<< Back to Baking Hints index

The most common problem

The biggest single problem encountered by Laucke is the simple and mostly incorrect assumption by home bread makers that faulty yeast is causing their lack of loaf volume.

In 99% of all instances this problem of lack of loaf volume is actually due to lack of water.

Even if home bread makers follow our recipe, due to variables such as Premix moisture loss during storage, extra water may need to be added to get the best results.

To adjust to this variation and get the best results, all home bread makers must be prepared to adjust the amount of water in their doughs by following our Instructions as provided with each pack of Premix.

Insufficient water causes the dough to be less flexible, and thus an efficient kneading action is impeded. Without effective kneading, proper gluten “development“ is not possible, and the gluten will not effectively retain gas. Therefore the gas provided by available yeast will be unable to build sufficient gas pressure to properly inflate this 'dry' and 'tight' dough.

Also, dry yeast absorbs 3 times it's weight in water. If additional yeast is used without extra water, the yeast will soak up further water from an already 'tight' dough, and defeat the intended purpose of providing more leavening gas, because even more gas pressure is then required.

Bread machines, almost without exception, require a very soft and sticky dough to operate effectively. This means that considerably more water must be added than would be possible under normal “hand made“ conditions. Because such a sticky dough is outside the experience of the vast majority of most experienced home bread makers, many people tend to happily allow a dough that is too dry and 'tight'; hence our directions of “please, first follow our recipe“.

If additional water to the point of having obviously far too much water does not fix the problem, only then will we suggest that a lack of effective yeast may in fact be the cause.

Symptoms of too much water are described in our Instructions as provided with each pack of Premix, other than the 600 g pack.

In the test bakery we have deliberately added up to 100 ml more water than stated on our recipe and still obtained an acceptable loaf of bread.

The customer statements of “our bread is too doughy due to too much water“ and “the bread has the internal texture of a crumpet“ are often reflective of a situation where too little water has been used. This has caused a small, dense loaf that will not bake out properly.