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Looks like this one might be a long one since I received 35 replies. First
off a big "Thank You" to everyone that replied to my request for help with
the GF bread. I want to clear up one error I made in the post about the oven
temperature. I had stated the recipe called for an oven temperature of 475
degrees and that was what I was baking it at. The recipe called for 375
degrees and that is the temperature I was baking at. I didn't have the
recipe handy when compiling the email and the error was just a typo on my
part. Some also wanted to know about elevation and humidity where I live. I
live in south-central Illinois so I don't think elevation would have any
factor from my location. The humidity is, as always in the summer, very high
and especially so this year however I have had the air conditioner running
every time I have baked the bread so I don't think the humidity would factor
in either. In case you've forgotten my original question since it's been
awhile since I posted it here is the original post that I made:

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I am doing better with making the GF bread since I ditched the cheap
breadmaker and I'm now baking it in the oven. I'm still using the Bob's Red
Mill Wonderful Bread Mix. The bread is pretty good but I'm still having a
couple of problems I hope some of you can enlighten me as to what I'm doing
wrong. I make sure that everything is at room temperature. The milk I heat
to 110 degrees and I make sure it gets no warmer than that. Once I mix it
all up with the table top mixer I put it into the 9 x 5 bread pan and smooth
it out and cover it with foil and let it rise for 25 to 30 minutes. All of
this is per the instructions on the bread mix package. After it rises I bake
on 475 degrees for 10 minutes uncovered and then cover it with aluminum foil
that is oiled to keep it from sticking to the bread for the rest of the
baking process. Total baking time is 60 - 65 minutes. Again this is what the
instructions say to do. The problem is that 1) The crust of the bread is too
brown...almost burnt in places. 2) The bread rises fine but once I take it
out of the oven it starts collapsing immedietly. I've tried taking it out of
the pan first thing and letting cool on a wire rack and I've tried letting
it cool in the bread pan but either way it starts to collapse as soon as it
is removed from the oven.
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I will copy and paste the replies at the bottom of this email as some asked
me to do this because they were having the same problems. The responses were
varied but the majority seemed to think it needed less liquid. Then I
proceeded to ignore the good advice of most and made it wetter next time. A
couple of the replies made a mention that it should be the consistency of
cake batter and for some reason I pictured cake batter as being a lot wetter
then my dough had previously been...soooo thats why I tried it wetter. Also
I took the temperatur down to 350 degrees. Trust me, it was a bad decision.
Ate a weeks worth of gooey bread on the inside and dark and crunchy on the
outside but hey, it was gluten free. The next loaf I decided to go a little
dryer and back up to 375 degrees. Also had some family advice to let it rise
once and then push it back down with my hands and then let it rise again. It
worked out a little better but still collapsed after removing it from the
oven but not as severe as before. Texture was a LOT better on this loaf.
Fast forward to today. This morning I was at Sears and looked at their
breadmaker. Certainly not a top of the line but I like the fact that the
breadpan was rectangular instead of square. It can make 1 lb., 1 1/2 lb, and
2 lb loafs and it is programable. Better than my other one was. It was
priced at $99.95 so I thought I would give it a shot. Brought it home and
went to work. I went back to the original directions on the Bob's Red Mill
bread mix and followed the directions of the breadmaker which was to put in
the liquid first, then the dry and last the yeast. It said not to mix
anything before putting it in the breadmaker so I did not mix all the
liquids together before putting them in the bread machine. I put in the egg,
egg whites, vegetable oil,. milk, and cider vinegar then poured the mix in.
Made a small trough in the middle of the dry mix and added the yeast, closed
the lid and turned it on. Set it for 1 1/2 lb loaf with light crust. I did
NOT opt for the rapid bread which makes it in under 1 hour. It's 3 hours and
7 minutes start to finish  for the basic white bread with light crust. The
bread turned out PERFECT!!! Golden color. Did NOT collapse at all. Here is a
picture of it right out of the oven:

http://members.accessus.net\~joec\bread.jpg

The biggest difference I can see from my original $39 Sunbeam breadmaker
from Walmart and this Sears Kenmore breadmaker is that the Sunbeam only had
2 Knead cycles and 2 Rise cycles and the Kenmore has 4 Knead cycles and 3
Rise cycles. I think that is the difference maker. The extra Knead and Rise
cycles must help it is all that I can figure. Or I suppose it could be just
dumb luck. :)  Anyway I'm happy with the results. Thanks to everyone. See
"Summary: Need more bread advice (Part #2)" for the replies to my original
email.

Joe

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