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300 Best Bread Machine Recipes
The ultimate bread machine book. The aroma of freshly baked bread is one of the world's greatest comforts and making bread at home is more popular than ever. After all, not everyone has time to keep complicated sour dough starter alive, but everyone has time for quick and healthy home baked bread! This collection of wonderful recipes features all the information you need about baking bread using both older and newer bread machine models. You'll find everything from traditional favorites to innovative recipes that reflect today's tastes, with tons of tips and techniques and three handy glossaries. This is the perfect book for people who cherish homemade bread...and the convenience of a bread machine!
- GenresCookbooks
448 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 9, 2019
I got a bread machine for my birthday, so naturally I borrowed a cookbook from the library! This book has an oddly dated feel, as if it was written in the 70s or 80s (like, there's a chapter for "new era" ingredients, and that's the kind of thing I would find back in the 80s to indicate the recipe had been modernized to cut out some of the fat), but it was written in the 21st century so I don't know what's up with that.
Things I like: well, there are 300 kickass recipes! That's A LOT to like! (I mean, why else do you look at a cookbook, if not for the recipes??)
Things I don't like:
* every recipe calls for "bread machine or instant yeast" - honestly, I have no idea what that is, but I assume it's the same thing as rapid rise? I've got a jar of regular active dry yeast, and the cookbook my bread machine came with listed different quantities for active dry yeast and rapid rise yeast - it's about a 2:3 ratio, which, when the recipe calls for 1-1/2 t works out to 0.87 t of active dry yeast, but I don't have a 7/8 teaspoon measure, so I've been using 1 t in my recipes.
* there are glossaries, and notes in the recipes, but I'm still left scratching my head a lot, about:
- There's my confusion about "instant yeast," for one.
- Also, all the recipes that call for shredded Cheddar specify "old Cheddar" - wtf is that??? Is it just another way of saying "aged" cheddar? or does it mean "shred it and then let it sit around and get old and dried"? I decided it meant "aged" (because none of the other types of cheese in recipes specified "old") and just put freshly shredded cheese into the machine. (NOTE: my first cheddar loaf was a FAIL so maybe I misunderstood this ingredient.)
- There are two recipes for panettone, and they are different, and why? it doesn't say.
- what is a flour blend? it's some mix of white and whole wheat, but what ratio? **
* each recipe includes margin notes, including the kind of snide note on almost every recipe: "yes you're reading that right: the smaller recipe calls for more yeast (or the same amount) as the larger loaf recipe" and this is never explained other than a note stating that each recipe has been tested and is specific for the size and do not scale up or down.
* not enough info on possible substitutions if I don't have a particular ingredient. I looked to the glossary for this info, but ... nope.
* no guidance on what to do if the suggested "course" is not available on my machine.
* no troubleshooting advice for my main problem: sometimes the load just isn't "done" enough.
* the index needs some work. For example, I had forgotten which section the Anadama bread recipe was, and had also forgotten that it was called "New England Anadama," and looked up "Anadama" and "Annadama" in the index, and ... bupkus.
** I finally found a margin note, buried in a recipe for cracked wheat bread in the "By Request" section, that says you can substitute 3.25 c wheat blend for the 2 c whole wheat flour + 1/2 c cracked wheat. This doesn't make sense, of course, since 2+1/2 does not equal 3.25 (AND since the recipe also tells us to NOT let the cracked wheat touch the liquid, and how could we avoid that if it was part of the wheat blend?), and since the recipe also calls for 1.25 c bread flour, I suspect the margin note meant to say that you can substitute 3.25 c wheat blend for the whole wheat and white bread flours. So I guess "wheat blend" is a 2:1.25 ratio blend of whole wheat and white flour.
Recipes I tried:
French Bread - okay I was skeptical, how was a bread machine going to produce something that was anything like a batard or baguette? (Because I am too lazy to pull that dough out and shape it, so we were NOT going to be having baguettes.) To my surprise and delight, it really was like a batard!! My kids have insisted on making this recipe again and again.
Boston Brown Bread - Excellent! not as dark as I expected, and not too sweet - just right.
Cheddar Beer Bread - FAIL. Undercooked and a weird flavor. In this recipe's defense, however: (a) it called for me to use a "Sweet Course" on my machine, which I do not have, and (b) I imagine it's very dependent on the type of beer used. I used a can of Founder's All Day, and that may have been too bitter. Maybe if I had a lighter pilsner or amber ale, it would be better. I'm willing to try again with a different beer, so long as I can figure out the problem with not having a "sweet course" on my machine, because this bread was under-cooked.
