Home baked bread is at its best the first day after the fresh loaf has cooled. It loses its appeal after a couple days. Making small loaves is a way to make enough to last for a short time – without having to think about toasting the last several slices, or freezing part of a fresh loaf.

The smallest loaf setting in the Panasonic bread machines with extra large (“2.5 lb”) capacity pans, such as my SD-YD250, is medium – a 1.5 lb. loaf made with 3 cups of flour.  A small recipe, in bread machine terms, would be a loaf made with 2 to 2.25 cups of flour.There is no small loaf setting on this machine. The cycle will depend on the recipe. The two main choices are basic and whole wheat. The other choices are mainly just names on the control panel.

The area of the rectangular pan is 266 square centimeters: 19 cm (7.5 inches) by 14 cm (5.5 inches). A small recipe would fill the pan to a depth of less than 3 cm. The Panasonic kneader paddle is 6 cm long, radially.  It is 2.6 cm high along its arm, rising to a fin 5 cm tall. The dough ball for a small recipe (2 to 2.25 cups of flour) will be taller than the paddle.  It may not touch the sides of the pan, but centrifugal force stretches the dough away from the paddle. The edge of the ball sticks to the pan, and snaps away.  The machine can knead a small recipe.

A small loaf should rise and spring to a height of 7.5 cm or more, above the top of the kneader, and flow enough. If dough does not flow, the loaf will be irregular.  Even a medium recipe may not flow enough.  In the medium recipe it usually means one end of the loaf is taller. It depends on hydration, on how the gluten relaxes, and the mass of the ball. 

Overmixing is a risk, in principle. The mixing process can stretch the dough too much or too often, and break the gluten strands. An overmixed dough cannot hold the gases, and will not rise.  Intensive mixing may affect a loaf with effects short of the complete failure caused by overmixing.

Food processors can mix dough, although a food processor might only handle 3 cups of flour, and may only have one speed – very fast.  The mixing time may be less than a minute.  Some food processors have a dough speed and/or special blade to mix dough. The risk of overmixing dough in a food processor is well recognized.  A variety of mixers are available to the home baker. A  home stand mixer that can handle several cups of flour, with multiple or variable speed settings.  The power output of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a 5 quart bowl may be 325 watts.  A Bosch Compact Kitchen Machine may output 400 watts into its dough hook in its stand mixer configuration. Larger models may output 800 watts.   They have to be used at the right settings and for a short time.

The Panasonic SD-YD250 has a 550 watt motor, and runs for the majority of the time in a 25 minute +/- mixing phase on a medium loaf setting.  The risk of overmixing is pretty much theoretical.

There is a risk of burning, in principle.  The heating element, rated at 550 watts is outside the pan, around the bottom about 1 cm above the bottom. Heat is applied for intervals.  The manual states the total length of the bake phase. The small loaf develops hot spots around the base of the pan but is not burned.  This is pronounced with French bread cycle which has 55 rather than 50 minutes bake time.

There are 1 lb machines on the market including Zojirushi models and some Panasonic models (not available in USA or Canada but available in Japan and on Amazon).   Some large and extra large machines have settings for small loaves. Other methods for making small loaves:

• scale to a smaller version of a recipe, mixed and baked in the machine on medium loaf settings
  • make a manual intervention to move the dough;
    
  • let the ball rise where it rests – this may lead to a short loaf that is well formed at one end;
    
• mix in the machine on dough cycle; rest for rise and/or divide/shape the dough and bake in the kitchen oven;
• mix and knead by other methods and bake in the kitchen oven.

3 or 4 cup recipes can be scaled down.

Continue reading “Small Loaves” →

These loaves are mainly whole grain and multigrain. Multigrain means a blend of white flour, whole wheat flour and other grain flour, flakes or groats of buckwheat, oat and other grains (usually not rye flour). These loaves work differently depending on blend, hydration, yeast and machine cycle. I think multigrain loaves do better on whole wheat cycle.

I use a Panasonic SD-YD250 bread machine, and I adapt recipes from recipe books, mainly from the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC”).   My salt measurement and yeast measurement are for 50% sodium.  The yeast measurement is customized for the SD-YD 250;  it may work in a machine with similiar features and cycle but may not work in other machines. I use Bakers’ percentage (B%) and deal with flour, water, salt and yeast by weight.

First, a white bread – French Bread, as written the Panasonic Manual. French bread bake cycle – one size recipe; 3 cups of flour (medium loaf) that comes out in a block that fills the extra-large pan.  It can be scaled down. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text:

Ingredient	Medium Loaf Volume	Medium Loaf Weight g.	2/3 by Weight	50% by Weight	Percentage
White flour	3 cups	417	278	209
TFW		417	278	209	100
Butter	1 tbsp		.67 tbsp = 2 tsp	.5 tbsp
Salt (recipe)	1.5 tsp
Salt @50%	.75 tsp	4.3	2.8	2.2	1
Yeast R	1 tsp
Instant Yeast *	.5 tsp	1.4	1	.7	.3
Water	1.3125 (1 + 5/16) cups	310	207	155	74

My sister makes a 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.  This works in her machine, producing a loaf with a fairly open crumb. I wanted a medium recipe with 3 cups of flour that could scale for smaller loaves. The BLBMC (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 the latter version, with a shift to more whole wheat flour; and added the ingredients of my sister’s recipe.

