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Bread machine recipes?

1 lurker | 8 watchers

Dvorak Jun 2021 2:14pm, 6 Jun 2021 22,579 posts	Quote Pin Dvorak (Whilst checking for a link, I came across some examples of speculative pricing on Amazon: who on earth would pay 5x for a bread mix?? Must be some idiots - I suppose you might manage a nice small business flagrantly overcharging amazon.co.uk )
larkim Jun 2021 2:55pm, 6 Jun 2021 14,678 posts	Quote Pin larkim Whilst you definitely don't need to have a breadmaker to make bread, if you can show me a hand-baking method that works whilst I'm asleep or while I'm not in the house I'd be delighted to hear it! They have their place and with a bit of tweaking and experimenting produce perfectly tasty bread without me needing to go out to the shops and with a little more control over what goes into them. The shapes / sizes that come out aren't as good as I'd like, and the blade hole in the bottom is a bit annoying some times, but they are quite nice gadgets to have around the house and ours gets used more than 2x a week to supplement the shop bought bread for the mountain of packed lunches that a busy household of working parents and school aged kids gets through!
faithfulred Jun 2021 5:09pm, 6 Jun 2021 704 posts	Quote Pin faithfulred You're right that a bread maker does make acceptable bread - but hand baking tastes better (and I do have a bread maker at home). Plus, I don't get why you need all these weird ingredients for a bread maker - for bread you need flour, water, yeast and salt, and that's it - what's all the extra stuff for? And it really isn't that difficult to make. It's 20-30 minutes effort, then rest for an hour, then 15 minutes shaping, then prove for an hour or so, then stick it in the oven. It's a lot less effort than making a dish from scratch in many cases. Plus, I get lots of brownie points from the kids for making home-made pizza (which I'm about to go and do now 🙂)
Muttley Jun 2021 6:33pm, 6 Jun 2021 1,138 posts	Quote Pin Muttley I have nearly finished the current housebrick (it's not really a brick, just a bit denser than I would like). I shall try the recipes, thank you! They're both a bit bigger than ideal for a one-person household but I guess I can freeze half a loaf.
Mushroom Jun 2021 8:04pm, 6 Jun 2021 1,671 posts	Quote Pin Mushroom We inherited one and we use it 2 or 3 times a week. The wholemeal only loaves can be dense. Like others have said, we find that mixing with some white flour helps it to rise better and be less heavy going. Mind, even the denser ones are good for toast.! For us, the major benefit of the breadmaker is using the time delay setting. We can set it to start 3 hours before we get up in the morning and have fresh bread for breakfast.
larkim Jun 2021 10:13pm, 6 Jun 2021 14,684 posts	Quote Pin larkim My wife loves baking food for the family, but it's the 3+ hour commitment of making by hand that just doesn't fit in when you're working full time and got kids around. It would be hard for me as I'm a klutz when it comes to baking, but my better half is a fine baker, but she just prefers to spend baking time on cakes and puddings, whereas bread isn't her thing so much. I've asked the same question though about why the other ingredients; I suspect the answer is that you can include them in a handmade loaf too, or omit them from the breadmaker receipe, and see what works. Presumably different textures, crust etc.
BanjoBax Jun 2021 11:23pm, 6 Jun 2021 5,169 posts	Quote Pin BanjoBax I researched the dried milk - can be left out, including it gives a softer more shop bought texture to the crumb allegedly (the opposite of what I want anyway). Can also substitute dried with ordinary milk if you want that but don't have dried milk - need to reduce water by amount of milk added if you substitute
Oranj Jun 2021 11:06am, 9 Jun 2021 2,682 posts	Quote Pin Oranj Thanks for that tip BanjoBax. I've just tried it and like the texture without it. I often wondered why it was included.
geordiegirl Jun 2021 2:59pm, 9 Jun 2021 14,862 posts	Quote Pin geordiegirl I was chatting to the pizza guys at a friends party on Saturday. We were talking pizza dough. They recommended a book - Flour Water Yeast Salt (may not be in that order) they said its a fantastic book for all doughs.
Muttley Jun 2021 1:02pm, 10 Jun 2021 1,148 posts	Quote Pin Muttley A successful result this morning, even after I forgot to sieve the flour. 450g of flour, half wholemeal and half white, and 250 ml of water, usual amounts of the other stuff. A nice square loaf. I have some spelt so shall experiment with that soon.