New England Anadama Bread - I was distracted and forgot to add the corn meal until after the bread had already been kneaded a bit, sooooo ... this was not a valid try. But it was really good and disappeared in just a few hours!
Cottage Cheese Dill Bread - this was AMAZING!!! A wonderful texture!! I worried it was going to be a "fail" because the top collapsed during baking (the troubleshooting guide suggests this means I used too much yeast), and it would have an odd flavor (because sometimes I like dill and sometimes I don't) but you can barely taste the dill.
Mediterranean Bread - success!! I was a little worried about this one - the olives and oregano sounded good, but garlic and feta and salt and honey too?? (I confess I only used half the garlic called for, and I sautéed it in the olive oil for 30 seconds before adding it - I hate raw garlic.) But this was pretty good. Even my non-olive-loving daughter liked it. I wished the texture was a little more chewy than tender; and I wished I had chopped the olives more coarsely, to get a few OLIVE chunks in my slice. Maybe if there is a next time, I will leave the feta out and add some whole wheat, to make it more chewy. ... I have to say that although we liked this bread, we didn't go back to the loaf and it ended up getting moldy before we finished it.
Orange Honey Cracked Wheat Bread -Two thumbs down! I used to like cracked wheat bread, but apparently I don't any longer. And this was too much orange, which I should have expected from the name, but ... I have to revise my opinion on this bread, it is very good toasted with peanut butter.
Sally Lunn Bread - another recipe that calls for the Sweet Cycle, which my machine does not have. The taste and texture is exactly like Arnold Brick Oven White Bread. Which is okay, but I'm not really trying to replicated a store brand bread here!
Yogurt Wheat Germ Bread - this was ... decent. The yogurt made the bread more sour than I expected. My kids liked it though!
New England Anadama Bread - Second Try - I managed to follow the recipe correctly this time and this was still excellent.
Other recipes that look interesting:
Blond Panettone
Double Cheese Onion Bread
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Loaf
Monique's Honey Wheat Bread
Irish Barm Bran Bread (say THAT three times fast!)
Amish seed Bread
Brown Seed Bread
Daffodil Bread
Hazlenut Chocolate Bread
3/9/19: I'm out of library renewals so I have to return this book, but I plan to check it out again, because there are still so many recipes I want to try!
Things I like: well, there are 300 kickass recipes! That's A LOT to like! (I mean, why else do you look at a cookbook, if not for the recipes??)
Things I don't like:
* every recipe calls for "bread machine or instant yeast" - honestly, I have no idea what that is, but I assume it's the same thing as rapid rise? I've got a jar of regular active dry yeast, and the cookbook my bread machine came with listed different quantities for active dry yeast and rapid rise yeast - it's about a 2:3 ratio, which, when the recipe calls for 1-1/2 t works out to 0.87 t of active dry yeast, but I don't have a 7/8 teaspoon measure, so I've been using 1 t in my recipes.
* there are glossaries, and notes in the recipes, but I'm still left scratching my head a lot, about:
- There's my confusion about "instant yeast," for one.
- Also, all the recipes that call for shredded Cheddar specify "old Cheddar" - wtf is that??? Is it just another way of saying "aged" cheddar? or does it mean "shred it and then let it sit around and get old and dried"? I decided it meant "aged" (because none of the other types of cheese in recipes specified "old") and just put freshly shredded cheese into the machine. (NOTE: my first cheddar loaf was a FAIL so maybe I misunderstood this ingredient.)
- There are two recipes for panettone, and they are different, and why? it doesn't say.
- what is a flour blend? it's some mix of white and whole wheat, but what ratio? **
* each recipe includes margin notes, including the kind of snide note on almost every recipe: "yes you're reading that right: the smaller recipe calls for more yeast (or the same amount) as the larger loaf recipe" and this is never explained other than a note stating that each recipe has been tested and is specific for the size and do not scale up or down.
* not enough info on possible substitutions if I don't have a particular ingredient. I looked to the glossary for this info, but ... nope.
* no guidance on what to do if the suggested "course" is not available on my machine.
* no troubleshooting advice for my main problem: sometimes the load just isn't "done" enough.
