Admittedly, I'm a bit of a bread machine noob, but I want to be better! I have this same bread machine (the Virtuose), and I'm having success less than half the time. I'm often getting a loaf that is too hard and too thick, even though I'm using the exact recipe and ingredients that came in the bread machine manual. I notice that after the final kneading cycle, my dough blob looks like a disaster. It seems to be full of smaller, mixed (maybe) but individual balls of dough. I'm using store bought bread flour, Fleishman's bread machine yeast, and other not-old ingredients. I've double checked the paddles to make sure they are locked all the way in as well. Any thought to what I could be doing wrong? I want this to work for so many reasons! :) TIA for everyone's help.

• Reply