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Atkins, rolling in his grave

bread

 

 

This is the breadmaker Sandy Claws brought Uncle B. At least, I think it’s this one. I got the picture off the web; I’m too lazy to go into the kitchen with a camera.

Yeah, still a holiday here. Because New Year’s fell on a Sunday, we got today off.

Don’t understand, but happy to accept it at face value.

He’s made a couple of excellent loaves just with the instruction book, but we were both a bit surprised to find there didn’t seem to be any good breadmaker forums online. I guess once you get it down, there’s not much to talk about.

Anybody know anything new and interesting to do with a breadmaker? ‘Possum stew or other regional favorite?

 

 

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 2, 2017, 9:09 pm

By the way, did anyone check out Venus tonight? HOLY SHIT it was bright!


Comment from drew458
Time: January 2, 2017, 9:23 pm

If B made good loaves with just the instruction manual, wait till you try flour and yeast. Vast improvement!!

Google or Bing will return 100s of recipe pages; for a forum try http://www.thefreshloaf.com/forums/general-discussion-and-recipe-exchange/bread-machine-recipes


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 2, 2017, 9:24 pm

Oh, he took a picture hisself. Ain’t it a beaut?


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: January 2, 2017, 9:39 pm

When are you going to make beer? I read that all Medieval housewives brewed beer and sold it from their homes which attracted the taxman – spit!

ps: That is a beautiful loaf. I was never big on kneading bread so a machine doing it for you is great. How did it taste?

pps: It’s a holiday in the States, too. In fact, today is the Rose Bowl.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: January 2, 2017, 9:51 pm

To tell you the troof, we did have a breadmaker some years ago – an LG. It was… OK is the best I could say of it and we soon grew tired of it.

I’d heard they’d got better and had always heard that Panasonic made the best ones, so I dropped a few hints.

The first batch I made was from a mix (we were in a hurry) and it was good, but the loaf in the pic was ‘the real thing’ made with strong bread flour from Canuckiland, yeast, butter and so on. This one tasted incredibly good but it took over four hours, which means you either need to set it up the night before you want it for breakfast, or get up early if you want it for lunch.

I’m still working on all this (especially the getting up early bit). So far, so good.

Oh, and her Stoatliness has made beer. Lord knows what it tasted like. Can’t abide the stuff, meself.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: January 2, 2017, 10:13 pm

“Can’t abide the stuff, meself.”

But…but…you’re British. How can this be??


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: January 2, 2017, 10:22 pm

Dunno, Ric Fan. I’ve always hated the very smell of beer, let alone the taste.


Comment from NancyB
Time: January 2, 2017, 11:00 pm

I had a breadmaker for a few years but gave up on it. The bread was very good the first day, OK the second, then went stale. It probably needed preservatives of some kind. I was throwing away a lot of bread.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: January 2, 2017, 11:55 pm

“I was throwing away a lot of bread.”

Bread pudding with Whiskey Sauce.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: January 2, 2017, 11:56 pm

You can make Atkins forgive you for buying a bread maker by slicing up some good salami or pepperoni very thinly and then cutting the slices in half and mixing them into the bread dough as it mixes…

After you’ve run out of pepperoni, you can bake small bits of cheese into the mix.

I also like to make a loaf with pieces of pitted kalamata olives and rosemary (I use olive oil instead of butter for this bread).

There is nothing more dangerous and nothing more wonderful than a bread maker with a timer that allows you to have warm, fresh bread for breakfast.

As NancyB points out above, make the smallest loaf you can, so you can eat it all in one day….and then make more fresh for tomorrow’s breakfast.


Comment from gromulin
Time: January 3, 2017, 12:38 am

If it could make good, chewy sourdough, or that rosemary and olive oil kind of foccacia bread, I would go all-in. If it can be dipped in balsamic and oil, I’m there.


Comment from Janna
Time: January 3, 2017, 12:39 am

Nothing beats waking up to the smell of fresh bread and coffee on a lazy Sunday morning!
The first time I used the new bread maker my son came in my bedroom at 3:30am convinced that the neighbor was going to run down his car battery if he didn’t quit cranking on the engine. I told him it was the new bread machine. He was not amused. It really did sound like someone trying to start a car.
Is yours quiet? I’m ready for a new machine.