* the index needs some work. For example, I had forgotten which section the Anadama bread recipe was, and had also forgotten that it was called "New England Anadama," and looked up "Anadama" and "Annadama" in the index, and ... bupkus.
** I finally found a margin note, buried in a recipe for cracked wheat bread in the "By Request" section, that says you can substitute 3.25 c wheat blend for the 2 c whole wheat flour + 1/2 c cracked wheat. This doesn't make sense, of course, since 2+1/2 does not equal 3.25 (AND since the recipe also tells us to NOT let the cracked wheat touch the liquid, and how could we avoid that if it was part of the wheat blend?), and since the recipe also calls for 1.25 c bread flour, I suspect the margin note meant to say that you can substitute 3.25 c wheat blend for the whole wheat and white bread flours. So I guess "wheat blend" is a 2:1.25 ratio blend of whole wheat and white flour.
Recipes I tried:
French Bread - okay I was skeptical, how was a bread machine going to produce something that was anything like a batard or baguette? (Because I am too lazy to pull that dough out and shape it, so we were NOT going to be having baguettes.) To my surprise and delight, it really was like a batard!! My kids have insisted on making this recipe again and again.
Boston Brown Bread - Excellent! not as dark as I expected, and not too sweet - just right.
Cheddar Beer Bread - FAIL. Undercooked and a weird flavor. In this recipe's defense, however: (a) it called for me to use a "Sweet Course" on my machine, which I do not have, and (b) I imagine it's very dependent on the type of beer used. I used a can of Founder's All Day, and that may have been too bitter. Maybe if I had a lighter pilsner or amber ale, it would be better. I'm willing to try again with a different beer, so long as I can figure out the problem with not having a "sweet course" on my machine, because this bread was under-cooked.
New England Anadama Bread - I was distracted and forgot to add the corn meal until after the bread had already been kneaded a bit, sooooo ... this was not a valid try. But it was really good and disappeared in just a few hours!
Cottage Cheese Dill Bread - this was AMAZING!!! A wonderful texture!! I worried it was going to be a "fail" because the top collapsed during baking (the troubleshooting guide suggests this means I used too much yeast), and it would have an odd flavor (because sometimes I like dill and sometimes I don't) but you can barely taste the dill.
Mediterranean Bread - success!! I was a little worried about this one - the olives and oregano sounded good, but garlic and feta and salt and honey too?? (I confess I only used half the garlic called for, and I sautéed it in the olive oil for 30 seconds before adding it - I hate raw garlic.) But this was pretty good. Even my non-olive-loving daughter liked it. I wished the texture was a little more chewy than tender; and I wished I had chopped the olives more coarsely, to get a few OLIVE chunks in my slice. Maybe if there is a next time, I will leave the feta out and add some whole wheat, to make it more chewy. ... I have to say that although we liked this bread, we didn't go back to the loaf and it ended up getting moldy before we finished it.
Orange Honey Cracked Wheat Bread -
Sally Lunn Bread - another recipe that calls for the Sweet Cycle, which my machine does not have. The taste and texture is exactly like Arnold Brick Oven White Bread. Which is okay, but I'm not really trying to replicated a store brand bread here!
Yogurt Wheat Germ Bread - this was ... decent. The yogurt made the bread more sour than I expected. My kids liked it though!
New England Anadama Bread - Second Try - I managed to follow the recipe correctly this time and this was still excellent.
Other recipes that look interesting:
Blond Panettone
Double Cheese Onion Bread
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Loaf
Monique's Honey Wheat Bread
Irish Barm Bran Bread (say THAT three times fast!)
Amish seed Bread
Brown Seed Bread
Daffodil Bread
Hazlenut Chocolate Bread
3/9/19: I'm out of library renewals so I have to return this book, but I plan to check it out again, because there are still so many recipes I want to try!
February 25, 2025
The best recipe book for bread makers. I have been using it for 10 years now, gone through three bread making machines and it is a treasure!
November 21, 2012
Still haven't worked my way through all 300, but every one I have tried has been wonderful. I highly recommend this book for bread machines and I am NOT a great cook - these recipes are very easy to follow.
December 17, 2014
Some of the best bread recipes I have ever found are in this book. This book is for the cook who loves to experiment with their bread and make gourmet breads that make their family and guests swoon. You will even get special requests just as I have done.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews