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6 Things to Do When Bread’s Not Rising in Your Bread Maker

6 Things to Do When Bread’s Not Rising in Your Bread Maker

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Spending time baking bread is something that a lot of people enjoy doing, and many have been baking it for fun while they have extra time at home. If you recently started down this path with a bread machine, you might just be figuring out how to use it well.

It can be a bit disheartening when your bread isn’t rising in the bread maker like it should, though. You could be confused about what is going wrong, and it might not always be clear what you should do.

Read on to learn about what you can do when this happens. You’ll learn why this might be happening as well as what you can do to try to alleviate the issue.

1 – You Might Not Have Given It Enough Time

Before moving any further, it’s important to acknowledge that bread takes quite a bit of time to rise. It’s very possible that you might not have given it enough time to do what it needs to do.

If you gave up early, this might have been easily avoidable if you’d exercised a bit more patience. It’s normal to think that something might be wrong when you’re new to the world of making bread, but giving it more time to rise might be just what you needed.

Try to give the bread that you are making the time that it needs to rise. It’s also true that different types of bread will take different amounts of time to rise, and this means that you’ll want to check information for the bread recipe that you are using.

If you’re able to get the bread to rise by just waiting it out, you won’t have to troubleshoot any further. If this isn’t the issue that you’re experiencing, there are still other things to consider.

2 – You Got the Ingredients Wrong

Ingredients For Making Bread

One of the more common mistakes that throw people off when making bread is making a small mistake with the ingredients. If you can’t get the bread to rise no matter what you do, it might be that you didn’t add all of the right ingredients.

Try to go over the recipe that you are using again and check to see if you used all of the ingredients that you were supposed to. If you did, then you will be able to go on to something else, but it’s plausible that you might have missed something.

Even measuring something wrong can make a big difference in how the bread will turn out. For example, you could have added a teaspoon of something instead of a tablespoon due to trying to go too fast.

In the future, it’ll be better to take things a bit slower when you’re getting the ingredients together. This will allow you to get things right, and you can even take the precaution of checking the recipe twice to ensure that you’re following it to the letter.

3 – You Didn’t Knead the Dough Well Enough

Kneading the dough is something that can help it to get into the right state so that it will rise. People who are new to making bread might assume that a bit of kneading will be enough, and they will wind up moving on too quickly.

If you only did a bit of kneading before trying to get the dough to rise, you likely made an error. You might wish to try kneading the dough more so that you can get better results.

Many recipes will give you information about how long you should knead the dough. If you don’t have that information, you might be able to get some specifics by looking up information on the type of bread that you’re trying to make.

4 – Old Yeast or Baking Powder

Baking Powder

Another thing that you need to consider is how old the yeast or baking powder that you’re using is. If you use yeast or baking powder that is too old, you might not get good results.

Did you buy the baking powder that you’re trying to use a very long time ago? Is your yeast from a date in the past that you can’t even recall at this point?

Avoid using old yeast and old baking powder when you want your bread to turn out how it should.

5 – Temperature Issues

Temperature issues can actually cause your bread not to rise either. This can involve temperature issues with the water that you’re using and the temperature of the room itself.

The water that you’re using for the bread should be between 100 degrees Fahrenheit and 115 degrees Fahrenheit. You don’t want the room to be too cold either, since that can have an impact on the bread.

Keep your room at a temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit while you’re waiting for the bread to rise. Many people keep their homes significantly cooler than this, and this could be the cause of your trouble.

6 – Pan Size Issues

Loaf Pan For Bread

Pan size issues can actually trick people into thinking that bread hasn’t risen when it has. If you put your bread dough in a pan that is too large or is an unusual shape, you might get thrown off.

Try to use the right type of pan for the bread recipe that you want to make. Many bread recipes are specifically meant for traditional bread loaf pans, and it’ll be easier to tell if things are going right if you use the recommended pan type.

Think about the type of pan that you’re using and see if that could be causing your problems. If you’re using an unusual pan, the dough could have risen without you realizing it.

Can You Do Anything with Dough That Won’t Rise?

If you can’t figure out what went wrong even after going through the information above, you might need to start over. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to throw out the dough that you made, though.

There are some things you can do with this dough that could be fun and tasty. Many people will roll the dough out until it’s very thin before baking it so that they can make crackers.

You could also roll it out thin before cooking it on the stove to turn it into a type of flatbread. You can salvage the dough to make something tasty even if you can’t figure out what mistake you made.

In all likelihood, you’ll be able to determine where you went wrong so that you can correct things. Often, just waiting a while longer or figuring out what ingredient you missed is all that you need to do.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to make the delicious bread that you have been looking forward to. It’ll give you a chance to enjoy something nice with your friends or family members, and you’ll be happy once you’re able to get consistent results.

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Bonnie

Thursday 14th of April 2022

I make my bread in the bread machine just mix the dough and let it rise and then take it out and put it in a bread pan and let it rise again. but the wheat bread will not rise up my white bread does just fine. what can I do to make the wheat bread rise more. Thank you Bonnie

Sarah | Baking Kneads

Tuesday 17th of May 2022

Hi Bonnie!

As a general rule, wheat bread is not going to rise as much as white bread. Whole wheat flour has less wheat gluten than white flour, so there is less gluten to help structure the bread, resulting in a denser crumb. If you're looking for ways around this, you could possibly sub some white flour for a portion of your wheat flour (1-to-1 ratio), or you could add a little vital wheat gluten to the mix (a tablespoon per 2-3 cups of wheat flour). Hope this helps!