The BLBMC used 1 cup whole wheat and 1.125 (1 + 1/8) cups water. The shift to more whole wheat and the addition of rolled oat and flax meal requires a small amount of water for hydration, between one and two tablespoons more of water. One tablespoon is 1/16 of a cup. The water can be added as water, when using milk powder.

This dough finds a couple of teaspoons of water in 3 tablespoons of honey. Switching to fluid milk adds quality – but requires some attention.

Unpasteurized milk can lead to surprizes. Some bakers think milk,  real or reconstituted, should be scalded to denature proteins. I don’t spend time and energy on this.

The medium loaf was a little lopsided. My attempts to bake smaller loaves based on this recipe have been educational. When this works, it has a firm crust and a dense crumb that holds up for firm sandwich slices. I

The formula, by volume or weight and with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source recipe amount is in strikeout text and the changed or added ingredient in bold text and alternatives in italic text.  On whole wheat cycle.  I thought it was better with milk.

	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Scaled @ 75%
	Volume	Weight [Fluid Weight]	B%
Whole Wheat	2 cups 1 cup	278	61	209
White Flour	1 cup 2 cups	139	31	104
Flax meal	2 tbsp	12	03	9
Rolled Oats	.25 cup	25	06	19
T. Flours/strong>		454	100
Flax Seed	3 tbsp			2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Poppy Seed	1 tbsp			2.25 tsp
Skim Milk Powder if Water, per BLBMC	.25 cups
Salt @50%	.5 tsp 1 tsp	2.8	.62	2.1
Gluten per BLBMC	0 1 tbsp
Instant Yeast *	.6 tsp 2 tsp	1.7		1.3
Olive Oil	3 tbsp			2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Honey	3 tbsp	60 [12]	3 [x]	45 g. or 2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Skim Milk	1.3 cup (1 + 1/3) (325 ml)	319 g [290]		239 g.
if 1% Milk		337 g [285]
if Waterper BLBMC	1.31.125 cups	308 g.268 g.
Fluid Weight		302	67

I make a loaf I call Pembina Bread: a white flour loaf with seeds, based in BLBMC Dakota Bread (p. 119). Named for Pembina, North Dakota, important to Winnipegers. The gateway to Fargo and Grand Forks; the site of KCND, the first American TV network affiliate transmitter that reached antennas in Winnipeg (later purchased by Canadian owners and moved north of the border as CKND). The formula, by volume and weight, scaled and with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source recipe amount is in strikeout text and the changes in italic text. 

	Medium Loaf Volume	Weight	@ 75%	@ 2/3	B %
Whole Wheat	.625 cups .5 cups	87	65	58	21
White Flour	2.25 cups	313	235	210	75
Bulgur	.125 cups .25 cups	20	15	13	5
TFW		420			100
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3	3.2	2.9	1
sunflower seeds raw	.25 cups		3 tbsp	2.5 tbsp
pumpkin seeds raw, chopped	.25 cups		3 tbsp	2.5 tbsp
sesame seeds	1.5 tsp		1.125 tsp	1 tsp
poppy seeds	2 tsp		1.5 tsp	1.25 tsp
Gluten per BLBMC	0 2 tbsp
Inst. Yeast *	7/16 tsp 2 tsp	1.2	.9	.8	.3
Water	1.25 cups	300 g.	225	200	71

Cornell Bread is a BLBMC recipe (p. 161), based on Cornell bread developed by Clive McCay of Cornell University first published in 1955 in a short book called The Cornell Bread Book. The BLBMC bread machine version has been emulated and published on the Web e.g. here. It uses an egg, milk powder, and soy flour for protein, and wheat germ for fiber. 

Dr. McCay is reported to have believe that this bread, with butter, was a sufficient healthy and nutrious diet. A nearly vegetarian scientific health food, 30 years before the vegetarian prescriptions of Diet for a Small Planet. Dr. McCay, a scientist in animal nutrition, experimented on mice to prove that bread made with bleached white flour was not as healthy as bread made with unbleached flour.  The 1980 edition of the Cornell Bread Book is still available.  The recipe is presented in recipes  and articles on prepper and counterculture sites.  The recipe  was developed during the Great Depression.  Food security was recognized as an issue in America more clearly then than now. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Kitchen, a 2010 article in the New Yorker, looked back at the campaigns by home economists at Cornell to  promote economical recipes for American kitchens in hard times.  Americans were persuaded that hard times ended by 1945, and food writers began to treat the austerity diet  in recipes for Bulldog Gravy  or like Depression Cake in M.F.K. Fisher‘s How to Cook a Wolf as as a memory

A brown bread. Slightly sweet, and rich. The white flour gives it some lift. This loaf taught me a lesson about hydraton. My first attempt was the medium loaf. I missed a digit in entering the water in the calculator. I used 1.25 cups x 236 (=295 g). The correct amount was 1.125 cups x 236 (=266 g). One eight of a cup. The dough was sloppy. I shook some white flour in (not measured, 3 or 3 tbsp) with about 10 minute of mixing time left to get a dough that held up. The loaf had an open crumb and cratered. My attempt to scale formulas down to make smaller loaves is a story in itself. The formula, by volume or weight, scaled and with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source recipe amount is in strikeout text and the changed or added ingredient in italic text.  Whole wheat cycle.

