Bread improver?

Ok, hubs bought a bread maker, the anthony warrall thompson one, which is cool, because I missed having a breadmaker. However, in the states I never had to use bread improver, just yeast. Nearly all the recipes in the booklet call for bread improver. What is this stuff? Can I omit it? Just use other recipes that don't call for it?

I have the same one and I couldn't find the bread improver anywhere so I just didn't use it..The bread turns out great!

http://www.kitchencollection.com.au/home_faqs.htm#4

Bread improver is a baking product, which will help improve the texture and the volume of bread. It is often used when making bread from scratch ie: when not using a bread mix.

If the centre of your loaf is collapsing, it is more than likely that a bread improver may need to be added.

Bread improver has a flour like texture and contains ingredients such as ascorbic acid, soy flour and en2ymes (amylase). It can be purchased from selected supermarkets or Health Food stores. Follow manufacturer's instructions on the quantity to be used.

Aha! That's the source. I'm allergic to soy, and almost all the bread in our supermarkets list soy flour. Which has been very frustrating, there is very little bread here I can eat. I inquired at the local baker who said they did not use soy - just bread improver. But it still made me a bit sick, so I bet it really was soy after all.

I used to use bread improver (Gluten with VitC) added in quite a few whole wheat based bread recipes in the USA. 

Here in the UK just use strong to very strong bread flour and the recipes work out the same.  Though a whilte bread recipe using very strong Flour will sometimes cause very happy yeast and overspill so I would not use it for slower or second rise traditional breads like French or as a starter dough.

If making a 100% whole wheat loaf you will need to buy strong wholemeal flour or will wind up with a very dense loaf. 

You can also allow for extra rising time if making it outside a bread machine environment.

You can also make a starter like an Italian biga which keeps up to two weeks in the fridge and makes a better and better loaf each time.  Nice crunchy crust.

Also no soy involved! :-)