Best Bread Machine Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is one drawback of using a bread machine? ›

One disadvantage of using a bread maker as opposed to your hands is that the paddles are typically fixed, meaning they remain in the dough when baking, often leaving a hole in the middle of the loaf.

Too much heat or humidity might lead to a too-quick rise and a crevice near the center of your bread. Conditions that are too cold might delay proofing or rising, resulting in a super-dense loaf. The bread machine works on a timer and hums along at its regular pace.

Making bread from a machine is marginally cheaper than buying it, as long as you eat bread frequently enough to offset the cost of the appliance. Specifically, I see this as an investment that's smart for households that go through bread quickly, like large families or homes with multiple roommates.

Some attribute the demise of the bread machine to the fact that cooks were just disappointed by their results. Lara Pizzorno, the author of Bread Machine Baking, chalked it up to food snobs who regarded the machine as “the electric equivalent of The Bridges of Madison County” in a 1996 article in The New York Times.

And because a bread machine is also more energy efficient than a home oven, creating a lot less heat in the kitchen, it can be an ideal way to bake bread when you're dealing with a warm environment or even if, for some reason, you need to bake bread but don't have access to a full kitchen.

King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, with its high gluten, is an excellent flour for bread machines. Numerous people have told us that their recipes worked in the bread machine using King Arthur, when they didn't work with other all-purpose flours.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

Move the dough (either in the bread machine pan or to another bowl) to a warmer location. This might hasten the rising process.

If you make a bread dough with all-purpose flour, the gluten network won't be as strong because of the lower protein content; this means the dough won't be able to stretch as much to accommodate those bubbles, resulting in smaller bubbles and bread with a tighter crumb.

Can you use regular flour in bread machine? ›

Yes, you can make it with all purpose flour. Yes, but it won't rise properly if you are just substituting in a recipe that calls for bread flour. There are soft style breads that use AP flour, but then that would be specified.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

For the best bread, controlling the temperature of the dough is just as important as proper ingredient measurements or good scoring. A dough that is too cold won't ferment at a rate that produces good volume, strength, or flavor.

A great way to add flavor to home-baked bread is to use a variety of herbs and spices. Whether you're looking to use up extra basil or rosemary before it loses flavor or are interested in bringing cloves, nutmeg, or poppy seeds into your bread baking, there are many possibilities and inspirational recipes.

If you enjoy making bread at home and want to have more control over the ingredients and customization of your bread, a bread maker can be a good investment. Additionally, it can save you money in the long run compared to buying store-bought bread.

Too little yeast, your bread won't rise sufficiently; too much, and it will rise and collapse. It's important to watch your dough as it rises and bakes; dough that has risen and collapsed may look just like dough that never rose at all, once it's baked.

RapidRise^® and Bread Machine Yeast are formulated and processed differently than Active Dry Yeast. RapidRise^® and Bread Machine Yeast are grown with a higher level of nutrients and are dried to lower moisture content.