Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with breadmachine

Knead help converting a bread machine recipe to an oven.

kimberussell — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:20:09 -0800

My grandmother's in heaven, my bread machine is in the trash and my family can't wait to have Easter Bread next weekend. Help me successfully get this recipe back in the oven where it originated. My Italian granny used to make what she called "Easter Bread" every year until she passed away 10 years ago. It's a sweet bread. Her "recipe" consisted only of a scrawled list of ingredients. After she passed I messed around with my bread machine and those ingredients until I came as close as I could to her recipe. Since then I make 5 or 6 loaves of this bread for my family every Easter, and they are pleased.

BUT ... my bread machine has broken and my budget doesn't allow for the replacement that I want for a while. Shamefully, I've never made bread before without one and Easter is fast approaching. (You can hear Mom-Mom laughing at me now, right? I sure do.)

I'd look for another conventional recipe, but other Italian Easter bread recipes online have almonds, raisins, or orange/citrus flavoring. They also mention braiding the dough around dyed eggs. All of that is intriguing to me, but my family is fond of the plain loaf.

This weekend I plan on testing the recipe but before I start wasting ingredients, I have some questions for the experienced bakers here.

1) I don't even own a loaf pan. What size conventional loaf pans should I buy?

2) The recipe makes a single 1.5 lb loaf, but my bread machine loaves were tall and squat. Would the below recipe make two "normal" loaves?

3) After mixing the dough, how long should I let it rise? Do I let it rise twice?

Here's the bread machine recipe in case anyone is curious...

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm whole or 2% milk
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 or 3 teaspoons anise flavoring, as desired
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup soft room temp. butter
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Put ingredients in the bread maker on the sweet bread setting, medium crust, 1.5 lb loaf.

When bread is finished, cool, glaze if desired and bring to Easter dinner, where everyone ignores the tell-tale bread machine hole in the bottom of the loaf and tells you that Mom Mom would be so proud of you for keeping up this tradition.

Any tips or tricks you can offer would be well-appreciated. Thanks!!

I got an awesome used bread machine, how do I clean it?

el io — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:27:27 -0800

It's a great machine, but the blade is stuck to the pan. The cleaning instructions with it (Sanyo) say not to soak water in then pan for that long, and certainly don't use abrasiveness; makes sense it's a non-stick coating. It also says not to use vinegar to clean it. I tried pulling it out with a set of pliers with cloth around them, also tried soaking 45 minutes or so, but the blade seems quite stuck. I noticed scrape marks around the paddle/blade as well, suggesting the previous owner was having trouble getting it off as well.

Real bread from nothing but rice?

ambrosen — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:57:59 -0800

Has anyone tried making gluten-free bread with the Sanyo Gopan bread maker? This is a machine that takes in whole raw rice and mills it into bread in the machine. I'd love to know how well it works because currently I have no bread substitute. On top of whatever (apparently not cœliac, but severe enough to keep my Crohn's out of remission) gluten sensitivity I have, I also have Crohn's disease, and big problems with the cellulose gums (xanthan gum, guar gum, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, etc) that make gluten free breads a tolerable facsimile of muggle bread. If anyone's got any experience with this machine, I'd love to know, before I go about finding the £500 which might finally give me a reliable convenient portable source of nutrition.

Bread machine recipes I can eat!

DoubleLune — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:14:12 -0800

What are your favorite low-cal bread machine recipes? I have a bread machine. I am counting calories according to my nutritionist's instructions. Bread generally is a lot of calories for a slice, but my boyfriend and I like to make bread. I have a 1-pound bread machine and would like to find some good recipes that I can eat without feeling guilty.

Bonus: all the loaves I've made come out unbaked in the top middle if I don't add about 2 tablespoons of flour. Is this more likely the recipes, or will I have to add flour to all of my recipes? I live in Philly, so it's a pretty moderate climate.

Gimme your bread tips!

Tarumba — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:09:39 -0800

Is there such a thing as the perfect recipe for French Bread? Also, how do you schedule your breadmaking in real life? I would like to start making bread regularly. Other kinds are fine, but I love, love, love French bread.

I have

an old bread machine (Welbilt model ABM4900)
A kitchenaid
a reasonable amount of time off
a reasonable budget for ingredients

Questions:

-->Are there any classic, minimalistic recipes out there that you have tried? The one in my machine's manual calls for shortening (something I thought French bread didn't have) this one looks promising, but I'm not sure if the oven temperature is F or C...

-->Should I use the bread machine, o should I just make it by hand?

-->For those who bake bread regularly, how often do you bake it? Is there a way of preparing something in advance, freezing the dough, or refrigerating it so I can just pop it in the oven?

*I have tried the no-knead bread, and it was fun, but I dream of baguettes.

What should I do with my Bread Machine?

otherwordlyglow — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:18:43 -0800

What are your best bread and non-bread recipes for a bread machine? Just got a used Breadman bread machine and am eager to explore. It came with a brief collection of recipes but I'd like more ideas. I've also heard that you can make jam and chutney in them. Anything else? Online recipe archives would be particularly useful.

I've made tons of bread by hand before and I'm over the kneading. Sometimes I use my Kitchenaid for kneading but I'm intrigued by the all-in-one approach and don't mind a decrease in artisanal quality to get there.

Where can I buy gluten?

stupidsexyFlanders — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:03:40 -0800

I'm trying to make a breadmachine recipe that wants me to use gluten. A) why and 2) Where do I buy it? Prefer a local source. Live in Philly suburbs. Tried Acme, Trader Joes, and the giant Giant in Willow Grove. Everyone makes the same joke: Well, we have lots of gluten-free stuff -- but that's not really what you want, is it? HAHAHAHAHAH

Also, what if I don't use it?

Robot boulanger: Want to bake fresh whole grain bread

Listener — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:04:52 -0800

Wanted: tips for whole grain bread making and bread machines My husband got an inexpensive bread machine (Sunbeam 5891-33) and we're underwhelmed by its seeming limitations. We haven't tried it yet, but the recipes seem to require gluten if you don't want to use white flour. I'm wondering if a basic bread machine is going to allow much flexibility, or is it going to be strict following a recipe all the way? This link implies maybe there's a fair bit of flexibility. Is a bread machine worth it? Bread has become expensive, and we do like bread, so I encouraged his desire to try this. Maybe a fancier model is what we need?

How to make my bread less dense?

NoMich — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:41:54 -0800

How to make my bread less dense? I just picked up a Breadman bread maker and we've made a few loaves with it. I mostly like the bread that it makes, but is there a way to make it less dense?
We're using Pillsbury's bread flour made for bread machines and Red Star's active dry yeast.

Where's my bread machine mix?

maryn — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:07:50 -0800

Where can I buy ready-made mix in bulk for my bread machine? I had a bread machine when I lived in Australia and it was easy as pie. My grocery sold 5 and 10kg bags of multigrain mix. All we had to do was add the yeast and the water, turn on the machine and let it go.

So when my mother complained about high fructose corn syrup in American bread, I had the perfect Christmas gift! Except that I appear unable to buy that same pre-mixed goodness in bulk.

I know that individual box mixes exist, but they're about 2-3 dollars a pop; she can just buy bakery bread for that price. The mix I bought in Oz was about $5 for a 5kg bag.

So, anyone know where to find what I'm looking for? I've already tried Whole Foods, Trader Joes and some other mainstream places, and no dice. Thanks!