When my friend, Debbie, couldn’t get her Oster bread maker to work, I took it home to experiment with it. I had not ever used an Oster before, even though we sell them on our website, BreadMakersUSA.com, so I felt excited to see what I could do with it. First, I read the instruction manual, including the whole wheat bread recipes included therein. Debbie, who expressed a great interest in making whole wheat bread, had only been able to make loaves that were extremely heavy.

I carefully followed the recipe in the instruction manual and had the same dreary results Debbie had, but I had an advantage, because I watched the bread as it mixed, rose, & baked. I discovered that the bread rose too high before the bake cycle began; thus, the loaf fell as it baked, resulting in heavy bread. The next time I made bread, I only put in 1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast instead of the 2 teaspoons the recipe called for. This time the bread was a little better, but still rose too high and fell. The next time I put in only 1 teaspoon of yeast. That worked pretty well. Then I tried My Favorite Whole Wheat Bread Recipe, which is posted on this website, but I did not have any dough enhancer, so I replaced that with 2,000 mg. of Vitamin C. However, this recipe still calls for 2 teaspoons of yeast, and the bread rose too high and fell again. Ugh! Would I ever get it right? The next time I used Debbie’s bread maker, I left everything the same as the last time, but just put in 1 teaspoon of yeast. Yahoo! It was perfect! This became the birth of My Favorite Whole Wheat Bread Recipe II, which is also posted on this website. I’ve tried that particular recipe many times in her Oster bread maker, and I’ve used it in my Toastmaster and Sunbeam bread makers and had great success.

I was ready to return Debbie’s bread maker along with the recipe when she asked me to try spelt flour. So I used the same recipe, My Favorite Whole Wheat Recipe II, just substituting spelt flour. Voila! It worked!

Now I could return the bread maker and the recipes, which I did. The next time I saw Debbie, she thanked me for helping her “fix” her bread maker. She loves it now, because the recipe worked.

That is the key to having a great bread maker: Just keep adjusting recipes until they work. I have found that the bread makers are not at fault. It’s just the recipes. I’ve said this before, and I will keep repeating: Recipes often have to be altered according to where you live due to atltitude, humidity, & who knows what other differences in your particular area. So keep on trying!