Homemade bread people, a question

[Deleted]

So, I've been using my bread maker a few times a week for years, but it's on it's last legs. The seal is worn and lubricant gets kneaded into my dough. Yum.

 I would love to have one less kitchen appliance in my pantry. I don't use the bread maker to bake, just use it for the dough cycle and rise/bake in the oven.

So, instead of replacing it, I tried the 'artisan bread in five minutes a day' whole wheat master recipe. My results have not been good. The bread doesn't rise super well, and ends up feeling/tasting doughy, like its not cooked enough. 

Any advice on home made bread before I spend more money on another bread maker? Or breadmaker recs?

TIA!

[steph96]

That bread sucked for me too. Once I got the inside cooked to my liking, the outside was rock hard and burnt.

It is quite possible that I just suck at making bread.

[zelda25]

I'm skeptical of bread "shortcuts;" it HAS to have time to properly rise, and it needs a pretty warm environment to do that.  I turn on the oven before I start the dough, and then put the bowl with the dough on a back burner so it's getting a lot of warmth from the oven.  If your dough still isn't rising well, I'd suspect either old yeast, or too hot water in the yeast proofing.

[ghost]

I love my panasonic bread maker. I just got if for christmas. It is the one on amazon with the automatic yeast dispenser. It was given very high reviews. I love it. I haven't had a bad loaf yet. I bake in mine though. It does it all. I have not figured out why people would not bake in the bread maker. why did you not?
It has a timer so that I can set it for the finished time and it is ready precisely then. It starts at the appropriate time.
I love french bread in it! DH had hemochromatosis. So we have to be careful of the store bought bread because it is fortified with iron.(He can't have the iron) but it turns out perfect!!! We love it. I know it is an extra appliance in my basement but I make a loaf once a week. So it is worth it to me.I also know what goes into it and there are no preservatives.

[Deleted]

Feb 2, 2013 10:46:00 GMT -5 ghost said:

. I have not figured out why people would not bake in the bread maker. why did you not?

The reason I don't bake in it is because a) I don't like the paddle mark ( although I could probably figure out when to remove it), but more importantly, b) I don't like the shape of the breadmaker pan. My regular pan makes bread the perfect size for my toaster and my kids lunchbox. 

Carrots, that appliance looks great but they don't sell it anymore, or anything like it, according to google. 

Thanks all!

[belovedbride07]

I've never had a bread maker, and haven't been super impressed with the Artisan Bread recipes, either. I thought maybe I needed the real book instead of scavenging recipes from online.

For sandwich bread, I use the America's Test Kitchen recipe, and it turns out perfectly. I add some vital wheat gluten along with the WW flour, and it rises even better.

[whosthatgirl]

Do you have a KA mixer? I use mine to mix/kneed my bread dough. Since you're used to rising and baking on your own, this would work well for you.

[ally]

I have a bread machine, I used it often for years.  I agree with you about baking in the oven - better shape, no hole. 

Do you have a stand mixer?  For the past year I have used my Kitchen Aid to make dough, let it rise (sometimes in a warm oven - turned on for a few minutes, then turned off when I put the dough in), then cook in desired pan.  A bit more time consuming, but still not difficult.

[ghost]

Feb 2, 2013 10:54:40 GMT -5 @gingersb said:

Feb 2, 2013 10:46:00 GMT -5 ghost said:

. I have not figured out why people would not bake in the bread maker. why did you not?

The reason I don't bake in it is because a) I don't like the paddle mark ( although I could probably figure out when to remove it), but more importantly, b) I don't like the shape of the breadmaker pan. My regular pan makes bread the perfect size for my toaster and my kids lunchbox. 

Carrots, that appliance looks great but they don't sell it anymore, or anything like it, according to google. 

Thanks all!

Ahh. I didn't even think of that. The paddle mark doesn't bother me. We have a toaster oven so I haven't expereinced it not fitting in the toaster and we don't have kids so..That makes complete sense.

[doctorsbaby]

Feb 2, 2013 10:46:00 GMT -5 ghost said:

 I have not figured out why people would not bake in the bread maker. why did you not?

