No Animals Were Harmed in the Baking of this Bread!

This was the sight that greeted me when I lifted the lid on the bread maker this morning. I decided to try baking a gluten free loaf in the bread maker again. I have tried once before and ended up with a brick of wallpaper paste but felt this time might be better. The smells coming from the machine were promising but it seems smell can be deceptive. My bread ingredients seemed to have vanished and been replaced with something resembling half a squashed hedgehog…??

It had not mixed properly as there were shards of burnt crust flicked up the sides of the bowl and odd spikes and pools of different coloured flours. The bread/thing was all squished into one corner as if it too was ashamed to call itself a loaf. That hole in the bottom was meant to be the middle of the loaf – where the paddle goes. The site was so funny I couldn’t help but laugh.

Oddly enough, if you cut straight into the middle the bread inside is not all that bad. It had a good flavour, slightly sour somehow and very moist, although rather dense and a little squeaky around the crust (maybe it’s a hedgehog that ate a mouse?)

The crust had quite an appealing dark chocolaty brown colour (once you get passed the squashed hedgehog appearance) and the inside was a duller greyer brown hue. I liked the overall flavour, so I will try the bread again, only this time I think I’ll trust my own hands and forget the bread maker!!! What happened – any ideas?? I used the gluten free setting on the machine and put the ingredients in the right order. Anyone else got odd results from a bread maker?