Hi, I’m new to the forum but have been following the 8 week blood sugar diet for 4 weeks trying to help my husband control his diabetes. As he doesn’t really need to lose weight, I have been making the spelt and rye bread in my breadmaker. The bread rises beautifully but then collapses in a crater. I tried adding more salt as suggested in my breadmaker book but it hasn’t helped. Has anyone else had this problem and managed to solve it? We love the taste but only get 3/4 loaf.

I searched spelt and rye in the recipe section. I will post. Maybe it will help.

https://thebloodsugardiet.com/recipes/spelt-and-rye-bread-breadmaker/

p.s. Is your yeast working. I’ve heard sometimes it’s old and just doesn’t work great?? P.S. i don’t bake so i have no tips of my own.

Hi shalimar, thank you for the recipe. I will try that next time. My yeast is new and I think it is working too much as the bread rises beautifully and then collapses. In the bread maker instructions, it says to use less yeast or more salt, both of which I have tried, with the same result. (I have made 4 loaves so far). I am interested in the recipe you have posted as it doesn’t use any sugar. The recipe I use has a tbspn of honey. I will let you know how I get on. Thank you so much.

Good luck with the bread making!!!

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I can’t help with KadiePlod’s problem but I thought I’d post my experience of trying out the Seeded Spelt/Rye bread from the new recipe book. I don’t have a breadmaker so did it by hand. I decided to make a small loaf by halving the quantities (I’m on my own & also don’t have much space for freezing bread).

I think the end result was pretty good, nice flavour with a decent crust, and it was in the oven for approx. 30mins. I would advise being precise with your proportions – my measuring jug is not too precise and I think I had a bit too much liquid in my mix (the clues were the bowl being sticky, then when I kneaded the dough I spent more time scraping the dough off my mitts (I’m not an expert kneader!), and the finished loaf stuck to my tin so maybe I needed to use more oil on the tin….). Afterwards, when my brain had kicked into gear, I realised that if I had measured out 200ml of water and topped it up using one of those 10/15/20ml cups you get with liquid medicines I could have got it spot on.

The recipe says to prove the dough for a couple of hours in a plastic food bag but doesn’t say about leaving it in a warmish environment which I thought was essential to allow the yeast to work its magic. I’m lucky in that I have a warming drawer in my kitchen which is ideal but an airing cupboard could do the trick. Years ago when I lived in a flat with a sunny window I even left some dough to prove on the worktop in the sun.

Using half quantities worked fine for a 1lb loaf tin. I thought it worth mentioning because the recipe in the book doesn’t indicate size of loaf tin, only using the “large” setting on a bread machine. I think the quantities given in the book are for a 2lb tin.

Anyway, I like this bread so will try it again.

Thank you RozyDozy. We too love the flavour of this bread (which is why I’m trying to get the perfect loaf). I lost my airing cupboard when the new boiler we bought had to be installed outside and I really miss it! I’m going to try another loaf today. If this doesn’t work trying out some of the suggestions given, I will try your idea of halving the quantities for a 1 lb loaf, though I’ll still use the bread maker. I do use a 10/15/20 medicine measure to get the correct amount of water, and I have measuring spoons and a good pair of scales so I think I am getting the quantities right. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Hi KadiePlod,
Out of curiosity, I did a quick google and found this website:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/bread-machine-basics.html
It mentions the rising/collapsing that you talk about so maybe you can tweak something in your mix….
I guess there is variation between different brands/models of bread machine, too.
Anyway, I hope you crack it!
Rose

Hi KatiePlod. I had exactly the same problem with this recipe – good rise then total collapse.
I suspect that the reason is because the amount of water in the recipe seems very high. Looking at other bread machine recipes, the % hydration (100 x water/total flour) is typically 72%. The recipe in ‘the 8-week blood sugar diet recipe book’ has a hydration of 82.7%, which seems unusually high. (100 x 430 ml water / 520 g flour = 82.7%)
I have experimented with a hand-mixed dough at 55% hydration and this worked well. In bread-making terms this was a huge change in hydration – going to the other extreme – but was inspired by another spelt bread recipe and the fact that I was mixing by hand, which can be easier with a lower hydration.
I plan to try the recipe in the bread machine again, at 72%. The only change to recipe will be to use 375 ml of water rather than 430 ml. Directionally this should be better, and should not be so dry as to overload the motor in the bread machine. I will report back.

Hi Sgw

Thank you very much for your reply. Please let me know how you get on. I have tried all the other suggestions but without success. My next plan was to reduce the yeast but maybe I’ll try reducing the water instead.

Hi KadiePlod
I have just taken a new spelt and rye loaf, fresh from the machine – made with 375 ml water rather than 430 ml. It has a much better rise than my first attempt, but has a slightly dished top, indicating that the dough collapsed a little. I agree with your suggestion that there may be too much yeast (as well as too much water). After I have eaten this loaf, for my next attempt I will use 375 ml of water and 1 tsp of yeast.
I suspect that there may also be scope to reduce the water further: when i peeked in the machine mid-way through the program the dough was very wet and sticky. But first I’ll see what happens when I change the yeast – just make one change at a time.

Hi sjw

Thank you for your advice. I have just taken a loaf out and still have a dished top but it is better than the crater from the first attempts. I used 370 ml cold water (as suggested by my breadmaker instructions) and 1.5 teaspoons yeast. I am not sure where to go from here. I may try adding a little more salt but keeping the other ingredients the same as this time. Let me know how you get on. I’m sure there is a solution to this problem if only we could find it!

Hi Kadie, I think this is my recipe – sorry I didn’t see your post until now, I’ve not been logging in much lately.

I think the problem of caving in might be solved by tweaking the proving time – I find with different batches of flour I have different results, particularly with the rye element. A proving time of 20 minutes instead of my original 40 gives you a loaf that rises as it bakes, rather than rising before baking. Tweaking water and yeast down a bit might also help in addition to reducing proving time.

I also tried making small rolls with the dough, with no proving time at all – gave dense, but quite well risen, hot fresh rolls.