Adapting recipes for bread maker
I'm new to this site so- hello!
Hoping for some advice. I have baked cakes for several years, venturing every now and then into the realm of bread. Recently my partner and I moved onto our boat, so we have just bought a bread machine to conserve gas, have bread available even when we're sailing somewhere remote, and to reduce the amount of time the oven is on in the heat (the boat heats up very quickly! ).
So I have all my baking books with some lovely recipes for cakes and breads, but my question is this: how do I adapt a conventional cake recipe for a bread maker? The bread recipes are probably more straightforward to adapt I imagine - or am I wrong there? Can I just use a 'normal' bread recipe and bung the ingredients in the bread maker?
I also love making cakes, especially cakes with fruit in them. There is a cake setting on my bread maker- could I just chuck in all the ingredients, select the cake setting, press start, and voila? Or do I need to follow a specific 'cakes in the bread maker' recipe?
Wow, talk about a long winded and confusing question! Sorry. I could (and no doubt will!) experiment and figure all this out for myself but hoping for any tips to save me making obvious mistakes.
Thanks!
Welcome from a fellow newbie to the forum! Great idea to use the breadmaker on a boat. I might try mine in my travel trailer
Knowing the size of your breadmaker would help in adapting recipes. A 1 pound recipe would have 2-2.25 cups of flour. A 1.5 pound recipe would have 3-3.25 cups of flour etc. There are a lot of recipes for bread machines readily available online and in books so only your absolute favorites need to be adapted. Start with a bread machine recipe as directed the first time around and then follow a similar order of ingredient addition and don't exceed the maximum amounts of flour and dry ingredients for your machine.
Thankyou for your reply exbaker. Those proportions are helpful! I have 500g, 750g and 1000g settings for my bread machine.
I've made a couple of basic white breads already, which turned out well, and a raisin and cinnamon bread which sank as soon as it started baking- too much yeast I think, but it still tasted great. I will continue to use recipes online until I find my feet and feel confident enough to branch out a little.
If you or anyone else has any fruit cake recipes for the bread machine, I'd love to hear them!
From the Panasonic SD500/501 breadmaker manual...
1 teaspoon dried yeast
400g strong wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons sugar
75g butter (or 6 tablespoons oil : manual advises 2 tablespoons oil = 25g butter)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 medium eggs (beat eggs before adding)
110ml (grams) water
110ml (grams) milk
150g dried fruit mix
METHOD:
1. Place dried yeast at bottom of breadpan.
2. Cover the yeast with all the dry ingredients (please note that with the Panasonic breadmaker the fruit is added later on in the cycle sometime after the initial dough is formed and during a rest in the kneading).
3. Pour liquids over the dry ingredients.
WHOLEWHEAT RAISIN CYCLE: 1hr - 1hr 40 minutes initial rest | 15-25 minutes knead (half way through when it rests the fruit is added) | 2hrs 10 minutes - 2hrs 50 minutes rise | 50 minutes bake.
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/content/documents/Panasonic_Bread_Maker_Instructions_15352.pdf
IF YOU WISH TO DO A BREAD FLOUR VERSION THEN SIMPLY REPLACE THE WHOLEWHEAT FLOUR FOR BREAD FLOUR GRAM FOR GRAM AND REDUCE THE MILK + WATER TO 100ML (GRAMS) EACH.
THEN CHOOSE CYCLE "BASIC RAISIN" WHICH IS...
30 - 60 MINUTES INITIAL REST | 15 - 30 MINUTES KNEAD (DITTO FOR FRUIT ADDING) | 1HR 50MIN - 2HR 20MIN RISE | 50 MINUTES BAKE
Thankyou! That recipe looks fantastic- I know what I'm making tomorrow! Am currently trying out a banana bread recipe I found online. Fingers crossed it tastes and looks as good as it smells!
I don't have a raisin bread setting, but I do have sweet bread setting which I think will be fine. Shall report back :-)
Hi Terysav, from another boater :-). We have a bread machine which we got when we saw another boater using one and we love it!. Unfortunately can't use it unless we are at a marina because our battery bank won't handle it but it sure is great to keep the heat down etc. Ours is a Breadman. And recently, while we have been house sitting on land I was gifted a Sunbeam make so am learning about that. You will get hooked on yours I'm sure :-)