When you make your own bread, you can also make healthy choices by controlling fats, salt, sugar, and adding grains and nutritious fruits to the dough. You can also shape the dough into rolls, buns, braided or round loaves. This collection of 100 simple and enticing bread machine recipes offers a delectable array of breads, from classic white loaves to healthy flax bread to elegant, special-occasion Pannetone and everything in between. With a few simple steps, and the push of a button, you can fill your house with the glorious aromas
Final verdict: Fantastic!If this were still in print, I'd be buying myself a copy. Correction: It IS still in print!!! My previous search terms just didn't turn it up.
This turned out to be a great cookbook, and I was "lucky" enough to have it borrowed from the library during the 2020 COVID Pandemic (aka "that time when everyone stayed home and rediscovered the joys of homemade bread"), so I had lots and LOTS of time with it, and I was able to sample quite a few recipes. It's difficult to compare fairly, since I had so much extra time to use this book, but I think this is the best bread machine cookbook I've tried so far. Too bad it appears to be out of print, or I'd buy myself a copy.
First impressions: my library copy is a heavy-duty paperback which lies flat okay but the copy is twenty years old and the binding is starting to let go of the pages; a good cookbook should have a stronger binding. The intro is blah and the "tips" included with each recipe often feel like afterthoughts (example: on the recipe for potato bread, the tip is to keep fresh garlic away from yeast since it inhibits the yeast ... but there is no garlic in this recipe, so why is this here?). Recipes are clear and easy to read with black print on white paper. Each recipe is offered in "large" and "extra-large" versions - my bread machine is for 2 lb loaves so I used the "extra-large" quantities.
Recipes I Tried
French bread Verdict: Fantastic!!
Mock Sourdough (as someone who loves sourdough but can't seem to get an actual sourdough starter to live, you know I'm trying this one!) Verdict: tastes and looks great! But it's not sourdough - this should just be called "yogurt bread." Recipe called for lowfat yogurt but I only had whole milk yogurt, which made the bread very tender. This made excellent toast the next day.
Basic pizza dough This is actually the first time I used just the "dough" cycle on my bread machine! Wegmans was out of the whole wheat pizza dough and we wanted to make pizza today; I followed the "whole wheat variation" which - full disclosure - I completely made up on my own, and involved subbing 1 c whole wheat flour plus 1 T sugar for 1 c white flour. (In fairness, they have a "multigrain variation" that is similar, so I'm not completely winging it here.) Verdict: excellent!! It's likely that I will never again buy storemade pizza dough, this was very easy and very good.
I was going to try the blueberry swirl sour cream bread next, but that got ixnayed by the peanut gallery, so ...
buttermilk bread This is an old favorite at this point thanks to past cookbook trials. Verdict: Success This had A LOT of sesame seeds in it, which other family members were not happy about, but I found it makes EXCELLENT toast. And it's all for meeeeeeee.
Hovis bread According to the cookbook, "Hovis flour" was developed in England in the 1880s by Richard Smith as a blend of wheat germ & white flour, originally known as "Smith's Patent Germ Flour" (yeah I can see where that name needed to be changed). They held a national competition for a new name, and a London student came up with "Hovis" from the Latin hominis vis, "the strength of man." What the cookbook does not explain is why this recipe for "Hovis bread" includes white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and soy flour, if the original was just white flour & wheat germ. Also, the helpful tip with this recipe notes that you should not store wheat germ in the freezer because that destroys the Vitamin E. Oops!! That info is several months too late for me and my freezer-stored wheat germ. Verdict: Success. My whole-grain-loving daughter gave this two thumbs up, she declared it a new favorite. I thought it was ... decent. Not my favorite, but it was certainly a successful loaf of bread. Made kind of dry toast.
blueberry swirl sour cream bread The recipe calls for "light sour cream" and lowfat milk and - while I do usually have skim milk in the fridge, I did not today, so I used whole milk, and ... I'm sorry, but only a MONSTER would use "light" sour cream, so I used regular because that's what I have. It should be okay, but maybe a bit softer than regular bread. The recipe says not to be alarmed when the dough becomes very moist & sticky after adding the blueberries, but HOLY COW did it become moist and sticky! I am officially alarmed!! It's on it's first rise as I write this, and it looks like a lump of bread dough floating in a sea of blueberry pudding. I ... guess that's how the "swirl" happens later, when this mess gets folded in before the second rise? Verdict: success It did indeed bake into a regular loaf of bread, but I'm not exactly in love. I hoped it would actually have a "swirl" and the end piece does show a bit of swirl, but the rest of the loaf, not so much, it just sort of part of it is golden and part of it is purplish. It had a very cakey texture, partly intentional (this recipe was inspired by muffins) and partly because I used whole-fat-everything. I thought some of the blueberries would survive whole, and I would get a burst of blueberry flavor now and then, but they all got beaten up by the blades.