Comment from BJM
Time: January 3, 2017, 3:15 am

Try searching on “bread machine”…lots of sites.

Yummly is a good resource for tasty recipes of any stripe:

http://www.yummly.co/recipes/2-lb-bread-machine


Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: January 3, 2017, 8:10 am

Dislike of beer is a Badger Thing. I can’t stand it either. Nasty, nasty stuff.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: January 3, 2017, 4:11 pm

I don’t know of any breadmaker forums, but Deb at Smitten Kitchen has a lot bread recipes and she provides charming commentary and exquisite instructions. She gets a lot of response and cheerfully—patiently—answers questions.

My own instructions (after 9 yrs. of breadmaker experience)
1. sift the flour twice, always. I’m not kidding.
2. measure ingredients precisely, always.
3. have all ingredients at room temperature, always.

I typically prepare and measure the ingredients early in the day and let them sit on the counter until 2 p.m. or so, then load and fire the breadmaker. The bread is done in three hours, just when Husband is getting home from work. He has a piece of hot buttered bread with a beer, and I have wine. This makes him a very happy man (yesterday was our 47th wedding anniversary). By evening the bread has cooled completely and I store it in a 2 gallon ziplock bag.


Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: January 3, 2017, 4:37 pm

Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: January 3, 2017, 8:10 am
Dislike of beer is a Badger Thing. I can’t stand it either. Nasty, nasty stuff.

*
*
In my Drinking Days ™, I was all in for beer (and nearly anything else with an alcoholic content except, maybe, vanilla extract). I quit that life a number of years ago. Now, when I catch a whiff of beer on someone’s breath, I think, “Skunk!” and “My God, did I smell like that back then???”


Comment from Niña
Time: January 3, 2017, 6:00 pm

I don’t like beer, either. Maybe I’m a badger?

I love my bread maker, but with just me I seldom fire it up. Bread lasts forever in my house these days!


Comment from BJM
Time: January 3, 2017, 10:02 pm

@drew – I love that site! I recently made the fig & walnut whole grain on the main page (not a machine recipe)…it was so good.

I bake bread at least twice a week, usually the overnight rise, no-knead-bake-in-a-dutch-oven kind…coz it’s so easy, crunchy, and hits all the right notes without the angst involved with artisan loaves.

Do you remember Jenny Jones, the blond comedian/talk show host from the 90’s? She has a good cooking channel on Youtube. Just search on her name, she has an even simpler no-knead bread that’s ready to bake in 3 hours.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 3, 2017, 10:16 pm

Janna, our first bread machine — the LG — shrieked and screamed. It really was awful. I assume the paddle was scraping the basin.

This one is silent, as far as I can tell. I’m not sure I’ve stood over it while it was mixing, though.


Comment from John
Time: January 4, 2017, 6:04 pm

fwiw – if you can find whole spelt flour, it can make a really good loaf. Just as healthy as whole wheat but without the brick thing…basic recipe – 1 cup water, 1 Tbls Oil, 1 Tbls Honey, 3 Cups Whole Spelt Flour, 1 teasp yeast, 1 teasp salt…


Comment from AliceH
Time: January 5, 2017, 2:12 pm

I acknowledge freshly baked bread is best, but I find it… inconvenient. And I hate throwing out spoiled food. My current system: I make two loaves at a time, slice them, put them in 4 separate freezer bags. I keep only what I need for a few days in the refrigerator, the rest in the freezer. As I use that up I just take out a few day’s slices from the freezer at a time. It tastes better than store bought, but obviously not as good as just out of the oven.

My bread maker stopped working a while ago. I have been trying out using my stand mixer with a dough hook. I was disappointed that the only “time saver” that offers is eliminating manual kneading — a step I actually enjoy and find easy.

I swear I’ve seen some non-bread things that can be made in a breadmaker. If I find them, I’ll pass them along.

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