by Andere Richtingen » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:08 pm
There are several possibilities, Laurie.
Let's eliminate the blindingly obvious: are you certain your hand didn't slip and add an extra few ml of water? No possibility you mis read the scale on your measuring jug? Either is easy enough to do if you're in a rush or something distracts you.
Is your weather especially humid at present? This used to be a problem with my first ever breadmaker and, in muggy weather, I had to decrease the water by 5 to 10 no per loaf! However, this doesn't seem to be such an issue with more modern machines.
Have you changed to a different brand of flour? IME, they are definitely not all the same!
The wheat harvest may be at the root of this. Penny's had problems with hard crusts; I've had recent issues with very fragile and crumbly loaves. It may be that the poor harvests both here and in N. America have resulted in the millers getting supplies from different sources and this will have affected the quality of the flour and the bread it produces.
If you keep having the problem, for a wholemeal loaf, try lightening the mix by using 25% white flour to 75% wholemeal.
You can also add extra wheat gluten to lighten the loaf - one tablespoon gluten per 475G flour seems to work for me.
If you can't find gluten in the local shops, it's easily available on line via Amazon and others. I'm currently unable to remember the name of my most recent supplier but it was something like Mega Foods, in Bedfordshire and their prices were very reasonable ...
Good luck.