Bread machine recipes
Fresh baked bread every day is a luxury we can all afford thanks to the bread machine revolution.
My very first experience with a breadmaker convinced me that this white box was a piece of cookery genius.
Kneading is a thing of the past.
I was sceptical that a machine could produce that authentic homemade taste, so without much hope of success I just dumped the ingredients in the hopper, set the timer and went off to get on with other things. A couple of hours later there was a beautifully baked delicious wholemeal loaf waiting for me. The cost, even when I took electricity into account was much less than supermarket price and of course the knowledge of exactly what ingredients went into my bread was really comforting. The whole family loved my latest loaf.
Since then I have tried white bread, cholla, chiabatta, pumpernickel and a host of honey breads, seeded breads and strangely flavoured loaves and the bread machine has handled them all equally well. I am a total convert and love my breadmaker.
Problems with bread makers
To be fair the shape of the loaf is unconventional and a few seconds are required to remove the paddle for cleaning, but other than those two very minor issues I am as I said a total convert to bread machines. Turning out the bread from a Panasonic SD255 breadmaker is no more tricky than taking a loaf out of the oven, so I cannot fault them there. Cleaning is easy since it is all dishwasher safe and of course, you don't tie up the oven when you use a breadmaker which is great news if you are entertaining hungry guests.
Which bread machine should you choose?
There are lots of them on the market, but beware the brands you don't know. I bought a bread machine for a friend from a large wholesaler. About six months later they phoned to say they had lost the little bread paddle and wanted to replace it. These things cost only a few pence, but we couldn't find the right one so they ended up buying a brand new bread machine instead. So, the moral of that tale is to buy a bread machine from a brand name manufacturer.
Do I need the extras supplied with the top end bread machines?
Well not having a nut dispenser like you find in the Panasonic SD255 breadmaker isn't the end of the world, but some recipes do call for adding extra ingredients like nuts or raisins at a halfway point in the bread making process. So a handy hopper is a useful time-saving addition.
Bread Machine Recipes
Lets start with something a bit wacky. This is schwartzbrot as eaten throughout central and eastern europe. a great classic bread recipe.
swartzbrot recipe- black bread recipe for a bread maker.
200 ml water
5 ml cider vinegar
150 g white bread flour
100 g rye flour
25 g oat bran
15 g margarine
20 g caster sugar
5 g salt
2 g caraway seed
4 g active dry yeast
Add the ingredients to your bread machine on a standard loaf setting and off you go.
French Baguette bread recipe
Another brilliant use of the bread machine is to prepare baguette dough. Of course you need to actually cook them in the oven, and these always seem to come out perfectly for me.
240 ml water
350 g bread flour
10 g granulated sugar
5 g bread machine yeast
5 g salt
Your bread making machine will have baguette instructions. Follow them using
the ingredients above for a gallic breakfast treat.
Blueberry Bread Recipe
I love the swirlly marble effect and delicious tang of this fresh summer bread. The american 'cup measure' corresponds nicely with a standard tea cup full.
The ingredients for the bread dough are:
- 4 cups strong white bread flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried yeast
- 1 1/2 cups of blueberries.
Simply make the loaf on the fruit and nut setting, adding in the blueberries at the final kneading.
Cholla bread recipe (from the USA)
2 cups hot water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 eggs, beaten
8 cups flour
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