I like to make bread in our breadmaker.  Its been a hit at get togethers.  It's a simple recipe but I've had some varying results over the years.

My loaf previous to today was squat and dense.  I used all the same ingredients today and got my usual tall nice loaf. 

I made 2 changes. 

Last time I took the flour out of the pantry and used it while it was the temperature in the pantry.  The pantry is cooler than the rest of the house.  This time I put the flour in the microwave and warmed it.  I did this at 30% for a couple of minutes.

Second, last time I just made a small well in the flour and dumped in the yeast.  It was setting in dry flour.  This time, like most times I made the well a little deeper and water was in the well.  When I put the yeast in to the well it was in the warm 83º water. 

I let it set of a few minutes and started the machine.  As I said this time it came out fine.  I used the same flour out of the same sack, same sugar, same butter, same salt and same brand of yeast(it was the 3rd packet in a 3 packet).

I can only conclude that cold flour or yeast not mixed in the water caused the previous problems.  Maybe a combination.