Adventures of the Bread Machine

Cafe Society
21

I fully endorse this approach as well. This is what we do if we aren’t needing to wake up to fresh bread (in which case we set the break-maker timer and bake in there as well).

top tips? We had a little yeast for a few weeks and merely kept a 1/4 of the dough back to leaven the next batch the next day, that worked fine.
Also, when I make pizza dough I also make pitta bread from it as well by rolling small balls very thin and grilling them either in a hot dry frying pan or…better still, on the griddle of a very hot barbeque.
Fresh cooked pittas with a big pot of pico de gallo and yogurt for dipping and scooping is heaven indeed.

22

I have to admit I did a little happy dance when my wife found the extra 1 lb brick of yeast in the pantry. Not that we didn’t already have yeast- I think we had about 1/8 lb left from the last lb we’d opened, plus some random packets we’d acquired.

If you’re short on yeast, consider the no-knead bread recipes- they rely on the yeast multiplying during an extended rise, so they use very little yeast- like 1/4 tsp, which is about one eighth the normal amount per loaf.

23

I used the dough setting and made hamburger buns! First time I have ever done such a thing.

There were a few uglies in the bunch, but the taste was magnificent!
~VOW

24

I’ve been lucky in that Gordon Food Service and the grocery store I work at have yeast back in stock, though not the individual packets. I gave away some of my packets to people on Facebook in my neighborhood for Easter bread.

25

I got a text the other day that the farm market we live near had gotten fresh yeast in. I had her set aside a container for me and I’ll be baking tonight. I use the dough setting and especially like making braided loaves.

26

I have an Oster machine that I found at St Vinnys for $7. Could not believe my good luck because I was looking for aNorthern replacement paddle for an Oster bread machine and was told by the company they don’t stock paddles anymore and I’ should just buy a new machine. A couple days later I’m at the thrift shop and spy an Oster on a shelf. Same exact machine I took it home compared it to mine which I bought brand new but was in deplorable shape compared to the one I just bought for $7.

I mostly make pizza dough with it.But now I am super careful with the paddle when cleaning up because they can lost easily in the mess of pizza debris and get tossed out with the trash.

27

I mix my bread using only a 1/2 tsp of yeast and then let it rise usually about 18 hours. Cuts down on how much yeast you need and improves the flavor. However, flour appears to be in short supply.

28

Stop by The Daughter’s house. I bought a fifty pound bag of bread flour, and because she [del]demanded[/del] requestedwhole wheat, I got ten pounds of whole wheat.

And that’s on top of the umpty pounds of gluten-free [del]crap[/del] flour I started out with!

I can give you some bread flour.
~VOW

29

Maybe you misunderstood me. I can make rice without a rice cooker; I’m the 1.5:1 club myself, but 2:1 works. I have a rice cooker 'cos the wife wants one; all the Chinese use them for some reason. When I say “I love my Zojirushi,” I don’t mean that it makes my life easier than making rice on the stovetop (it’s only slightly easier), but that I have no complaints; it’s foolproof. But making rice is nearly foolproof, so a machine at only costs a few bucks is probably just as good.

30

Just saw this thread. I just happened to be talking to a friend about our breadmaker adventures today. We were very early in the breadmaker trend, I got one back in the mid-90’s.

It was fabulous, worked great right up until I got rid of it. We loved the bread, pizza dough, cinnamon buns etc it made.

We finally gave it away because we were eating too much bread. We started to gain weight noticeably, part of which we attributed to the entire loaf my wife and I would split in each Saturday and again on Sunday morning. plus all the weekday loaves. Zero will-power and impulse control in our house.

That said, it was a wonderful machine.

@VOW:
There are many cookbooks out there now, but my favourite one was The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German. (It looks like it was updated in 2005):

I think the cinnamon buns recipe we used was in this cookbook. They were amazing!!! If you don’t have one, find one. You basically make a sweet dough. After it rises roll it into a large flat rectangle then coat it with brown sugar & cinnamon mixture. Then roll it up lengthwise (like a jellyroll) and slice it into 1.5" cylinders and drop them into a muffin tins to bake. When the come out of the oven you coat them with cream cheese and icing sugar glaze.

I’m salivating just thinking about it. God, I miss that machine.:slight_smile:

31

I just remembered that a housemate of mine in 1991 had a bread maker. I don’t know if it was her or the particular machine but her bread was mediocre. All of the loads came out shaped like a conical Bundt cake. And the thing was fucking loud. She would run it overnight and all night it would be whirrr-rrrrrr-rrrrr. I hated that thing.

32

THANK YOU! I was looking for that exact book. I used to actually have a copy, back when I owned my first Zojirushi!

