"Harri85274" > wrote in message
...
> I used it for the first time with the timer function. The timeing was
right,
> but the results were a mess. I did as a test the simple white loaf test.
Among
> the ingredients were, yeast ( opened envelope in fridge still active ) the
ALBA
> milk powder, again that was an opened envelope also. I entered them in the
> proper sequence, liquid first,salt, sugar, flour and then yeast. This
morning
> hopeing to have fresh bread, we opened it up and never rised and some
loose
> flour still on top unmixed. Seems that there was not enough water, but I
gave
> it the recipe called for, 1 cup + 2tbsp. My only guess other than a
hardware
> problem is that the alba may not of been good? Don't know shelf life of
an
> opened bag. BTW, the flour was called for 3 1/4 cups of white unbleached.
Any
> ideas?

The higher the gluten, the more water required. Some AP flour from northern
mills, particularly Canada, are higher in gluten than nation brand bread
flours. Therefore, it is really hard to give and exact measurement for
water unless you also know the gluten level. Furthermore, there can be
dramatic deviations in the amount of four per cup (by weight) depending on
your measurement technique. The most problematic issue here is that the
bread didn't rise. This is clearly an indication that the yeast was not
active. Even with too little water, you should have had some increase in
volume, but the bread would have been dense and dry. I don't think that the
milk powder had anything to do with your problem. You can make perfectly
good bread without milk. My guess is that your yeast was bad, you made a
measurement mistake, or that your bread maker malfunctioned.

You should be using "bread machine yeast" which is instant active dry yeast.
You can test it by mixing a teaspoon with a pinch of sugar and about a half
cup of warm water. In 15 minutes you should see significant activity. Most
recipes assume that you will aerate the flour, spoon it into the cup, and
sweep the cup with the back of a knife.