In Search of the Perfect Loaf #3

My adventures with bread making continue. After a brief hiatus, I attempted another loaf today. After a quick Google search revealed nothing immediately promising, I decided to improvise based on my last few attempts. I've been reading up on bread making and all in all - basic bread should consist of 4 ingredients - Flour (is the body of the loaf), Water (to dissolve all the ingredients; both too much and too little water prevent adequate rise in the loaf), Yeast (which helps the dough rise) and Salt (which helps retard the yeast and tempers the fermentation process). As the old fairy tale goes ... salt is essential also for our taste buds ... it adds flavor. Some folks would say that bread making also requires Sugar - to help feed the yeast, which is basically a microorganism that uses starches (and sugars) to grow and multiply. During this process, any simple sugars are converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide is released which bubbles through the dough and causes it to rise. During the baking process all the alcohol evaporates .. so you don't need to be worried about serving alcohol to your kids in the form of bread. So today, I tried a rather simple recipe, with only these basic ingredients and some Chia seeds for added fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.

Prep Time: 10 + ~3.5 hours in a bread machine

Ingredients: (8 servings/slices):

1. 1.5 cups Water
2. 1/4 cup Apple Sauce 
3. 3 tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
4. 1 tbsp Chia Seeds
5. 2 cups All-purpose White Flour
6. 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
7. 1 tsp Salt
8. 2.5 tsp Active Dry Yeast 

So I placed all ingredients in the order they are listed into the baking pan of my bread machine. Started the machine for Basic White bread. Set it to a medium dark crust. I peeked in a couple of times as the dough was mixing and it looked pretty wet. I thought that would not be a huge issue and it would be okay once it rose. the dough rose really well and then .... poof!! It fell in on itself!!! BIG FAIL!!! The loaf that came out was so bad, its not even worth a picture!!!  Oh well ... I learnt something from this failed attempt. .... and I will try again tomorrow!! :)