I received my breadmaker Christmas 2009. I have always used the basic setting but decided to make wheat bread. The recipe calls for a different setting. After I plugged it in, nothing happened; for several minutes. It didn't start to mix the ingredients but the clock was counting down. My book with directions says nothing about there being a waiting period. I ended up using the basic setting. The bread came out "heavy". Should I have left it on the wheat setting?
Kitchen Appliances - Others - Toastmaster
Answers & Comments
Yes, many machines warm up a little when you choose the wheat setting, also if your manual shows the cycle times for the various programs you will probably notice a different Knead time (more) vs. the basic program and that is because whole wheat flour lacks enough gluten to make a nice, large, soft loaf, so to compensate it has a longer knead. Even with that though your whole wheat loaves are probably going to be shorter than a 100 whole wheat loaf.
Many bakers ( me included) add purchased wheat gluten and add that to the flour, (be sure to remove and equal amount of w. wheat flour from the recipe if you do this) to get a softer, higher, better texture loaf.