Bread Machine Recipe Exchange

[MunchkinRedux]

Let’s use this space to share and discuss bread machine baking - recipes, notes and tips.

I’ll start. I have a Zojirushi mini, which makes 1 lb. loaves. I purchased it recently, after not having a bread machine for well over a decade. I wish I had kept my recipes from that original trip down the rabbit hole, but I didn’t. Soon after being gifted that original machine, which was my gateway to bread baking, I discovered sourdough, and thought I would never use a bread machine again. Ha ha! Time and arthritis will take you places.

My new machine came with a recipe for French bread. It makes for a fine sandwich loaf, and is something I have made repeatedly. If I’m not using the timer, I’ll add 50 g. sourdough discard to the liquid (reducing the flour and water accordingly). I would hesitate to add discard using the timer, however, as it tends to separate, and I’d be concerned the addition of flour to the liquid might clog the paddle.

FRENCH BREAD – 1 LB. LOAF

194 g. water

293 g. bread flour

6 g. granulated sugar

6 g. powdered milk

5 g. granulated salt

1 t. ADY (I used ¾ t. instant yeast)

This next recipe – a 100% whole wheat sandwich loaf with add-ins – has taken several tries to get right. It’s from Beth Hensperberger’s *The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook* P. 71.

My first loaf ballooned up, and then collapsed, the result of a large air pocket at the top. I monkied around with the amount of instant yeast, and finally settled on 1 t. (the original recipe calls for 1.5 t.). Zojirushi says to limit the addition of small seeds to 20 g., I used 30 g. with no issues. Also, just before the bake cycle starts, I go in and brush the top with a little water, and sprinkle with a few more seeds and grains. If using the timer, I would sub powdered milk (and water) for fresh.

SAMPLER HONEY WHOLE WHEAT

¾ c. milk

2 T. honey

1 T. salted butter

200 g. whole wheat flour

30 g. bread flour

1 T. VWG

1 t. granulated salt

1 ½ t. instant yeast < - - - I use 1 t.

30 g. seed blend *not original to the recipe

[kobuta (The Original Passionate Cucumber)]

Woot - I have the same machine so I would love some proven recipes that work well for that machine too.
I find the recipes in their booklet to be hit or miss. My dearest recipe wish list is for anadama bread. I’ve tried two online and they didn’t adapt well for this machine; perhaps it needs more tweaking on my end - both times it comes out way too dense (even denser than anadama should be).

I had a decent recipe for milk bread (with the tangzhong starter), but I’ll have to dig that out. To be honest, this has probably sat in my pantry for the last year, so it feels time to dig this out for some fresh bread.

[MunchkinRedux]

I have a couple of books. I’ll check and see if there’s a recipe for Amadama Bread. My mother used to bake that (in an oven) - I can smell it now.

[Tex]

Don’t forget the Internet Archive when looking for cookbooks - 183 search results for “bread machine” and most of them available to check out for free online.

I have an older Breadman, and I love trying bread machine recipes because there are some pretty creative flavor combinations out there! I’ve tried about 100 recipes by now, and have noticed that there’s varying quality of cookbooks, so sharing here some of what I’ve learned about that:

• Tiffany Dahle’s The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook: In some of the recipes, she’s used incorrect weights for water, oil, and flour. Don’t use her gram measurements; refigure them from her cups and spoons.

• Madge Rosenberg’s The Best Bread Machine Cookbook Ever: Ethnic Breads: Recipes vary in moisture content among the different size loaves, and sometimes have very (too) high ratio of water. Consider figuring out the baker’s percentages for the loaves and adjusting them to a more reasonable ratio.

• Connie Merydith’s Bread Machine Baking for All Seasons has an opposite problem: some recipes have dough that’s too dense to mix.

Some of the best recipes I’ve tried:

• Coconut curry bread in Suzan Nightingale’s Electric Bread, p. 66: there’s a hydration issue with the recipe so the dough is too wet, but the flavors are creative: Use a good garam masala and use the bread in a grilled peanut butter, chutney, and banana sandwich

• English muffins from King Arthur’s Baking website, I make this with Bob’s Red Mill egg substitute, soymilk, and margarine and that works fine

• Fluffy focaccia from Tiffany Dahle’s The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook: Adding the herb blend to the dough takes it over the top; it is “fluffy” as the name implies, and it’s excellent with minestrone or other soups.

• Pita bread in Breadman Ultimate Instruction Manual & Recipe Guide, p. 91

• Dahle’s Steakhouse brown, but refigured for correct grams, with an added 200 g sourdough starter and minus 100 g each flour and water - as you can see, I use Steen’s syrup but the recipe originally called for molasses.

• King Arthur’s 100% Whole wheat bread with the optional 35 g seeds and the vital wheat gluten; or, with an added 200 g sourdough starter and minus 100 g each flour and water (this is better than their sourdough whole wheat recipe)

[MunchkinRedux]

Thank you for all the links! That KAF WW recipe looks very similar to the Hensperger recipe I am using. I will try it with the sourdough starter.

[MunchkinRedux]

The two books I have are Beth Hensperger’s The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook and Michelle Anderson’s No Fuss Bread Machine Cookbook. The former is a classic; I haven’t yet tried anything from the latter.

Hensperger offers a recipe for an un-yeasted Anadama Bread. This may not be what you’re looking for, but if it’s of interest, let me know, and I’ll DM you a photo of the recipe.

[Tex]

Have you tried a straight-up sourdough loaf in your bread machine yet? It won’t be like the nice ones you made by hand and in the oven, but I wonder if you’ve found one that works well for what it is.

[MunchkinRedux]

I have not made a true sourdough in my machine. I understand some machines have a setting that accomodates one, but mine is not one of those, and I haven’t had the opportunity to explore whether I can make one using the “homemade” settings.

In the meantime, KAF has a recipe for a BM sourdough using a yeast spike, and I might try that soon:

Bread Machine Sourdough Bread

[MunchkinRedux]

A dried-apple-pecan-cinnamon loaf From Beth Hensperger’s The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook P. 446.

This one calls for bread flour, buttermilk, brown sugar, fruit, nuts and cinnamon.

My first time doing the add-ins manually, I read a lot of opinions on how to do it or not to do it. I hedged my bets, and kneaded half of them in manually after the first mechanized knead, patted another ¼ of them on to the top of the loaf after returning it to the machine, and then added the final 1/4th about 3 minutes into the second mechanized knead. The add-in chime rang about two minutes after I was all done. It may have been over-thinking on my part, but I did want the add-ins well distributed and it seems to have worked.

I reduced the yeast for a 1-lb. loaf from 1 ½ t. to 1 ¼ t., and otherwise no other changes. The bread is delicious and the recipe a keeper, although I will probably add that ¼ t. of yeast back in and hope for just a slightly better rise.

The original recipe for a 2-lb. loaf:

1 ½ c. buttermilk

2 ½ T. walnut oil

4 c. bread flour

¼ c. light brown sugar

1 T. +1 t. vital wheat gluten

1 ½ t. table salt

1 T + 1 t. ground cinnamon

2 ½ t. SAF yeast (or 1 T. bread machine yeast)

2/3 c. chopped dried apples

½ c. chopped pecans

[MunchkinRedux]

Just FYI and for @kobuta.

While doing some research today, I found another (yeasted) recipe for Anadama bread in the bread machine:

Anadama Bread Recipe | Bread Machine Recipes

[kobuta (The Original Passionate Cucumber)]

Thank you! I will take a look. Busy at work, so I’ll try to pull up some recipes this weekend.