	Medium Loaf Volume	Weight	Fluid	@ 75%	@ 2/3	B %
Whole Wheat	1.5 cups	209 g.		156	140	48
White Flour	1.125 cups	156 g.		117	105	36
Soy flour	.33 cups	40 g.		30 g.	27 g.
Wheat germ	1.5 tbsp	6.5 g.		4.9 g.
Milk Powder	.25 cups	25 g.		19 g.	17 g.
Flour Total		437				100
Brown Sugar	2 tbsp			1.5 tbsp	1.3 tbsp or 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g.		3.2 g.	2.9 g.
Gluten per BLBMC	0 1.5 tbsp
Inst. Yeast *	1.25 tsp 2.5 tsp	3.5 g.		2.6 g.	2.3 g.
Canola Oil	2 tbsp			1.5 tbsp	1.3 tbsp or 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Egg Large	1	57 g.	36 g.	1	1
Honey	2 tbsp	40 g.	8 g.	1.5 tbsp (6 g. water)	1.3 tbsp or 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Water	1.125 cups		281	205	180
Fluids			325			72

Sunflower Oatmeal Bread is the BLBMC (p. 323), bread machine adaptation of Celeste’s Sunflower and Oatmeal Bread in Beth Hensperger’s 1988 Bread. Low sodium; yeast adjustments for salt and for Panasonic. The formula, by volume or weight, scaled, with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source recipe amount is in strikeout text and the changed or added ingredient in italic text.  On whole wheat cycle.

	Medium Loaf Volume	Weight	Water	@ 2/3 Weight	@ 2/3 Water	B %
Whole Wheat	.5 cups	79 g.		53 g.
White Flour	2.5 cups	348 g.		233 g.
Oatmeal	.5 cups	50 g		33 g. (1/3 cup)
TFW		477				100
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g.		2.9 g.		1
sunflower seeds raw	.5 cups			1/3 cup
Butter	1.5 tbsp			1 tbsp.
Gluten per BLBMC	2 tbsp
Inst. Yeast *	.375 .5 tsp 2 tsp	1.1 g.		.7 g
Molasses	1 tbsp.			2 tsp.
Honey	2 tbsp.	21 g.	5 g.	14 g. (1.34 tbsp) 1 tbsp + 1 tsp.	3.25
Egg, Large	1	57 g.	36 g.	57 g.	36
Buttermilk	.625 cups	150 g.	148 g.	100 g. (.42 cups)	99 g.
Water	.5 cups	112 g.	112 g.	74 g.	74 g
Fluid			301			65

Buttermilk Whole Wheat BLBMC p. 108. 50% Whole Wheat with buttermilk and maple syrup; salt reduction, and yeast adjustments for salt and for Panasonic. Estimating the hydration of buttermilk and maple syrup helped to tune the overall hydration. The formula, by volume or weight, scaled and with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source recipe amount is in strikeout text and the changed or added ingredient in italic text.  On whole wheat cycle.

	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	@ 75%
	Volume	Weight	Fluid	B%
Whole Wheat	1.5 cups	209		50	157
White Flour	1.5 cups	209		50	157
TFW		418		100	314
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g			3.2 g
Gluten per BLBMC	0 1.33 tbsp
Instant Yeast *	.5 tsp 2 tsp	1.4		.33	1.1
Canola Oil	2 tbsp				1.5 tbsp
Maple Syrup	2 tbsp	40 g	13 g.		1.5 tbsp
Buttermilk	1.125 cups	275 g.	250 g.		210 g. (.85 cups)
Fluid			263	63

Zarathustra’s Bread is BLBMC (p. 126) “Tecate Ranch Whole Wheat”. BLBMC named it for a spa in Baja California that serve this bread, developed by a chef at spa in San Diego which used New Age Zoroastrianism as one its themes. Exotic naming is a staple of Counter-culture marketing to consumers with a taste for the bohemian in their lives. For a more SF reading of the name, consider watching 2001: a Space Odessey, listening to the fanfare of Thus Spake Zarathustra. Imagine the loaf as the monolith. Freshly baked whole wheat is tasty. But 100% loaves can dry out or go stale fast.

100 % whole wheat, honey, molasses and poppy seeds. Low sodium; yeast adjustments for salt and for Panasonic. The formula, by volume or weight, scaled, with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source recipe amount is in strikeout text and the changed or added ingredient in italic text.  On whole wheat cycle.

Ingredient	Medium Loaf Volume	Medium Weight	B %	@ 75%
Whole Wheat	3.25 cups	452		339
Wheat Germ Wheat Bran	.25 cup .33 cup			3 tbsp
TFW			100
Gluten	2.5 tbsp
Salt @ 50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3		3.2 g.
Yeast R	1 tsp
Poppy Seeds	1 tbsp			2.25 tsp
Inst. Yeast *	.75 tsp 1 tbsp	2.1		1.6 g.
Honey	.125 cups (2 tbsp)			1.5 tbsp
Molasses	.125 cups; (2 tbsp)			1.5 tbsp
Water	1.33	300 g. 314 g.		225 g. 236 g. (1 cup)

These are the bread machine recipes I used working out my approach to yeast and low sodium in  baking in a Panasonic SD-YD250 for medium (1.5 lb.) loaves June, July and August, 2018. The test table [T] at the end of this post notes my test of the recipes at the time.  In that final table I state the flour, fluid, salt and yeast used in one particular trial – which often failed. Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (“BLBMC”) recipes did not work as published.  

I present several recipes in tables with volume, weight, baker percentage, and ingredients, scaled for smaller loaves.  Others are summaries of the source for a medium loaf. Some tables and lists are based on BLBMC  formulas. I mark the parts of the source formula that I change, and I insert changes . White flour means bread flour; where a recipe said bread flour; I used Canadian All-Purpose.

