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Bread Machine Baker
Enjoy the tantalizing taste and aroma of homemade bread from your own kitchen with easy bread machine recipes,
-Sally Lunn Bread
-Challah
-Chili Corn and Cheese Bread
-Brioche
-Mint and Yogurt Bread
-Oregano Parmesan Cheese Bread
-Bagels
-Tomato Basil Pizza Dough
-Piña Colada Bread
And much more!
-Sally Lunn Bread
-Challah
-Chili Corn and Cheese Bread
-Brioche
-Mint and Yogurt Bread
-Oregano Parmesan Cheese Bread
-Bagels
-Tomato Basil Pizza Dough
-Piña Colada Bread
And much more!
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 29, 2019
My fourth bread machine cookbook trial! (I'm just borrowing every bread machine cookbook my library has.) This one was dreadful. Every recipe I tried was a failure.
Initial impressions:
This book is really small!! Excluding a brief introduction, a few recipes for spreads, and a brief appendix and index, there are just 126 pages of recipes.
The recipes are clear and easy to read (thank you, black type on white background!), but they are not very specific - other bread machine cookbooks have given different amounts for different types of yeast, for example, but this book just calls for "yeast" and I guess you hope for the best? In the introduction she notes that caked yeast has the best flavor, dry yeast is second best, and "rapid rise" yeast has a bland flavor and the bread won't stay fresh for long - that's interesting! The other cookbooks I've tried had convinced me to buy the "rapid rise" (aka "bread machine") yeast, and now I have regrets! The recipes are all for 1 lb loaves, and she instructs us to just double it for a 2 lb loaf - I have my doubts (because the other cookbooks I've tried have said it's not a straight ratio), but I'll try that. Also, this is annoying - recipes that call for something like "7/8 c water" now require me to do math to double that. Let's see ... 2*7/8 = 14/8 = 1-6/8 = 1-3/4 ... that was annoying, and that was just once.
There is a recipe for "corn dog bread" and yes it includes bits of hot dog. I feel ill. I confess I do love corn dogs, but I am NOT trying that! There is a recipe for fruit cocktail bread that, yes, calls for a can of fruit cocktail. WTH? The copyright page SAYS 1995, but this sounds like it's straight outta the 70s. I thought I left that shit behind me with my childhood. (Actually, no one in my family cooked like that, but I was aware that recipes like that were "a thing" since I saw them in magazines. And actually actually, I do kind of want to try that corn dog bread.)
Things I liked:
- crisp, clean layout that is easy to read.
Things I didn't like:
- I have to do math (see above about doubling the recipes for 2 lb loaves).
- Recipes amounts are vague, such as "1/2 - 3/4 c milk, depending on how dry or wet your squash is (watch the dough and add as necessary)" (what does that MEAN? how do I know if it's too wet or too dry? when will it be "necessary"??)
- poor quality control - this was first published in 1995 and then my copy was republished in 2001 and I would think they could have caught all the typos in that time?
- Every recipe I tried was a complete failure.
Recipes I tried:
Malt bread (made with Carnation malt powder and I hope she means the kind you mix into milk because that's what I got) - this called for one TABLESPOON of salt (which I had to double, so ... TWO TABLESPOONS for the 4 c of flour), which is a lot for one loaf of bread. Which might be why it didn't really rise properly. I followed the recipe but I know now that was a typo, because - while the bread DID eventually rise during baking - it was unbearably salty. I actually felt nauseous after I ate a slice. The texture was very soft and tender, and it reminded me a lot of the dumplings my mom used to make with a chicken stew. Verdict: MAJOR FAIL. So ... what can I do with a loaf of incredibly salty bread? I thought about bread crumbs, but six hours later and I'm still feeling the effects of too-much-salt, so I think I'll have to throw it away :-(
Renaissance White Bread
This called for 2 t of salt for a 1 lb loaf, but I am EXTREMELY wary now, so I did NOT double that for my 2 lb loaf, because other recipes from other books tend to call for 2 t salt for 4 c flour (ie, a 2 lb loaf). So, here I am, only the second recipe tried and already I'm not following the recipe because I don't trust this book. This dough over-rose and over-rose and over-rose, possibly because I cut back on the salt. I opened the lid and punched it down once (in addition to the regular bread machine process) and right before baking I poked it back down again, but it still rose up and hit the lid, and then collapsed in the center. Slices look like a Cinderella ball gown. Flavor is okay, a little sour from over-rising (definitely doesn't taste like it needs more salt, but I'm still traumatized from the last loaf). Texture is extremely tender. Verdict: FAIL. I'm not impressed with this book so far.
