see this recipe variation with 3 cups of flour.  White Whole Wheat flour is a specialty flour. Basic or whole wheat cycle:

• 3.25 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp gluten
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• .25 cups maple syrop
• 2 tbsp olive oil or nut oil
• 1.25 cups water

[T] Three Seed Whole Wheat Bread

BLBMC (p. 116). Basic or whole wheat cycle:

• 1.5 cup whole wheat
• 1.5 cups bread flour
• 
  
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. gluten
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp poppy seeds
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 3 tbsp non-fat (skim) dry milk
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1.25 cups water

[T] Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread

BLBMC (p. 118). Basic or whole wheat cycle:

• 1 cup whole wheat
• 2 cups bread flour
• 4 tbsp flax
  
• 2 tbsp. gluten
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• .25 cups non-fat (skim) dry milk
• .25 cups (4 tbsp) honey
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1.125 cups water

[T] Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread

BLBMC (p. 108). Basic or whole wheat cycle:

• 1.5 cup whole wheat
• 1.5 cups bread flour
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp gluten
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
  
• 2 tbsp maple syrop
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1.125 cups buttermilk

[T] Irish Potato Brown Bread

BLBMC (p. 117). Whole wheat cycle:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• .25 cup instant potato flakes
• 1 tbsp + 2 tsp gluten
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 3 tbsp butter, cut in chunks
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1.25 cups water
  

[T] Scandinavian Light Rye

BLBMC (p. 134). Basic cycle:

• 1.875 cups bread flour
• 1.125 cup medium rye flour
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1.5 tbsp caraway seeds
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp gluten
• 2.5 tsp instant yeast
• 1.5 tbsp canola oil
  
• 1.125 cups water

[T] Bohemian Black Bread

BLBMC (p. 138). Basic or whole wheat cycle:

• 1.75 cups bread flour
  
• 1 cup medium or dark rye flour
• .25 cups wheat bran
• 2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch Process cocoa
• 1.5 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1.5 tsp caraway seeds
• .5 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp gluten
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 1.5 tbsp molasses
• 1.125 cups water

Bread machines came on the market  about 1986, and became popular outside Japan by the late 1990s.  My first bread machine was a Black & Decker B1561. I replaced it with a Panasonic  SD-YD250 in 2016.

A bread machine makes one loaf of bread, usually with wheat flour, in less than 5 hours. 

Home bakers cannot create the same results as professional bakers – either in industrial baking or artisanal baking.  Home bakers may have a good oven, a stand mixer and lot of space and time.  (Home ovens reach temperatures of 450 F (230 C) which is enough for most bread).  A bread machine cannot produce what a professional baker or a serious home baker can produce.

A bread machine is not a versatile as a cook in a reasonably furnished kitchen. A bread machine is a small oven and a small mixer. It has a heating element, a motor, and a double purpose pan – baking pan and mixing bowl – mounted to the frame. The mixing paddle is connected to the power train by a shaft housed in sealed bearings at the bottom of the pan. Most machines have distinct cycles for baking dough leavened with yeast including a basic cycle, and a fast cycle manufacturers call Bake (Rapid), Turbo, Quick Bake, Rapid, etc. quick-rise baking. Some have additional cycles for whole wheat flour bread.

Beth Hensperger’s The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (Harvard Common Press, 2000) was a comprehensive resource.  It treated all bread machines (it listed 18 customer service numbers for manufacturers of machines on the market at the time) as equivalent, with a  warning to “Take Stock of Your Machine”. This understates difficulties in designing bread machines and writing formulas for bread machines:

• the processes of mixing ingredients, working dough and baking dough in a bakery or at home steps involve doing something until a result it observed (the dough is mixed and supple; it has risen, or is ready to bench or bake);
• a machine works in simple steps, without feedback.  The designer can program combinations of steps that should produce results with some combinations of ingredients if the machine is loaded properly;
  
• machines are different:
  • a machine might mix ingredients and knead the dough properly, but might not be able to rest or work the dough,
  • a machine can only shape a loaf if the dough fills the machine pan -it has to flow and rise by the right time and spring;
• a recipe writer cannot test every recipe in every machine.