My tables and summaries all reduce salt to  50% salt, and adjust yeast (1) for salt and (2) for this machine and other Panasonic machine

Basic White Loaf is in the Panasonic Manual or online. Basic bake cycle. Panasonic presents this recipe in M, L, XL in the manual, as a milk bread (milk instead of water), and as a basic sandwich loaf. This recipe works at published for medium loaves  and as scaled to small. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text.

Ingredient	Medium Loaf Volume	Medium Loaf Weight	@ 2/3	Percentage
White Flour	3 cups	417	278
TFW		417	278	100
Milk Powder	1.5 tbsp		1 tbsp
Sugar	1.5 tbsp		1 tbsp
Butter	1.5 tbsp		1 tbsp
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3	2.8	1
Instant Yeast *	.5 tsp 1 tsp	1.4	1	.3
Water	1.25 cups	295	198	71

100% Whole Wheat is in thePanasonic Manual or online at 100 % Whole Wheat. Bake Whole wheat cycle. This recipe works at published. Low salt, bakers percentage, and scaled to small loaf. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text.  Any additions are italic:

Ingredient	Medium Loaf Volume	Medium Weight	@ 75%	Percentage
Whole Wheat	3 cups	417 g	313 g
TFW		417	313	100
Milk Powder	1.5 tbsp		1.125 tbsp = 1 tbsp + 3/8 tsp
Butter	1.5 tbsp		1.125 tbsp
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3	3.2	1
Instant Yeast *	.5 tsp 1 tsp	1.4	1.1	.3
Molasses	1.5 tbsp		1 tbsp
Brown sugar	0		1 tsp
Water	1.25 cups	295 g	230 g	71

Chuck Williams’s Country French is from BLBMC (p. 200).  Beth Hensperger adapted a recipe from her 2002 bread book in Williams-Sonoma collection. It was a recipe for La Cloche device; in the style of Pain de campagne, with whole wheat (not rye) flour.  A lean French bread: 25% whole wheat, 75% white flour, water, salt, yeast; without milk, butter or sugar.  BLBMC says Basic or French bread cycle.  Those cycles use a more intensive mix, and I back off on yeast and water.  The loaf has a firm crust and a reaonably open crumb. Low salt, B% and scaled. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text

	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	@ 2/3
Ingredient	Volume	Weight	B%
White Flour	2.25 cups	313 g	75	210 g
Whole Wheat	.75 cups	104 g	25	70 g
TFW		417 g	100	280
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g	1	2.9 g
Instant Yeast *	3/8 tsp 7/16 tsp 1 3/4 tsp	1.1 g	.3	.7
Water	1 + 3/16 cups (1 cup + 3 tbsp) 1.25 cup	280	71	196

Pembina Bread is adapted from BLBMC (p. 119) or Beth Hensperger blog: Dakota Bread. The source recipe says basic bake cycle, and uses .5 cup of whole wheat for a medium loaf.  Chuck Williams Country French, above, use .75 cups of whole wheat.  The bulger takes up a little water, which changes the hydration.  I use less bulgur than the BLBMC source, and  whole wheat bake cycle. Low salt, B% and scaled. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text.  Any additions are italic

	Medium Loaf Volume	Weight	@ 75%	@ 2/3	B %
Whole Wheat	.625 cups .5 cups	87	65	58	21
White Flour	2.25 cups	313	235	210	75
Bulgur	.125 cups .25 cups	20	15	13	5
TFW		420			100
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3	3.2	2.9	1
sunflower seeds raw	.25 cups		3 tbsp	2.5 tbsp
pumpkin seeds raw, chopped	.25 cups		3 tbsp	2.5 tbsp
sesame seeds	1.5 tsp		1.125 tsp	1 tsp
poppy seeds	2 tsp		1.5 tsp	1.25 tsp
Gluten per BLBMC	0 2 tbsp
Inst. Yeast *	7/16 tsp 2 tsp	1.2	.9	.8	.3
Water	1.25 cups	300 g.	225	200	71

Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread is an adaptation of a BLBMC recipe (p. 118), with changes discussed in my post on Other Recipes, and changes for low sodium. I give the BLBMC recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text. I prefer whole wheat cycle:

	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Scaled @ 75%
	Volume	Weight [Fluid Weight]	B%
Whole Wheat	2 cups 1 cup	278	61	209
White Flour	1 cup 2 cups	139	31	104
Flax meal	2 tbsp	12	03	9
Rolled Oats	.25 cup	25	06	19
T. Flours/strong>		454	100
Flax Seed	3 tbsp			2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Poppy Seed	1 tbsp			2.25 tsp
Skim Milk Powder if Water, per BLBMC	.25 cups
Salt @50%	.5 tsp 1 tsp	2.8	.62	2.1
Gluten per BLBMC	0 1 tbsp
Instant Yeast *	.6 tsp 2 tsp	1.7		1.3
Olive Oil	3 tbsp			2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Honey	3 tbsp	60 [12]	3 [x]	45 g. or 2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Skim Milk	1.3 cup (1 + 1/3) (325 ml)	319 g [290]		239 g.
if 1% Milk		337 g [285]
if Waterper BLBMC	1.31.125 cups	308 g.268 g.
Fluid Weight		302	67

Three Seed Whole Wheat Bread is my adapatation of the BLBMC recipe (p. 116). It is a low sodium recipe.  When I depart from the recipe, I give the BLBMC recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text.  Any additions are italic. I prefer whole wheat cycle:

