As of about a month ago my standby French bread has been so so at best. My recipe called for 4 cups bread flour which made it a 2 lb loaf and it would rise almost touching the viewing window on my machine. All at once I'm getting a loaf that is 3 1/2" high at best. You can see where it was higher at one time and had fallen some. I changed my yeast and made sure all my other ingredients are fresh but it's always the same now. I don't just stand over my machine but it does start and go through the kneading process at first so I'm wondering if it might be missing a kneading process or punch down later in the cycle after a rise. This is frustrating with these squatty little loafs. Any suggestions anyone.

During the kneading cycle, try watching the dough and add flour or water until you get a proper dough ball. The usual failures I've seen are from too little or too much water or flour so the bread doesn't have the right consistency when it finally bakes. It rises, but then collapses. This can change daily with the humidity so you can't rely on the recipe amounts being sufficient.

Yeast is another culprit, but you said you checked the freshness.

I checked to be sure my machine went through all of its cycles and it did. I reduced the flour a touch, increased the yeast a little and heated the water more and it got better. It's still not the tall loaf it used to be though. Thanks for the tips CanMan.

Have you changed your flour at all? I have a bread machine and I do find that the different types of flour that i use can have a dramatic influence on the way my bread comes. Use one type and you get a dense low-riser (cheap supermarket flour), use a different type and I get a much better light high-riser (more expensive branded flour). Freshness of the yeast has big part to play as well!

Never changed the brand. Allways Pillbury bread flour.