Whole Wheat
Since the first two recipes I tried were complete disasters, I thought I'd get back to basics and just make ... whole wheat (which is really just half whole wheat). And I violated my usual rules and tinkered with this recipe a bit: I added 1 T gluten, and used brown sugar instead of white sugar. Verdict: BIGGEST FAIL YET. The dough was very wet, and loose, and when it overrose it didn't just push against the lid, it spilled over the edge of the pan, landed on the burners, and caught fire. So. That was fun.
Post-Script:
After so many FAIL recipes in a row, I started having doubts ... I wondered if perhaps the problem was with my bread machine, or my ingredients. Had my bread machine just stopped working properly? I cleaned it out as best as I could (and let me tell you, this was a pita - the folks who designed this bread machine did NOT have "easy clean" in mind, with exposed screw heads and the element supports preventing me from really getting into the crevices to wipe out the dough ...) and decided to make the recipe printed on the side of the machine again, as a sort of re-benchmark. Plus I knew I needed to burn off the rest of the burned-on gunk that was stuck to the heating element, so I might as well make a loaf of possibly-smoky bread while I was at it. And, it was fantastic!! It rose beautifully, the texture is airy yet firm, and the crust is phenomenal. The problem all along was with these crazy recipes that must not have been tested! From now on, if a trial recipe does not follow the water:flour ratio printed on the side of my machine, I'll be giving it some serious side-eye.
Initial impressions:
This book is really small!! Excluding a brief introduction, a few recipes for spreads, and a brief appendix and index, there are just 126 pages of recipes.
The recipes are clear and easy to read (thank you, black type on white background!), but they are not very specific - other bread machine cookbooks have given different amounts for different types of yeast, for example, but this book just calls for "yeast" and I guess you hope for the best? In the introduction she notes that caked yeast has the best flavor, dry yeast is second best, and "rapid rise" yeast has a bland flavor and the bread won't stay fresh for long - that's interesting! The other cookbooks I've tried had convinced me to buy the "rapid rise" (aka "bread machine") yeast, and now I have regrets! The recipes are all for 1 lb loaves, and she instructs us to just double it for a 2 lb loaf - I have my doubts (because the other cookbooks I've tried have said it's not a straight ratio), but I'll try that. Also, this is annoying - recipes that call for something like "7/8 c water" now require me to do math to double that. Let's see ... 2*7/8 = 14/8 = 1-6/8 = 1-3/4 ... that was annoying, and that was just once.
There is a recipe for "corn dog bread" and yes it includes bits of hot dog. I feel ill. I confess I do love corn dogs, but I am NOT trying that! There is a recipe for fruit cocktail bread that, yes, calls for a can of fruit cocktail. WTH? The copyright page SAYS 1995, but this sounds like it's straight outta the 70s. I thought I left that shit behind me with my childhood. (Actually, no one in my family cooked like that, but I was aware that recipes like that were "a thing" since I saw them in magazines. And actually actually, I do kind of want to try that corn dog bread.)
Things I liked:
- crisp, clean layout that is easy to read.
Things I didn't like:
- I have to do math (see above about doubling the recipes for 2 lb loaves).
- Recipes amounts are vague, such as "1/2 - 3/4 c milk, depending on how dry or wet your squash is (watch the dough and add as necessary)" (what does that MEAN? how do I know if it's too wet or too dry? when will it be "necessary"??)
- poor quality control - this was first published in 1995 and then my copy was republished in 2001 and I would think they could have caught all the typos in that time?
- Every recipe I tried was a complete failure.