	Medium Loaf Volume	Weight	@ 75%	B %
Whole Wheat	1.5 cups	209	157	50
White Flour	1.5 cups	209	157	50
TFW		418	314	100
Dry Skim Milk	3 tbsp		2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Brown Sugar	2 tbsp		1.5 tbsp
Sunflower Seed	1/3 cup		2.25 tbsp i.e. 2 tbsp + .75 tsp.
Sesame Seed	2 tbsp		1.5 tbsp
Poppy Seed	2 tsp		1.5 tsp
Sunflower Oil	2 tbsp		1.5 tbsp
Salt @50%	.5 tsp 1 tsp	2.9 g	2.2 g
Gluten per BLBMC	0 1 tbsp
Instant Yeast *	.5 tsp 2 tsp	1.4	1.1	.33
Water	1 + 3/16 cups 1.25 cups	280 g 295 g	210 g.	70

Scandinavian Light Rye is based on BLBMC (p. 134).  In a table – low salt, B%. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text.  Any additions are italic. It works on basic bake cycle, medium loaf setting.

	Volume	Weight	@ 75%	%
White Flour	1.875 cups	261 g.		66
Dark Rye Flour	1.125 cups	135		34
TFW		396		100
Brown Sugar	2 tbsp
Caraway Seed	1.5 tbsp
Salt @ 50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g.
Gluten
Instant Yeast @ 50% salt *	.625 tsp 2.5 tsp	1.8 g.
Oil	1.5 tbsp
Water	1.125 cups	266 g.		67

Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread is from BLBMC (p. 108). I didn’t quite get this during the trials in the summer of 2018. Medium-light whole wheat. 50% Whole Wheat with buttermilk and maple syrup as the sweetener. I did not feel sure about this, but it works with my salt reduction and my yeast adjustment for salt and for Panasonic. I worked out the hydration of buttermilk and maple syrup and overall hydration. That may be a useful number to check other 50-50 loaves for hydration and yeast. I think multigrain 50-50 loaves do better on whole wheat cycle.

The formula, by volume or weight, scaled and with B% for reference. When I depart from the source recipe, the source amount is in strikeout text and the changed or added ingredient in italic text.  On whole wheat cycle.

	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	Medium Loaf	@ 75%
	Volume	Weight	Fluid	B%
Whole Wheat	1.5 cups	209		50	157
White Flour	1.5 cups	209		50	157
TFW		418		100	314
Salt @50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g			3.2 g
Gluten per BLBMC	0 1.33 tbsp
Instant Yeast *	.5 tsp 2 tsp	1.4		.33	1.1
Canola Oil	2 tbsp				1.5 tbsp
Maple Syrup	2 tbsp	40 g	13 g.		1.5 tbsp
Buttermilk	1.125 cups	275 g.	250 g.		210 g. (.85 cups)
Fluid			263	63

White Whole Wheat is mentioned in the test table at the end, trials 7, 8, 10, 11.  The source recipe from BLBMC (p. 127) “White Whole Wheat Flour Bread”. Also see variation with 3 cups of flour,  on basic bake “white bread” cycle. I never had White Whole Wheat flour. Home bakers report, in King Arthur comments, that the uses of this flour include using it in place of white flour for pancakes.

I substituted”Whole Wheat Bread Flour”, which was higher in protein (gluten) than the flour in the recipe. It was a lesson. I stopped looking for a flour that can’t be obtained in this part of Canada:

White whole-wheat flour is … made with hard white spring or winter wheat — the bran, germ, and endosperm are all ground to result in another 100 percent whole-wheat flour. … because it’s made with hard white wheat instead of hard red wheat, like whole-wheat flour, it has a paler color and its taste is milder. It’s still nuttier than all-purpose flour because it includes the fibrous bran and germ of the wheat, but it’s a more approachable whole-wheat flour, particularly for those who don’t enjoy the hearty taste of whole-wheat flour.
It can be used interchangeably with whole-wheat flour in any recipe

Source

A summary, with low sodium and a suggestion about yeast for the modern Panasonic machines. When I depart from the recipe, I give the recipe amount in strikeout text and my changed value in italic text.

Ingredient	Medium Loaf Volume	Medium Weight	Percentage
White Whole Wheat Flour	3.25 cups
TFW			100
Salt R	1.5 tsp
Salt *	.75 tsp	4.3	1
Yeast R	1 tsp
Inst. Yeast *	.5 tsp	1.4	.3
Maple Syrup	.25 cups
Olive Oil	.125 cups; (2 tbsp)
Water	1.25 cups

Irish Potato Brown Bread is from the BLBMC (p. 117) This is a summary of a published recipe.  It is not what I would do in my Panasonic SD-YD250 and is not a low sodium recipe.  It is written for 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
  

Bohemian Black Bread is a BLBMC (p. 138) recipe.  It is not what I would do in my Panasonic SD-YD250 and is not a low sodium recipe.  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

The general conditions for the loaves in my test program:

• Flour is noted in cups with measurement by weight most of the time
• Wheat flour, by Rogers, a Canadian mill:
  • All-Purpose flour (i.e. bread flour); 1 cup = 4.9 oz = 139 grams;
  • Bread Flour for White Bread;
  • Whole Wheat flour; 1 cup = 4.9 oz = 139 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.

The Cm column is a rough measurement or estimate of the height of the loaf with some notations:

• ^ gassed and rose to top of the pan or ballooned
• / lopsided or asymmetric;
• * a manual step to deflate the dough on that trial.

