I forgot to add salt to a Barley Bread recipe that I made up.  I was worried about an oversized Yeasty bread, or a Bread that had not formed correctly.  My internet research led me to sites that advised on not cutting out salt, as it regulates the yeast activity and helps form the bread.

None of this advice was true.  I suspect that the advice served to sell salt.  Other than being a little bland tasting, nothing was wrong with the Bread.  It formed and rose normally.

It has been sold. Thank you all.

Robert

I have been making some breads that rise so much, they are hitting the top of the glass of the Bread Machine.  If I open the top the Bread will have room to grow.  I would need to do this for the last 30 minutes of the cycle.  I am worried that doing so will lower the temperature inside the machine and the Bread will not properly bake.

Please advise.

Thanks

For more years than I care to remember, Ive had an urge to make bread using natural leavening, ever since I picked up a lttle booklet on "Sourdough Bread," which included a packet of "sour dough starter;" at the San Franciso Airport while on a business trip long before my retirement in 1987. Mostly my efforts have been a disaster; because, I now believe, I've concentrated on the "sour dough" concept, trying to capture and propegate "natural yeasts," I must have a brown thumb when it comes to raising wild yeasts!!!!! Recently I abandoned my fixation on "sour dough" for I'm really not that into the unique taste; and now believe that what I really yearn for is the ability to make a good loaf of bread with leavening that I have nurtured from an initial package of store bought yeast, without any further use of such. It just seems so unnatural to have to buy and use a package of store bought yeast every time I make a loaf of bread. If I have to buy the yeast I might just as well buy a loaf of bread!!!! Today I produced my first loaf of edible bread using only 1 cup of flour, and two cups of, what amounts to a third generation, sponge.

I did this using a bread machine, because I'm also not that into hand kneading, and all that sticky dough.  

So here's my recipe

Starter: First Day - Two cups warm water, 1 tbsp suger, two cups all purpose flour. 1 pkg yeast.

           Second Day - Two cups warm water, 1 tbsp sugar, two cups all purpose flour

           Third Day - Remove two cups sponge, place in bread machine bucket. Allow to breed for several hours. Add 1 cup flour, and process on basic bread cycle. Then add two cups of water, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 cups flour to remainder of sponge.

Repeat third day routine for each subsequent loaf.

So all you "Artisen Bread" bakers out there - sent me your comments - favorable, or not!!!!!!

I'm a single male looking for a small bread mahine that will make a 3/4#-1# loaf.  I have a Zoji but it only makes 2# loaves and I would like smaller loaves.  Thanks for the help in Advance.  MCG

My wife makes three loaves of light whole wheat bread, alternating every other week with an all-white flour version of the same recipe. Two of the loaves are our "daily bread", the third routinely goes to a neighbor. She uses our bread machine, a Zo, on the "Dough" setting, and does a 2nd bulk fermentation, panning and proofing, and baking outside the machine. The machine does a one hour bulk proof; her second bulk proof is usually 2 to 2-1/2 hours depending on the dough's behavior. The long bulk proofings allow the doughs, expecially the whole wheat version, a chance to develop good flavors.

Curious if I could convert the recipe to a sourdough, i scaled it to produce the same dough weight and hydration as the original recipe, but replaced some of the white flour and water with 240g of active sourdough starter at 60% hydration, built using the 3-build approach I use for all my sourdough formula.

The photo answers my curiousty with a firm yes.

However, the experiement taught me the question I should have asked: "Is it worth the additional time and effort?"

This bread is all one would ask for in a sandwich bread: excellent flavor; closed, but light and slightly chewy crumb; and a soft crust--even before I brushed them with butter. But I can say the same things about my wife's bread. Here's a photo of her all-white version I took a couple of weeks ago.

From my point-of-view we're going to stay with the tried and true Yvonne has baked for the last six years. Doing the sourdough was fun, and we will certainly enjoy eating the result.

Sometime in the future I'm going to see if I can be successful baking a single sourdough loaf entirely in the Zo. I think it's possible, in the programmable mode, using a very active starter, and removing the paddles after the knead step. This will allow up to a four hour bulk fermentation step. But that's for another day.

