"bread machine" news and stories

Happy Bread Machine Baking Month!

Baking bread in a machine may sound counterintuitive, since bread is often a fussy process when it comes to the addition of ingredients, the degree of kneading, the distance from heat, etc. But with the use of bread machines, a golden loaf of bread has never been so easy.

The New Food Lover's Companion summarizes bread makers as follows: "computer-driven machines that mix, knead, rise, punch down, bake and sometimes cool bread." The first bread machine was invented in Japan in 1986, and became popular in the United States, Great Britain and Australia by the 1990s. Although bread machines can produce loaves of different shapes and sizes, each model shares the same core components: a nonstick canister that serves as the mixing bowl, baking pan and oven all at once, a motorized blade that shifts the dough as needed, and a heating coil to bake the bread.

To get started on your own motorized bread making, the Bread Machine Digest seems to have all the answers, from machine recommendations to tried-and-true recipes.

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There are a lot of gluten-free bread mixes on the market from a number of different companies, but Bob's Red Mill is one brand that I see most often, as they carry it prominently at Whole Foods. Reading the packaging on some of their yeast mixes, I noticed that they gave instructions for making the dough in a bread machine and I couldn't help but wonder if the dough would develop properly under such conditions, as even though the yeast will thrive in the bread machine environment, the ingredients are quite unlike the typical flours used in bread. Odds are, they probably work out reasonably well or the company would not continue to instruct people to use the machines. If you want to make GF bread on a regular basis, however, you might want to consider switching to a machine that has an actual gluten-free cycle programmed in to it. The Breadman TR875 is the first one that I've heard of that is equipped with such a feature. The stainless steel machine can handle up to 2-pound loaves and also offers pasta, jam, and pizza-dough cycles.

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