T.	Recipe	Flour	Cycle	Water* cups	Gluten tsp	Yeast tsp or g.	Salt g.	Cm
1	Country French	2.25 Bread .5 whole wheat		1.25	2	1.25	4.5 [51%]	^
2	Country French	2.25 AP .5 whole wheat		1.25	2	1.25	4.5 [51%}	11
3	Dakota	2.25 Bread .5 whole wheat		1.25	2	1.125	7.5 [83%]	^
4	Dakota	2.25 AP .5 whole wheat		1.25	1	1 [50%]	9 [100%]	10*
5	Basic White	3 AP		1.25	0	1 [100%]	10.5 [116%]	10
6	Country French	2.25 AP .75 whole wheat		1.25	.25	1.25	9.28 [105%]	10*
7	White Whole	3.25 wWhB		1.25	1	1.125	9.10 [101%]	14*
8	White Whole	3.25 wWhB		1.25	0	.875	9.15 [102%]	14
9	Whole Wheat	3 whole wheat	WW	1.25	0	.5 [50%]	6.9 [76%]	10
10	White Whole	3.25 wWhB		1.25	0	.5	5.25 [58%]	14
11	White Whole	3.25 wWhB		1.25	0	.375	4.5 [50%]	14
12	3 Seed	3 wWhB		1.25	0	.5	3.1 [50%]	11
13	3 Seed	1.5 whole wheat 1.5 AP		1.25	0	.5	3.0 [50%]	8
14	3 Seed	1.5 whole wheat 1.5 AP		1.25	1.5	.625	3.0 [50%]	12
15	3 Seed	1.5 whole wheat 1.5 AP		1.25	1.125	.5	3.0 [50%]	10
16	Country French	2.25 AP .75 whole wheat		1.25	.375	.5	4.5 [50%]	13
17	FS Whole Wh	2 AP 1 whole wheat		1.125	.5	.5	3.0 [50%]	12.5
18	FS Whole Wh	9.75 oz. AP 4.875 oz. whole wheat		1.125	.5	1.23 g.	3.05 [51%]	11.5 /
19	Buttermilk WhWh	7.375 oz. AP 7.375 oz whole wheat	B	1.125 * Buttermilk	1.5	.5 tsp	4 [44%]	11 //
20	Buttermilk WhWh	7.3 oz. AP 7.3 oz. whole wheat	B	1.25 * Buttermilk	1.0 tsp	1.52 g.	4.1 [45%]	11
21	Irish Brown	9.7 oz. whole wheat 4.875 oz. AP		1.25	1.5 tsp	1.49 g.	4.45 [45%]	13 /
22	Whole Wheat	14.6 oz. whole wheat	WW	1.25	.75 tsp	1.42 g.	4.52 [50%]	11
23	Sc Light Rye	9.0 oz AP 1.125 cups rye		1.125	1.5 tsp	1.42 g	4.51 [50%]	11 /
24	Bohemian Black	8.5 oz. AP 1 cup dark rye .25 cups wheat germ	B	1.125 + 3 tbsp melted butter, I tbsp espresso drip	1.5 tsp	1.51 g.	4.52 [50%]	9 /
25	Buttermilk WhWh	207 g. AP 207 g. whole wheat	WW	1.25 *buttermilk	1.5 tsp	1.40 g.	4.50 [50%]

Introduction

I bake bread in a Panasonic SD-YD250 bread machine. 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.   This takes product warning too far. Authentic pumpernickel is outside the capabilities of bread machines. There are retail/craft/home formulas for a rustic style with rye flour, e.g.  King Arthur Classic Pumpernickel baked in an oven.  A bread machine can make a light rye.

Light rye breads are soft  breads made with wheat flour, with rye flour or rye meal for flavour and texture, or light rye flour. Also, there are (retail/craft/home) rustic rye and rye sourdough styles. Light rye bread may be made in pans, but also baked in a torpedo shape.

Rye bread has been baked with caraway seeds so often that consumers associate the flavour of caraway with the flavour of rye. Caraway is related to cumin, fennel, anise, carrots, celery and parsley. Some varieties are known as Persian cumin. It has been used as a cooking herb or spice since the time of the Roman Empire. It is a major spice in Central European cooking and in the nations beside the Baltic and was adopted in Germany, the Nordic countries and England. Cumin and caraway are the spice in Kamijnekaas – the spiced Dutch cheeses Leiden Kaas and spiced Gouda. Caraway is a strong flavouring, and may overwhelm other flavours in rye bread. Other flavouring agents: fennel and anise seeds, dried orange peel, orange zest and orange oil for flavour in varying amounts and combinations. There are dark or sour light rye 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.

Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook has at least 9 recipes for light rye breads (at pp. 133-143, 313) with 25% – 35% rye flour by weight. This is manageable.  The BLBMC recipes scale to smaller loaves. BLBMC suggests baking light rye bread on the basic bake cycle for most recipes. The BLBMC assumes that a whole wheat bake cycle involves a longer kneading time and a longer rise. This is not the case for the SD-YD250. The whole wheat cycle has a shorter kneading time and longer rise. The dough seems to relax in last minutes of mix/knead on basic or whole wheat but it holds up and rises either way. It produces a better result on whole wheat

Rye flour has less of the proteins that build gluten than wheat flour.  It has pentosans which absorb water early in mixing but release it after periods of intensive mixing. The dough seems dry and elastic – it holds it shape and is slow to relax. According to Daniel DiMuzio’s Bread Baking, An Arisan’s Perspective (p. 51), bakers with control of speed and time would use a short period of slow mixing for dough with significant amounts of rye flour, and little faster intensive mixing DiMuzio notes (p. 216) that dough for deli-style light rye (80% white/20% rye) would be hydrated at 68% and mixed slowly: in a stand mixer, 3 minutes slow to blend ingredients and 3 minutes on second speed. The way to match this would be a custom cycle in a bread machine with that feature. With my less fancy machine, I could turn off the machine after slow mix and a few minutes of knead/mix and let it rise and finish it on the counter and int the oven; or in the machine:

• let it sit, knock it down once with a spatula, let it “bench” rise and
• plug it in and set to bake “cake”.