I don't bake in mine because I don't like the way the bread comes out. It always makes dense, tough bread & I've tried about a dozen different recipes in it. But I absolutely love the dough cycle, it does all the kneading and the first rise. All I have to do is shape it and let it rise the second time before I bake it. 

[fromage]

Have you tried the No Knead Bread recipe that was featured in the NY Times a while back? It's really easy and has always turned out stellar for me. I think the dutch oven is key. Also, I try to let it rise for the upper end of the range (18 hours) to really give the gluten time to develop. [a href="Have you tried the No Knead Bread recipe that was featured in the NY Times a while back? It's really easy and has always turned out stellar for me.
www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=0

ETA: Sorry, you were looking for a WW bread recipe. This is not, but still really good for a treat.

[sillygoosegirl]

Are you adding extra gluten to your whole wheat bread? It's really hard to make a decent whole wheat loaf without it. I use variations of the recipe below (with whole wheat and gluten, and I don't find the second rise helpful, so I skip it), and I find it fits my schedule better than the bread machine. I find it much easier to mix up the dough 24 hours in advance and come back to it at the same time the next day, than to deal with the timeline of the bread machine.

www.aresrocket.com/bread/

[drloretta]

how are you baking your artisan bread? Are you using the stone and/or the pan of water? I found it really does make a difference. I didn't like the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes, I much preferred the Artisan Bread book. But whole wheat can be tricky no matter what.

Another thing that may be causing issues is the measuring of ingredients. if you have a kitchen scale, it may give you better results and using the scoop and sweep from a measuring cup.

[Deleted]

RE: the Artisan bread, the stone really does help or you can cook it in a dutch oven or casserole dish to get really nice results. Have you checked your oven temp accuracy? Overdone outside / underdone inside might just be a too hot oven and adjusting 25* cooler would help.

Or there are always a million breadmakers cheap on kijiji because people never use them. If you're generally happy with a breadmaker, I'd just replace it.

[Deleted]

Now I feel like I am being difficult!

The first loaf from the five mins a day I did in a loaf pan (according to directions on their website), the second loaf i did on a pizza stone with the steam.  I bought wheat gluten just for this recipe as I never needed it for my breadmaker bread.

I will try the NYT recipe next. I can't seem to google a whole wheat variation though. I want at least 80% whole wheat ideally. And it really does need to be in a loaf shape for school lunches and toast.

I also thought of using my KA mixer, or my food processor but I still think its too much work to monitor the times (punch down, first/second rising, etc). I typically have the dough cycle going while I am doing something else/out of the house and come back to it. 

Token, its funny, I was just looking at kijiji before I came back to this post. But I can get one from Costco.ca for $67, so I will likely go that route.

 

[dragonfly08]

We couldn't live without our Zojirushi bread machine. We make a loaf at least every other day...we'd never keep up doing it by hand!

DH has tweaked and developed the recipe over the years into something that's really his own. But like a pp mentioned, we do add extra gluten and it makes a *huge* difference. Recently we ran out, and the loaves we baked while waiting for more to arrive (it's much cheaper to buy it in bulk online) were definitely not as good.

The paddle marks don't bother me. And our loaf pan is a better shape than the last two machines we owned. It's still taller than "normal" if we do a 2 lb. loaf, but cut in half makes a nice sized sandwich for my kids.

[meltoine]

There's an article about the guy who wrote the NYT recipe that ran alongside it. The article said you can use WW too. I've done up to 75% WW with good results, so I bet you could do 80%

[sillygoosegirl]

I think it helps to bake a few white loaves to get a feel for the consistency you are looking for. I feel like with whole wheat I am forever making small adjustments to get the consistency right, but I wouldn't have known what the right consistency looks like without following the white bread recipe a few times.

[winemaker06]

I use the regular Artisan method but make it 1/3 wheat. That works fine as-is, but as others have said, vital wheat gluten is essential if you're increasing the percentage of wheat.
It does take some time to get used to as well, so don't give up too quickly.

Otherwise when I make other things, I use my Kitchenaid mixer. I got it for mixing bread dough, but it's really nice for baking as well, so it gets more use than a bread machine.