honey & wheat English muffin bread The cookbook cautions to not be alarmed if you get a sunken top, "it occurs naturally with the traditional coarse texture." And sure enough, the top was sunken, the bread was baked through, and the texture was coarse and English-muffin-like! This is a non-fat bread, so it's quite crusty. The flavor is a little odd somehow, but I can't put my finger on why - maybe it needs more salt, or some molasses, or something else. Verdict: success!
east coast brown bread This recipe calls for crushed shredded wheat AND Grape Nuts, plus molasses and brown sugar. I thought "brown bread" would entail whole wheat, but it was all white flour. It came out rather sweet, and I wasn't crazy about the Grape Nuts in the bread because I do not like "stuff" in my bread (those of you who love bread with nuts or sunflower seeds may like this one a lot). Now I've got a lot of plain shredded wheat left over that I'm not sure what to do with. Maybe I'll make this recipe again with just shredded wheat added. Verdict: a successful loaf but I wasn't crazy about it.
spiced apricot and oatmeal bread The "spice" in question here is nutmeg, which I'm not crazy about, so I used mostly cinnamon instead, with just a small bit of nutmeg; also, I was in a rush so I didn't measure the orange zest, I just put in zest from one orange, which was likely less than the full one tablespoon called for, which is fine because I don't like a lot of orange/lemon zest in my bread. Verdict: success!!! This was really tasty with a very nice texture, I enjoyed it both hot out of the bread machine and at room temperature later (and I'm about to enjoy it as toast). I'm pleased with the small changes I made to the recipe, reducing both the orange zest & nutmeg, and toasting the wheat germ before adding.
At this point I made the French bread again because it was just so damned good. It was even better than we remembered - that loaf lasted about three days before it was all gone.
Cajun cornmeal bread This recipe calls for oregano, basil, thyme, and garlic powder, as well as some chopped bell pepper & jalapeno pepper. I'm not a fan of garlic powder so I didn't add the full 1/2 t and I'm already glad I did - I can smell it now as the dough rises, and I hate that smell. The directions say to add the chopped peppers at the "add ingredient" signal, which is fine, but the directions also say to check the dough consistency at the "add ingredient" signal. Well, I just added chopped peppers, so the dough is now very moist. Is that okay? I don't know! Should I add flour? I have no idea! I ended up sprinkling another few tablespoons of flour on top, but by the time I did it, the knead cycle was over, so I don't know if it will help or not ... Verdict: Success! All of the cornmeal makes this a very tender bread, so I had to be careful picking up the slices. It's not spicy at all, which was disappointing, but that might be because I used canned jalapenos. The predominant flavor here is "bell pepper" which I confess is not my favorite flavor, so this isn't my favorite bread, but it's still a successful recipe. The cookbook recommends toasting this with cheese, and that's an excellent recommendation! My daughter found that adding some scrambled egg on top makes it even more excellent.
At this point I made the French bread AGAIN because - yes - it was just so damned good. And we're all stuck at home for the quarantine, so why not?
Caribbean banana bread The recipe says it can be seasoned with nutmeg OR cinnamon, so I chose cinnamon. This smells exactly like regular banana bread! Verdict: success!! This was sweet, but not too sweet; the banana flavor was noticeable, but not overwhelming; the crust is tender, but still a bit crunchy. This was best fresh; after a few days it began to seem overly dry.