Rogers Foods mills Dark Rye Flour is available locally, and priced as a staple instead of a luxury good.  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 and Aqua-Calc converter dark rye flour said 1 cup of dark rye flour = 4.5 oz. = 128 g.   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?

I put the recipes in tables. Where I made a change, I leave the source recipe amount or ingredient in strikeout. 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-YD250;  it may work in a machine with similiar features and cycle but may not work in many other machines.

Bread with Caraway and Onions – a recipe in the Panasonic manual with almost no rye flour. It evokes rye bread with caraway seeds. Caraway seeds were used to make flavoured breads with white flour in Central European recipes.

Ingredient	Volume	Weight g.	@ 2/3	Percentage
White Flour	2.75 cup	353 g.	212 g	93
Dark Rye Flour	3 tbsp	23 g	15.1 g	7
TFW		376 g		100
Sugar	1.5 tbsp		1 tbsp
Caraway Seed	1 tbsp		2 tsp
Butter	1.5 tbsp		1 tbsp
Salt @ 50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3	2.6 g.
Instant Yeast*	.5 tsp 1 tsp	1.2 g.	.8 g.
Chopped Onion	3/8 cup		1/4 cup
Water	1 + 3/16 cups	277	186	74

Scandinavian Light Rye – a BLBMC recipe (p. 134).

	Volume	Weight	@ 75%	%
White Flour	1.875 cups	261 g.		66
Dark Rye Flour	1.125 cups	135		34
TFW		396		100
Brown Sugar	2 tbsp
Caraway Seed	1.5 tbsp
Salt @ 50%	.75 tsp 1.5 tsp	4.3 g.
Gluten
Instant Yeast @ 50% salt *	.625 tsp 2.5 tsp	1.8 g.
Oil	1.5 tbsp
Water	1.125 cups	266 g.		67

Swedish Rye Bread – a BLBMC recipe (p. 136).

	Volume	Weight	@ 75%	B. %
White Flour	2 cups	278 g.	209 g.	65
Medium Dark Rye Flour	1.25 cups	150 g.	113 g.	35
TFW		428 g.		100
Fennel Seed	2 tsp		1.5 tsp
Dried Orange Peel	1.5 tsp		1 + 1/8 tsp
Salt @ 50%	.625 tsp 1.25 tsp	3.6 g.	2.7 g.
Gluten
Instant Yeast @ 50% salt *	1 tsp 2 tsp	1.4 g.	1.1 g.
Oil	1.5 tbsp		1 + 1/8 tbsp = 1 tbsp + 3/8 tsp
Honey	3 tbsp		2.25 tbsp = 2 tbsp + 3/4 tsp
Water	1.25 cups	295 g.	221 g.	69

Beth Hensperger wrote about baking for 15 years before writing cookbooks for specialty appliances in the Harvard Common Press‘s “Not Your Mother’s … ” series. Her baking books published by Chronicle Books, such as Bread (1988) capture the transition from home baking with the packets of Instant Dry Yeast, through the recovery of whole grain baking by whole earth hippies who became the original foodie artisans (the commercialization of the Counterculture). Her Bread Bible earned the 2000 James Beard Foundation award for a cookbook in the Baking & Dessert category.

The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (2000) (BLBMC) adapted hundreds of recipes for the bread machine. This involved a different approach to home baking to embrace technology and a more precise way of measuring. She tried to make it seem new and traditional at the same time. While Ms. Hensperger is clear about the importance of measurement of ingredients, she uses home cooking conventions in her recipes including measuring out ingredients by volume.

The section on using the machine to mix and knead dough for baking in an oven, and using artisanal baking methods is informative but a bread machine a labour saving tool, not a tool for artisinal baking.

I had a problem with BLBMC recipes in a Panasonic SD-YD250, which I solved.

The BLBMC implies that its recipes should work in any bread machine. It treated all bread machines (it listed 18 manufacturers in the market at the time) as equivalent, with a  warning to “Take Stock of Your Machine”. This oversells the capabilities of bread machines and undersells the complexities of adapting the knowledge of bakers for a consumer appliance:

• Baking involves doing something until a result it observed (the dough is mixed and supple; it has risen, or is ready to bench or bake);
• Some steps cannot be described to a novice without pictures and videos. A baker with some experience might know how a “shaggy” dough (whole wheat dough that has been mixed to the point that the ingredient including water have been blended and the flour has absorbed the water and can be kneaded to develop gluten and left to rise may be described as shaggy) differs from a dry dough that needs more water;
• Machines work 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 not all the same; some machines work with some doughs, and not others;
• The book did not anticipate technological and market changes including the developments in growing and preserving instant dry yeast and changes in machine mixing.

