Culinary Tips

Now while I loved my old bread machine, it took a tumble and fell off the counter and then didn’t work so well.  So, we got a new one – a Breadman BK1060BC. Maybe it proofs a little warmer than the old one, or maybe it’s the new yeast I bought, but we haven’t had much luck with mixing and baking our old bread machine recipes in the Breadman.  It is perfect for making dough, however, and we have a convection oven to bake in anyways.

I almost prefer to mix my bread in the machine and bake it in the oven.  That way you get to make it whatever shape you like and with our convection oven, it comes out beautifully.  Most bread machines seem to come with at least one dough setting (our old one also had a pizza dough setting, and our new one has an “artisan dough” setting which takes over 5 hours!).

Here’s a recipe to try out in your machine, it’s my new favorite, Potato Oat Bread.

Potato Oat Bread

The gluten powder and the lecithin are optional, but recommended.  I posted before, about the benefits of lecithin, but the gluten powder is a new ingredient for me.  Gluten is the protein responsible for trapping the gas the yeast produces, allowing bread to leaven.   Adding an ingredient to bread that does not have gluten (anything but wheat flour), can mean that the bread gets a bit dense or becomes crumbly and lacking structure. Adding the extra gluten powder can give the bread a helping hand when it comes to rising.

As an extra ingredient, gluten was never mentioned at school, and I’ve never come across any information about it in any book I’ve ever read, but I’d seen it at a couple of stores and thought I’d try it.  Galloways carry it, and I had seen it at Save-On-Foods in the bulk bins listed as Super Gluten 100.  I use it now in any bread dough that is not strictly a white wheat flour dough (it is also good for whole wheat breads, as proportionally whole wheat flour has less gluten than regular AP/bread flour).  I also add it to any dough that needs extra structure such as pizza dough.

I love my Black and Decker B2500C bread machine.  Chris’ parents bought one ages ago, and we used it from time to time, but for some reason it took us ages to get our own.  Since we got ours six months ago, we now use it at least once a week.  We shilled out about $100, but given that we haven’t bought bread for 6 months and now make a loaf for as little as 50 cents that hundred dollars doesn’t seem like such an expense now that we’ve saved three dollars a loaf over half a year.  Plus, the flavour and smell of just baked bread is undeniably intoxicating.

The newer bread machines on the market do all kinds of things other than just regular bread.  They have dough settings if you want to shape the final loaf, they make muffins and batter breads and even jams.  A typical setting takes about 3 hours from start to finish, but once the ingredients are in, the machine is doing all the work.  It even has a delay setting so you can have fresh bread waiting for you when you wake up.

The Cons:

Unless you get one of the few machines that make ‘regular’ loaf shaped loaves, it will make an elongated squared loaf quite different than the standard shape you’re used to.  You can’t leave the finished loaf in the pan for too long after its done or it will get squishy since the moisture can’t evaporate properly.  Plus, since fresh bread lacks the preservatives that keep store bought bread shelf stable, your bread may go stale or moldy sooner than you’re used to.  Natural additives such as lecithin will keep your home baked bread fresh for much longer, though.  With this particular machine, you’ll need to follow the recipes included in the recipe booklet, and some of those recipes are silly and complicated.  Plus, occasionally the bread will rise too high and stick onto the glass – this would be due to user error such as too much yeast, and having the wrong temperature ingredients.

Pros – that fresh bread smell.  No weird chemicals in your bread.  Fully customizable. No more bread squashed on the way home from the store.  It also makes pizza dough.  You can select the size of loaf you want.

Overall:

The Black and Decker B2500C is a good home bread machine for an affordable price.  It makes bread, and really isn’t complicated to use if you follow the recipes.  It isn’t a Breadman or a Zojirushi, but it’s less than a third of the price.   As a dough mixer alone, I believe this machine is worth the price.