pesto and sun-dried tomato bread The recipe calls for 1.5 teaspoons of minced fresh garlic, which sounded like FAR too much garlic to me (especially considering this also has garlic in the pesto), so I cut wayyyy back on that. It also called for 1/2 cup dry sun-dried tomatoes. Now, first of all, I have never tried to chop dry sun-dried tomatoes, I've always dealt with them either oil-packed or soaked in boiling water. Dry, they have the texture of shoe-leather. I am not even exaggerating, my quite sharp knife could make very little headway in chopping them. Good thing they were already julienned! Also, I only had 1/4 cup of dry, so I added another 1/4 cup of oil-packed, which lead to a dilemma. The recipe instructed me to add dry with other ingredients, but to add oil-packed at the "add ingredient" signal (after initial kneading is completed) because otherwise they would become pureed by the kneading blades. But I had a measuring cup full of both, and I wanted to be sure the shoe leather tomatoes had PLENTY time to absorb moisture from the bread dough, so I split the difference and added them five minutes into the first kneading cycle. I pictured this bread being very pretty with a swirl of bright green pesto in it - hahahah! the pesto becomes incorporated into the dough, so the dough is vaguely green with green and red flecks. Verdict: success ... although I'm not sure if this recipe will be a favorite. The bread is tender, not crusty. The dominant flavor is GARLIC (so I'm glad I cut back on the amount!!), I can hardly detect the pesto. I added the optional red pepper flakes (only 1/8 t, not the 1/4 t in the recipe) and every now and then I get a POW peppery bit, I'm really surprised they are having such an effect. The little bits of sun-dried tomatoes are delightful flavor-bursts. I can report that the dry bits are now succulent, and the oil-packed bits were pulverized into the dough, combined with the pesto to give the dough a soft earthy orange color.
potato bread (made with potato flakes) Verdict: success!! Wonderful texture and great flavor, much better than that store-bough potato bread that is gummy and sweet. This bread slices beautifully!! I made professionally thin slices for sandwiches!
apple juice and cornmeal bread Verdict: a successful loaf, but maybe not a favorite. This bread is made with thawed apple juice concentrate, and it has a surprisingly strong apple flavor. It was a sweet-sour flavor when fresh that mellowed quite a bit by the next day. But ... I don't really like apples! (yes so call me a dummy for making apple juice bread). It makes nice toast, and the cookbook suggests using this to make grilled cheese, so I'll try that next.
confetti cheese bread This calls for cheddar, shredded carrot, and diced & green bell peppers, but ... confession: I actually don't like bell peppers (so why am I making this? well - how can I resist that name?) So I substituted a little bit of frozen corn & chopped green scallions for some of the peppers. It also calls for 1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and I'm not that kind of cook to buy a seasoning mix, so I had to wing it a bit there. The carrots and red pepper give the dough a pinkish hue, but the vegetables have mostly held their shape, and this bread is very pretty. Verdict: success! It's very pretty. I don't like bell peppers, and that continued with this bread, but my daughter loved this. Apparently it's very good when toasted and served with scrambled eggs and cheese.
Double ginger and oatmeal bread I like ginger and I like oatmeal but I never thought to put the two flavors together, so I'm a little skeptical, but hopeful that this will be a new favorite. I'm wondering why this does not have molasses in it, because I always expect gingery baked goods to also have molasses. The crystalized ginger I used was pretty old, but that stuff lasts forever, right? Verdict: a successful loaf ... but not a favorite. The ginger flavor is both subtle and strong at once, I honestly can't decide if I like it or not! Lily gave it a vigorous thumbs down, and fed her piece to the dogs. (The dogs liked it.) The crystallized ginger remained in big chunks, and I wish I had chopped them up a bit - I thought the bread machine blades would moosh them up, but they did not. So every now and then a bite says GINGER!!!! ... Upon further reflection, this makes decent cinnamon toast, but I'm probably not going to make it again. I do like the texture though, so I'm considering trying it again without the ginger added, just as oatmeal bread.
black forest bread This recipe has cocoa, plus chocolate chips (I used big chunks from Nestle) and maraschino cherries added at the "add ingredients" signal. It smells good. I tried adding gradually, but the kneading blades tore up most of the cherries so this may or may not be a hot mess. Verdict: Excellent! Unfortunately all the chocolate chunks stayed next to the pan and did not get kneaded in, and the cherries all were pulverized by the blades so there are not chunks of cherry, but overall this was damned good bread. The cookbook suggested having it with mascarpone or cream cheese, and I don't have any mascarpone on hand, but I did try it with cream cheese, and I prefer it with butter. It's a snack that is so luxe, it's like dessert.
Holy cow I think I just ran out of space in this review!!! That's a first for me.