We bought "Bread Machine, how to prepare the perfect loaf", by Jennie Shapter, about six years ago at a Barnes & Noble clearance sale. We've never felt the need to buy any other bread machine cookbook since.

My wife and I can't remember when we last bought store bread. We use our bread machine, a Zo, at least once a week. Yvonne has mastered what we call our "every day breads", and sweet, fruited breads we share with family and friends during the holidays. I, most often use the dough cycle only, especially for high hydration breads like caibatta. We both use this favorite cookbook. Initially, we followed it slavishly; today, having learned much over the past decade, its more a guide, but still a source for "first time" efforts. We've baked about a third of the recipes so far, a dozen have become favorites. We host an annual "open house" where we share our homemade wines that have come of age in each year, along with lots of nibbles, to about fifty guests. This year our theme will be wine and bread. Many of the bread recipes will come from "Bread Machine,...".

The author covers basics and fundemental ingredients in approximately thirty pages, and another twenty pages of advanced topics,e.g., "Sourdoughs and Starters", "Adapting Recipes for Use in a Bread Machine" and "Troubleshooting". The balance of the book is devoted to approximately 170 recipes in nine categories: Basic Breads, Speciality Grains, Flatbreads and Pizzas, Sourdoughs and Starter Dough Breads, Savory Breads, Vegetables Breads; Rolls, Buns and Pasteries; Sweet Breads and Yeast Cakes, and TeaBreads and Cakes. Many of the recipes specify ingredients for "Small" (~1 lb.) "Medium" (~1-1/2 lb.) and "Large" (~2 lb.) loaves to accomodate variations among different machines. Published in 2001, it reasonably up-to-date.

We've followed each recipe we've baked precisely (at least the first time) with unvarying success. It's obvious that every recipe has been carefully kitchen tested for results. There are lots of photos of final results, and "how to" where appropriate, but not at the expense of clear, detailed instructions.

I'm not a big fan of cookbooks anymore, or for that matter any "how to" genre. I rely on the internet (or my self) for nearly 100% of all my cooking, baking, brewing, wine making, gardening, woodworking, etc. projects. However, this is one cookbook I'm glad we have; yet I've never seen it mentioned by other bread machine bakers on the baking sites I visit.

The book is out of print, but, as of yesterday, there were eleven copies, new and used, on Amazon. The cheapest was 8 bucks: a bargain, for a fine book.

David

Greetings!

As a novice baker I'm researching whether I ought to purchase a bread machine; Zo - mini; 1lb loaf capacity OR a bread mixer; Electrolux -  Magic Mill DLX OR some top of the line  variant mixer and if the latter which machine.  Note: cost isn't a factor.

As a two person household I'm concerned that the DLX is overkill and might be difficult producing a very nice 1-1.5 loaf.  I've come to enjoy a heartier bread and eventualy would like to become profiencent at making them.  I realize the bread machine will only be able to knead the mix and I'll have to use my electric oven to bake should I care to go this route. 

At some point I would also like to dabble in alternatives to wheat such as spelt. I don't know if the Zo bread machine would handle this as the smaller model doesn't allow to custom cycles. 

My dear grandmother used to hand knead and I recall the wonderful feeling of working with dough - however, my kitchen is small and working dough by hand seems messy with more cleanup than a machine  would spit.  Further I'm thinking a machine would produce a higher quality dough, less mess, smaller footprint in which to work.  Please tell me if my thinking is off with this. 

Any suggestions on how I might proceed in my quest to produce scrumptious home baked breads and which mode and model to accomplish this.

TIA ~ jodo

Hello,

does anyone know if there are any bread machines with pans that are not non-stick, such as stainless steel?

Thanks!

I have been trying an autolyse for my bread machine. (I am trying to find an everyday sandwich bread.) I grind my own wheat and for the moment, I still like the convenience of the bread machine because I can't seem to make it well by hand yet.  The texture of the bread seems to be doing better but it still is crumbly when you cut in the middle and falls apart for sandwiches.  I have tried following JMonkey's recipe and procedure for whole wheat sandwich bread and put it in the bread machine for kneading and then baked in oven and also, baked in the bread machine. Is there a way to make it less crumbly?  What ingredient or technique could improve the texture (besides doing it all by hand)? 

Thank you!