It will be here in about a week and a half!:smiley:
~VOW

33

Generally, I find that rice cooker rice is better than stovetop, but it’s one of those 80/20 rule things- it takes longer, and takes specialized equipment to move you to 85%, versus the 80% you get from the stovetop.

Where I like it is that I have one of those Panasonic fuzzy-logic ones, and if I’m on the ball enough, I can do one of two things- set it to have the rice finished by a specific time (like put the rice and water in before lunch, and tell it to have it done at 6 pm), or I can start it and leave it, without worry that it’ll burn, turn into a gluey mass, etc…

34

Let me change your life. We have had a bread machine for 15 years and only one recipe has been truly stellar. I mean, many breads have come out good, but this is a “bring the house down” bread for us.

Here is the Google Doc if you want to print it.

Here is just the text of it here:

Awesome Garlic Bread

1 ⅛ cup water
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic or garlic paste
3 cups white flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ tsp salt (use garlic salt)
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 tsp sweet basil
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tablespoon onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp. Yeast - measure exactly on this part!

Use Basic cycle, choose medium crust.

35

As expected, I’ve been breading regularly! Sunday I made blana bread, a quick bread, and it turned out very yum! Every person who buys bananas have had the last two sulk and pout and turn soft and nasty looking. Everybody SAYS, “Oh, I will make some lovely banana bread!”

Life gets in the way, and the fruit flies move in!

With the bread machine front and center, blana bread is easy to do. Throw everything in the bread pan, push “Start,” and return to the kitchen later to eat it!

Yesterday I made a yeast bread–cheese bread. It turned out nicely, and I have a pocketful of notes on “adjustments” to make it perfect next time.

Today, I had planned to make hot dog buns. The freezers are overflowing with zillions of hot dogs, so hot dog buns seemed ideal. My hamburger buns were fantastic, so I fully expect hot dog buns to be rave-worthy.

The Daughter suggested pigs-in-a-blanket, instead.

Well, of course. Firstly, who doesn’t love PIAB? Secondly, my mother used to make them all the time, so PIAB will fill the grownups with nostalgia.

The Daughter was also digging through the refrigerator, and grumbling about all the dibs and dabs of leftovers. The menu now includes “Pasture in a Blanket” (miscellaneous veggies all chopped up) and “Cluck in a Blanket” (leftover roast chicken). The Cluck in a Blanket will work nicely for Mr VOW. Hot dogs are full of salt, and he’d end up with a half of PIAB.

I shall report back here on the success (or not) of Pasture in a Blanket and Cluck in a Blanket!
~VOW

36

Many years ago we were gifted a Cuisinart bread machine. We used it a few times but did not rely upon it very much. Too much amazing fresh baked bread from two different bakeries no more than 3 blocks away. ( Ahhhh… New York City. )

In very early March, I did some serious shopping. What happened in China and Italy was already emerging in America. I feared for basic food supply chain interruptions. One of the things I did was buy 10 strips of Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise Yeast packets. Each strip of 3 was 8.99 in the supermarket. 90.00 in yeast seemed very excessive…at the time.

Now, I don’t tend the machine at home. My Dearly Beloved® reigns over that device with great joy. When I arrived home with the various purchases including 30 packets, she was a bit surprised. It turns out we do have access to store-bought baked bread. Both local bakeries are shuttered. And we’re making breads in the machine. So far we’re down to 24 packets left. And- of course- this entire situation will go at least into late autumn. We’ll keep enough yeast around to get us through The Second Wave.

She’s experimented with whole wheat doughs, basic white bread, one with minced fresh apple bits and a few others. All are tasty, none are awful and a few are just killer. It’s a treat to my palate to get hot fresh bread. She enjoys the making. All good. The last one was whole wheat and oatmeal.

I know the Zojirushi name from hot water makers and rice cookers. Didn’t know they made a bread machine- no surprise it’s the Rolls Royce of machines. Their electronics are just amazing.

Hoping we branch out even more. She loves cinnamon raisin bread and I believe she plans to attack that idea soon.

37

One might say you’ve risen to the occasion.

38

Man, this thread and that garlic bread recipe make me want to dig out my Zojirushi and fire it up. It went into storage back when I was redoing the kitchen and I haven’t bothered with it since. But I’m on temporary furlough right now so why not? And maybe the ice cream maker too…

39

Well, the Pigs in a Blanket were a huge success! Cluck in a Blanket was laudable!

Pasture in a Blanket didn’t get much applause.
~VOW

40

VOW, what did you do for the cheese bread? Inquiring minds would love to replicate, though I shouldn’t eat too many carbs…
I need to make friends with the baker at the deli a few towns away who does low carb bagels. Not that 26 is all that low, but it beats the snot out of regular ones.