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the flour, thus ensuring it does not come in contact with the added salt, sugar, water or milk. You
can verify the freshness of your yeast by submitting it to the following test: dissolve 1 teaspoonful of
sugar in half a cup of lukewarm water and subsequently add the yeast to this mixture. If the sub-
stance starts sparkling and boiling after a few minutes, you can be sure that you are using fresh yeast.
Approximately 5 to 10 minutes after your bread maker has been activated, you can equally test the
quality of the dough. The dough should look like a smooth and elastic round ball. Open the lid and
gently touch the top of the dough with your fingers. Be careful and make sure the kneading paddle
remains in action. If the dough somewhat sticks to your fingers, this implies the dough is going to
be fine. Should the dough however stick to the bread pan, then it is probably too moist. If the
dough does not stick to your fingers at all, the pastry you are making is too dry.
Salt brakes the effect of the yeast and sugar exactly does the opposite. If you are not allowed to use
either sugar or salt for dietary reasons, you must not add the other ingredient either. Your bread will
not contain sugar or salt.
If you want to start baking another bread straight away, you will first have to allow the bread maker
to cool down for 10 to 20 minutes.
Different types of bread will have different structures and sizes, due to the different nature of the
ingredients used. These differences are completely normal and need not to worry you.
For some recipes, you may need to adjust the quantities, i.e. the amount of yeast, flour or water.
Never adjust all these quantities at the same time, for it will not have any effect. Adjusting a quanti-
ty may be necessary because of the quality and specific gravity of the flour, differences in ambient
temperature or freshness of the ingredients. Home-made bread, made with this bread maker, does
not contain any preservatives and is therefore perishable. If you wrap the bread in a vacuum package
after cooling down, you will be able to keep it for a few days. Of course you can also freeze the
bread.
PROBLEMS WHICH MIGHT OCCUR
Several factors can cause your bread to fail. In the following list you will find a series of problems
and possible solutions.
The bread has caved in
If your bread looks caved in, this means the dough you made was too moist. Try adding a smaller
quantity of water. When you use preserved fruits or vegetables, please make sure they have been
soaked and thoroughly dried beforehand. You could also try using a lighter variety of flour. If your
bread caves in, this could also be the result of over-rising. The dough has risen to an extent it could
not cope with. In this case, try adding a little less yeast, 1 or 2 grammes.
The centre of the bread is not sufficiently baked
This may be due to the type of flour you used, often too heavy varieties such as rye flour or whole-
meal flour. Try to program an extra kneading process when using these types of flour. As soon as the
bread maker has terminated the first kneading process, you press stop. Next, you reprogram the
bread maker and press start: the appliance will start kneading again, a larger quantity of air has now
been absorbed by the dough. You could also try selecting the dark crust colour, because this slightly
increases the baking temperature.
The bread has risen too much
If your bread rises higher than it ought to, you have used too much yeast. Please check whether you
have used the right quantity and the right type of yeast. Too much sugar can overactivate the yeast.
Try reducing the dose of sugar and do not use too much dried fruits or honey, which equally con-