BLBMC recipes have ingredient lists for “medium” 1.5 lb. and “large” 2 lb. loaves. A medium loaf usually uses 3 cups of flour – white, whole wheat and multigrain. The BLBMC recipes are consistent with other bread machine recipes and with conventional oven recipes. There are outliers; e.g. the recipe for a “medium” loaf of 100% whole wheat bread on p. 124 is 4 cups of flour with 1.5 cups fluid.  That is a 2 lb. loaf. “Tecate Ranch Whole Wheat” at p. 126 is a more workable 100% whole wheat loaf.

Like other bread and bread machine recipe books for the American market, the BLBMC says bread flour should be the white flour in bread recipes.   Ms. Hensperger describes bread flour as having 12.7 % protein. White bread flour in the USA has 11.5-13.5 % gluten-producing protein. All purpose white flour in the USA has 9.5-11.5 %.  Canadian all purpose flour is milled from hard red wheat, and has the same protein content as USA bread flour (Canadian Millers’ technical standards are not necessarily reflected in retail packaging). Canadian all purpose is fine for bread.

Ms. Hensperger favours the use of vital wheat gluten (gluten flour; added gluten) in formulas for many breads baked in the machine.  She suggested added gluten in almost every formula for bread baked in the machine up to 1 tsp of added gluten per cup, less gluten for bread flour. Added gluten changes the balance of the loaf and the performance of the dough (flow and rise); the effect may be different according to the machine. Adding gluten doesn’t improve white flour breads made with high gluten bread (Canadian AP flour. It doesn’t seem to help if the machine has well planned whole wheat cycle for whole grain breads.

Ms. Hensperger described the varieties of dry yeast as: 1. active dry yeast; 2. fast acting or instant dried yeast; 3. quick-rise (rapid-rise) yeast; 4. bread machine yeast.  There are few functional differences between 2, 3 and 4. Instant yeast, under any of its names, is the choice for bread machines.  Ms Hensperger prefers SAF instant yeast to the point that she says it is more potent. She suggests two alternatives for each recipe:

1. SAF instant dried yeast (SAF Red),
2. 25% – 33% more bread machine yeast than SAF instant dry yeast.  For instance, for Dakota Bread, BLBMC says 2 tsp SAF or 2.5 tsp bread machine*.

SAF makes a good product but its superiority may be debated. (*Ms. Hensperger has moved away from this  approach. In a version of the recipe for Dakota Bread in 2015 on her blog she said 2 tsp “bread machine yeast”).

The range of views about  the amount of yeast:

1. For a 1.5 lb. loaf, Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook calls for 2 tsp instant dry yeast  or more and 1-1.5 tsp. salt for 3 cups of flour. This  is in the range of recipes in other books at the time, and of many recipes published on the web. It is .67 tsp instant dry yeast, or more, per cup of flour. This is 1.9 g. yeast per about 140 g. of wheat flour; the B% is 1.4%;
2. Manufacturers of instant, rapid/quick rise and bread machine yeasts recommend .5 tsp yeast for each cup of flour for bread machines: Red Star Quick-Rise; Bakipan Fast Action and Bread Machine; SAF Gourmet Perfect Rise and  Bread Machine. Fleishmann’s  recipes on its web pages imply the same amounts of its instant Quick-Rise (Rapid-Rise) or its Bread Machine product, or more. This is 1.4 g. yeast per about 140 g. of wheat flour; the B% is 1%;
3. Panasonic suggests .33 tsp of dry yeast per cup of flour.

Ms. Hensperger covers conversion from volume to weight for flour but not for yeast and salt.

Several online converters report: 1 cup, (48 tsp (US)) instant dry yeast = 136 grams; 1 tsp = 2.8 g. My average for 15 samples of 1 tsp of SAF Red was 2.8 g. It was worth testing.  It possible to test because instant yeast has a sandy texture and doesn’t pack down like flour;

Salt can be measured by volume with measuring spoons, but should be used carefully with level measurements. It is better to go by weight. The conversion rate is 1 teaspoon of table salt to 5.7 grams – the teaspoon that the recipe writer will have assumed.  Table salt is not all the same – some is pretty finely ground and more dense.

It is a uniquely useful book. It has worthwhile sections on bread machine operation and (pp. 38-39) on common failures. It has sections, sidebars, and detail sections on bread making and bread machine topics. The table of contents and the index don’t locate all of them.

• p. 12 flour, and
  • pp. 46-47 white flour from wheat,
  • pp. 62-63 whole wheat and non-wheat grain flour,
  • p. 125 proteins in flour,
  • pp. 106-107 whole wheat flour,
  • pp. 133-135 rye flour.
  • p. 140 diy milling of whole grain flour,
  • pp. 150-152 non-wheat specialty flour,
  • p. 193 organic flour
• pp. 13-14 yeast;
• p. 13, p. 59 vital wheat gluten;
• p. 15, p. 290 Salt
  • is not used as a seasoning or flavour agent;
  • should not be exposed to the water and the yeast before the machine mixes the ingredients;
  • can be reduced if yeast is reduced by the same proportion.
• p. 15 ingredient measurement;
• p. 18 converting volume to weight for flour and sugar;
• pp. 69-72 6 “sampler” recipes for one pound loaves;
• p. 76 eggs;
• p. 168 dough enhancers;
• pp. 170, 172 gluten free ingredients;
• pp. 182-183 baking with whole grains, and preparing whole grain;
• pp. 197-198 using the machine to mix and knead dough for baking in an oven, and using artisanal baking methods:
  
  • starters and pre-ferments,
  • shaping loaves
  • baking stones, tiles and ceramic containers (and cloches);
• p. 233 olive oil;
• p. 354 the shapes of bread machine pans.