Cream cheese loaf

The 1st bread I baked using my newly-acquired breadmaker was a cream cheese loaf. I wanted a fresh loaf of bread that the family can consume early in the morning, so I set the machine on a delayed-time mode. However, the sight that greeted me the next morning was a shock. The bread had collapsed after baked and it was such an ugly sight! I tried to problemshoot to find out what went wrong and came to a conclusion that maybe it's the delayed mode that caused it. After that attempt using the breadmaker, I did not have the time to try it out again till today.

I decided to try the cream cheese loaf again, but this time, using the basic mode. I was home the whole afternoon, which left enuf time for the machine to do its thing. I was worried that history would repeat itself, as a collapsed bread could mean many things, such as too much yeast activity, too much liquid or even the flour! So I ended up peeping into the machine thru'out the whole process.... so I could immediately spot what had gone wrong if the bread should collapse again.

After a goood 3 hours, the bread was finally ready. This time it did not collapse as badly as the previous try, only a slight indentation on the top. When I did a cross section of the bread, it did rise, with pretty large holes too. So, MAYBE it's really the delayed mode that contributed to the collapse.

Anyway.... here's how the bread looks. After 2 tries wif the bread machine, I can say that I'm really not impressed by it. I'm even contemplating selling the machine away... will see how it goes.

A very close-up shot of the bread.