Recipes I tried:
Malt bread (made with Carnation malt powder and I hope she means the kind you mix into milk because that's what I got) - this called for one TABLESPOON of salt (which I had to double, so ... TWO TABLESPOONS for the 4 c of flour), which is a lot for one loaf of bread. Which might be why it didn't really rise properly. I followed the recipe but I know now that was a typo, because - while the bread DID eventually rise during baking - it was unbearably salty. I actually felt nauseous after I ate a slice. The texture was very soft and tender, and it reminded me a lot of the dumplings my mom used to make with a chicken stew. Verdict: MAJOR FAIL. So ... what can I do with a loaf of incredibly salty bread? I thought about bread crumbs, but six hours later and I'm still feeling the effects of too-much-salt, so I think I'll have to throw it away :-(
Renaissance White Bread
This called for 2 t of salt for a 1 lb loaf, but I am EXTREMELY wary now, so I did NOT double that for my 2 lb loaf, because other recipes from other books tend to call for 2 t salt for 4 c flour (ie, a 2 lb loaf). So, here I am, only the second recipe tried and already I'm not following the recipe because I don't trust this book. This dough over-rose and over-rose and over-rose, possibly because I cut back on the salt. I opened the lid and punched it down once (in addition to the regular bread machine process) and right before baking I poked it back down again, but it still rose up and hit the lid, and then collapsed in the center. Slices look like a Cinderella ball gown. Flavor is okay, a little sour from over-rising (definitely doesn't taste like it needs more salt, but I'm still traumatized from the last loaf). Texture is extremely tender. Verdict: FAIL. I'm not impressed with this book so far.
Whole Wheat
Since the first two recipes I tried were complete disasters, I thought I'd get back to basics and just make ... whole wheat (which is really just half whole wheat). And I violated my usual rules and tinkered with this recipe a bit: I added 1 T gluten, and used brown sugar instead of white sugar. Verdict: BIGGEST FAIL YET. The dough was very wet, and loose, and when it overrose it didn't just push against the lid, it spilled over the edge of the pan, landed on the burners, and caught fire. So. That was fun.
Post-Script:
After so many FAIL recipes in a row, I started having doubts ... I wondered if perhaps the problem was with my bread machine, or my ingredients. Had my bread machine just stopped working properly? I cleaned it out as best as I could (and let me tell you, this was a pita - the folks who designed this bread machine did NOT have "easy clean" in mind, with exposed screw heads and the element supports preventing me from really getting into the crevices to wipe out the dough ...) and decided to make the recipe printed on the side of the machine again, as a sort of re-benchmark. Plus I knew I needed to burn off the rest of the burned-on gunk that was stuck to the heating element, so I might as well make a loaf of possibly-smoky bread while I was at it. And, it was fantastic!! It rose beautifully, the texture is airy yet firm, and the crust is phenomenal. The problem all along was with these crazy recipes that must not have been tested! From now on, if a trial recipe does not follow the water:flour ratio printed on the side of my machine, I'll be giving it some serious side-eye.
March 16, 2025
3.5 stars
I’ve had this cookbook and a bread machine for decades. I dug both out of storage & have been using both of them. I have not made all the recipes. The basic white bread, French bread, English muffin bread, cheddar cheese bread, croissants (makes the dough - you do the rest), and pizza dough have all turned out well. I saw someone else’s review complaining the recipes are too salty. In one case she misread teaspoon & used a tablespoon. Another example she cited was correct & I would have automatically reduced the salt by half. The salt is necessary for the yeast to work but we all have different tolerances for salt.
I’ve had this cookbook and a bread machine for decades. I dug both out of storage & have been using both of them. I have not made all the recipes. The basic white bread, French bread, English muffin bread, cheddar cheese bread, croissants (makes the dough - you do the rest), and pizza dough have all turned out well. I saw someone else’s review complaining the recipes are too salty. In one case she misread teaspoon & used a tablespoon. Another example she cited was correct & I would have automatically reduced the salt by half. The salt is necessary for the yeast to work but we all have different tolerances for salt.
December 19, 2020
We have tried a couple of the recipes and hope to try several more.
Read
May 3, 2007I'm a really good by-hand bread maker, and a couple of years ago, I bought myself a bread machine. I figured it would be easier, less time-consuming, and I'd bake bread more often. Everybody wins, right? Instead, I set the thing on fire and had to put its smoldering remnants in the back yard so they wouldn't set off the smoke alarm. I suppose the moral is that technology != labor-saving convenience. I still have my bread machine cookbooks; I never got a loaf out of the machine, so I couldn't tell you if they're any good or not, though.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews