I have not tried muffins yet I cheat and buy them I tell ya a bomb was close you know me far to well monday night at 5pm I had visions of making my great escape I was bricking a load of itanyway . I do how ever use salt in all my cooking (did you like the change)and they turn out ok cakes yorkshires ect even my pancakes are good have fun at the monster truck and take ear plugs they are loud and I mean LOUD

I am a Yorkshire woman who has never been able to make decent Yorkshire puds even when I lived in the UK!

As far as the breadmaking goes, you really need to use proper bread flour (strong flour) for it - I make bread nearly every day and never have a problem. All purpose flour can work, but it won't give such good results as bread flour does because it has less gluten in it. FWISW I use a 2:1 mix of wholemeal flour and white bread flour.

All purpose flour is not SR flour - it is more like plain flour in the UK. If you want SR flour for a recipe, you need to use the all-purpose flour and add baking powder (NOT baking soda, that is bicarbonate of soda a totally different product).

First thing I'd try with your recipe is reduce the milk powder by half (it makes bread heavier and isn't a necessary ingredient at all, for flavour, in my opinion.) Then I'd look at whether your "warm" water is too warm, as if it is, it can kill off the yeast prematurely. Seems like an awful lot of yeast (isn't that equal to 3 tsps?) but I guess it's in some way to compensate for how little sugar you're using. Is it necessary to use so little because of your son's special dietry requirements? If not, try upping it to 1 tbsp (or even 1 and a bit.)

Hope this helps!
Alex

I've heard that said before but I think if you have a good bread machine and recipe then that's not necessarily true. We only use ordinary Robin Hood flour now, having tried their bread flour range and seeing no difference in the end result at all, but paying more. Maybe it's more applicable to the budget machines?

The trick to good smooth well risen bread is making sure your yeast is viable
Take your yeast of choice and get it started
I’d recommend placing your yeast in warm water, that’s water that is warm to the touch not hot, Id go with pleasantly warm to the hand on a cold day but not warm as in bath water and add in a little sugar to the yeast so it has something to feed on, when the yeast has started to produce a small head of bubbles then the mixture is ready to add to your flour

You may find that you’ll need to use a little less yeast than normal
Trial and error and some adjustment in the salt may be needed to bring your recipe into balance, as the yeast needs both the starch in bread flour as well as the minerals in the salt to feed getting it going in water means that once its mixed with the flour the yeast is fully hydrated and fully active and will start to grow straight way

I make mine by hand every other day and have no problems. 700g flour multigrain, 25g marg, 10ml salt 10ml sugar. Dried yeast 20ml in a mixture of 400ml water (hot) and 200ml milk and 5ml sugar. If I may say so myself makes great bread. Reminds me just making some and need to check on 2nd rise

Do you not use a bit of baking soda when baking muffins with Canadian flour? Every muffin recipe I have in Canada requires not only baking soda, but also salt. It's not about flavour, it's about chemistry. I've never had a problem with my baked goods not rising.

Here's a Canadian blueberry muffin recipe: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/b...ry_muffins.php

Edit: I just looked up the difference between SR flour and All Purpose flour. The difference is that self raising flour is all purpose flour with salt and baking soda already added. That likely explains why you're not getting anything to rise!

How to make Self Raising flour from All Purpose flour: http://southernfood.about.com/cs/bre...rise_flour.htm

Temperatures for yeast

To get the yeast vigorous and growing you want it at about 26 deg C this is the optimum temperature for yeast growth (this is your warm water prior to mixing)

The to optimise fermentation (production of gas) the best working temperature for the yeast is 35 deg C (the ideal temperature for the dough to rise)

http://www.theartisan.net/dough_ferm...emperature.htm

Robin hood self raising for cakes etc. Dont use SR for bread you need plain.

Once more ignore my ignorance, what is SR flour?

Are you not doing a simply sour dough for the bread and the yeast takes care of the rising for you?
Kinda like this http://busycooks.about.com/od/yeastb...ysourdough.htm

?

I've not tried bread.

BUT I have had success with Yorkshire puddings. An extra egg, less flour and less milk and set the oven to 375 and BINGO nice fluffy light Yorkshire puds

As for other baking, I read on the 'net that for higher altitudes you need to set the oven at a lower temperature. I also do this when Duncan or Betty help me out and the success are such that soon very soon I will be trying my old UK recipes in the kitchen. My friend has said for a Victoria Sponge the ONLY way to make it work here is to do it properly step by step, no shortcuts.

My work colleague who moved from Ontario was complaining her bread no longer turns out well now she is in Red Deer so we wondered if bread machines here in Alberta were configured differently to Onatario ones.

This is the best yorkie pudd recipe, works every time
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/514323

The thread is really two questions
1. is why is bread not rising
2. is why are my muffins going flat as i can only get all purpose flour

ok sorted now, will try the other receipe for bread and see if that works.
i cant buy the pre-mix as it has soooo much sugar in it that it spike my sons bloods, so for him to enjoy stuff like other people i have to adapt the normal receipes to lower the sugar intake, easier to do in the uk as i knew my stuff.

the last 24hrs i have learnt so much, including my sons condition, they advised me that he would grow out of this in the uk, but here i am being advised that this is not the case, he will either grow with it or he may get full blown diabetis has he grows up, that case studys advise this.
so anything that i can do to help him and hopefully keep his bloody stable the better for him.

i didn't know that SR flour had the salt in, woo learnt something there, as i have made my own baby food i have always done low salt or no salt, so thats my learning for today

My all purpose flour comes from the guys who produce it for safeway etc as that company is the one that pays my hubbys wages and i kind of get loads as i do my own stuff, but i have gone out and bought the robin hood bread flour haha as i know its better

thanks for all your tips, i will try again, the bread machine that i use is 2lb cuisinart one

We cant get beef dripping here :curse:
and we cant get suet either

SR flour would be plain/allpurpose flour with added baking powder to make stuff rise.

If you are trying to bake cakes/muffins etc with all purpose flour and no baking powder it is no suprise that they come out heavy and like house-bricks - there is nothing in the mix to provide the "oomph" that they need to rise.

I make all my bread "long-hand" without a bread machine (I don't like the way bread tastes done in a machine - it just doesn't taste the same and is an odd shape for slicing for sarnies too). I just use bread flour (2:1 mix of wholemeal/white bread flour, salt, yeast and water with a glug of olive oil (because it helps stop it crumbling) - no sugar, no milk powder. Takes around 5 mins or so to do the intial mixing in my Kitchenaid, then I leave it for a couple of hours, shape and put in the bread tins, leave for 30 mins or so to rise while the oven heats up and bake for around 30 or so mins..... most of the time it takes is "downtime" while I am doing other things.

I have a "no-fail" bread recipe that I can post if anyone is interested - doesn't use a machine at all and is pretty much guaranteed to work (even my non-baking friend managed to produce a decent loaf of bread)