Well, yesterday was a very stressful day, one thing after another. It took all my fortitude to remember that everything would be alright, and I would get through. I just tried to remember to take on one challenge at a time, do one thing after another, and that everything would be alright, because everything is ALWAYS alright.
And so I stayed focused, tried not to castrpophize, and just "get through it". And low and behold I did get through it, everything worked out, not exactly how I would have liked or wanted, but it was "alright", because it always works out alright!
And so it was tired after a long and trying day that I started on the Banana Sandwich Bread. The description says that it is a sweet bread, best torn like French Bread, and it says it is best eaten the day it is made.
So I put the following into the bread machine pan:
Banana Sandwich Loaf
1 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon Oil
1 Ripe 6-ounce Banana
3 cups bread flour
1/4 dry buttermilk power
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoon Bread Machine yeast.
The bread dough looked fine, and smelled wonderful. The baking smelled great, but when the final buzzer rang and I went to remove the bread I found that it had fallen in on itself, it collapsed, another fail! I had made a "Crater Loaf"! My first!
I did some research and found that there are several reasons that this could have happened. Basically though it says that there was too much liquid in the recipe for the amount of leavening. The ever knowing web says that the recipe needed more flour. Well I doubt that was the reason, this recipe is very similar to all the others I made successfully, so I looked onward.
Another cause could be too much sugar in the bread. This is possible, I used a very ripe banana, maybe it just had too much sugar in it, that is possible.
Another cause is forgetting the salt. Well now that is another possibility. I was stressed, I was tired, I could have forgotten to add the salt. Who knew how important salt was to a bread recipe, I certainly didn't. Salt, lack of salt could cause a Crater Loaf. Now I know!
Another cause is that the loaf needed more gluten, another possibility, but I know I added the gluten, more likely that I forgot the salt!
So tomorrow I am going to try and Make Maple Bread, and then come back to the Banana Bread once the bananas I bought ripen more!