Good recipes for bread maker

[carstendenmark]

For those of us who swear to use a bread maker, do you have any good recipes to share - not the dull breads from the manual ?


Maybe rye bread, wheat bread with seeds, raisin bread, etc. Yummy

[Joh.Ghurt]

Even simple bread flour - yeast (or sourdough starter) - water and salt isn't dull.

First you should try to get some strong bread-flour instead of all purpose kitchen-flour. Depending on your country, they will have different numbers, usually higher ones, but decoding flour between countries is complicated. You also can try a mixture with some rye or spelt or whole-wheat. I my experience, 50% wheat bread flour and the rest some random other flour gives usually good results no matter what you do.

If the bread is too bland, try adding a little more salt. that might be the change you need. Overdoing the salt can kill the yeast. Another popular trick is to add baker's-malt (or honey lacking the malt) to give a little more taste.

Next is bread seasoning to add to the dough. In Austria a combinations of fennel-seeds, cumin-seeds, koriander-seeds and anis-seeds is popular. Example here in German.

If those don't give any results you like, you can add more or less whatever stuff you like, from sunflower- or Pumkin-seeds over nuts, dried berries, olives, other whole grain stuff like linseed and barley up to grated carrots. That's what Germans are often doing. Personally I prefer a bread without to much chichi but a well-tasting crumb instead. You can't really go very wrong here, be creative.

With a bread-maker the crust will always be underwhelming, just like it is with bread baked in a baking-form.

After using the bread-maker for some time you might also realise, that make bread without the machine is nearly as easy and works just as well. The main advantage is that you can schedule the baking durng the night and wake up to fresh baked bread. On passages we made it in calmer times the duty of the second night watch to bake the bread so that the boat smelled of fresh bread at sunrise in the middle of the Atlantic.

But this wasn't your question.

[CaptTom]

Maybe my standards are too low. I haven't even tried all the recipes in the book that came with my bread maker yet. The ones I have tried are all pretty good. Even plain old white bread, cooking all afternoon underway via inverter, is so nice after we toss the hook.

If I had to pick a favorite, there's a simple recipe for focaccia bread that's based on the pizza dough recipe which comes out fantastic. Obviously it requires a well-stocked spice rack and use of the oven, not just the breadmaker. I assume any focaccia bread recipe will give you some ideas on the toppings and prep once the dough has risen, but I could copy it here if anyone wanted.

[carstendenmark]

Thank you, guys ! I don't have space for an oven, so the bread maker is my only option.
I have a "baking" mode, that gives 10 min. more. Good for more crust, and definitely needed to make rye bread - sometimes 40-60 minutes more than the standard 34 minutes are required.
I haven't tried the "programming" mode yet, as the manual is in chinese :-(
I weigh everything on a digital scale, so repeatability is not a problem, if I (some times) make a good bread. No "spoons & cups" measurement here.

[Eder]

Substitute 1 cup rye flour for a white cup...add a bit extra white flour...1 3/8 cup water 2 tb molasses.


Later add fresh cooked corned beef & swiss!

[Uncle G]

@ carstendenmark, I've found that using digital scales on a 28-foot boat is a bit hit and miss. If there is any motion the scales will not give a steady reading as the inertia of the bowl makes the reading fluctuate.


So I ended up using a dedicated jar with a mark for the right amount of (well consolidated) flour and another mark for the correct amount of water. That provides such consistent results that I no longer bother with the scales.

[brianbeyyoung]

This is my Dad's Flax Seed Bread...most people like it

35ml white sugar
500ml white flour
250ml whole wheat flour
125ml flax seed
7ml salt
10ml bread yeast
300ml water
10ml butter

Yes Canada is Metric...

[carstendenmark]

Interesting, Brian, ml instead of grams.
Which machine do you use, if I may ask ?

Uncle G, thanks ! Actually, as I mostly sail singlehanded, I only bake when berthed or at anchor, but I will surely investigate this matter... :-)

Here's my recipe for a walnut and flax seeds bread :
Plain wheat flour 440 gr.
Flax seeds 50 gr.
Walnut nuts 75 gr. (well, any kind of nuts wil do)

Dry yeast 3 gr. (yep, just 3 !)
Salt 8 gr.
Sugar 15 gr.
Full fat milk (3.5-4.5%) 300 gr.
Sunflower seed oil 30 gr.
1 medium sized egg (60 gr.)

If you want details of how to do, please ask me.

[brianbeyyoung]

It's a Wolfgang Puck 2.5/3lb bread maker. Used ashore.

[Stewie12]

Look up Soda Bread. Simple to make and delicious.