Two posts in one day. This one is time sensitive, since I am going to try again today when my groceries arrive.
A few days ago, Gordon turned to me and said, “I bought a bread machine.”
This is strange for many reasons, primarily because I’m the only one who makes bread and I didn’t ask for the bread machine. Also Gordon isn’t a huge bread fan.
Me: Would you like some bread?
Gordon: Yes.
The next day I get up in the morning and put together a loaf of milk bread and some milk bread buns, which I then bake in the oven. Here are the leftovers.
The bread machine arrives and it’s a massive high tech beast.
And then come the extras.
Husband wants bread.
So I unpacked, I washed everything, I read the instructions, I chose French Bread, a simple recipe, I followed instructions…
Here it is from another angle.
That is a spectacular fail. The dough clearly did not come together. I can’t tell if it even rose. I suspect not, although I know that yeast was alive since the milk bread rose.
I am betting on the yeast. The yeast I have is in a plastic container, but I am guessing it’s not bread machine or rapid rise. But still, like shouldn’t the dough be more cohesive than whatever cauliflower mess this is?
Before you ask, it tastes worse than it looks. I mean, you can kind of taste French bread in there, but it’s not even suitable for croutons.
I am going to try again today and will report back on the success or failure. I have rapid rise yeast coming from HEB.
No helpful thoughts for bread making, but cheering you on to victory!
+1
+1
If I make anything but honey saffron milk bread or cream biscuits I get negative feedback. Over 45 years of marriage and it is ” I liked the regular bread better but this is good”. You also need rapid rise yeast. My relatives have bread machines and use them.
Oooh honey saffron milk bread sounds amazing!
Right? My next stop is googling that…
Bev, I think you need to share the recipe before we riot 😀 . Please and thank you.
It is a basic classic sweet dough made with 2 cups milk, a stick of butter ,about a third to a half cup of mild honey ,1 tsp. salt, 2 packs of rapid rise yeast, 2 beaten eggs and 9-10 cups of flour. Also a double pinch of saffron threads. I add the salt to the milk and scald it with the saffron threads. I pulverize them first in a mortar and pestle. Add cold butter and honey to the saucepan to cool the liquid. Proof the yeast with sugar and warm water . Mix the cooled liquid with the yeast and eggs in a big bowl and start mixing in the flour. I do it by hand. When it is bread dough let it rise till doubled and make into rolls or loaves or both. Bake 350 F. for about 20+ minutes for rolls and longer for loaves. Maybe 25-30 minutes. I braid it and bake it free form. Really you can just substitute the sugar in a recipe with honey and add saffron to taste.
The dough rises in a separate oiled bowl covered with a clean dish towel. The dough is mixed right when it doesn’t stick to my hands as I knead it. I hope this helps. I’ve made it for about half a century in one form or another.
Thank you, Bev!!
Living in Europe: how much is ‘a stick of butter’?
1 stick is 0.5 cups butter or 4 oz. by weight.
113 grams according to the wrapper but occasionally it will be 114 or 115 grams according to the scale but 90% of the time it is 113.
I have taken to weighing all my ingredients lately and annotating my recipes. (Dina’s apple cake took 400 grams of peeled, cored apple. Also my photos were over 1mb so wouldn’t post here.)
Half of a UK block, so 125g.
When proofing the yeast, I’m assuming a teaspoon of sugar, but how much water? Being wrong here could make a real mess.
With 2 packets of yeast I use about 1 to 1 and a half teaspoons of sugar and about a fourth of a cup of water. The main things I actually measure are the milk, the salted butter and the salt which I measure in my palm. I looked up the Farm Journal Country Cookbook’s Classic Sweet Dough recipe which I have adapted over the years for the basic measurements of most of the ingredients. Sometimes I use 3 eggs, sometimes I add more honey, sometimes I make it too wet and add more flour. Sometimes it is too dry and I’ve had to add another egg which is not fun because it is incredibly slimey until you get it worked in. I make this bread completely by hand because I like to but a mixer with a dough hook can be used. There have been times over the years when it doesn’t rise the way I want it to. Making bread by hand is a learning process. While watching the British baking show on PBS recently I learned some new things about making enriched dough as well about gluten development! I wish you joy and satisfaction as you use this recipe.
Thank you for the quick reply Bev!
I hope it helped.
At this point, I would just dye it blue/green and make a diorama of an alien planet hit by weirdly shaped meteorites ????
::side eye:: Laugh at my pain, why don’t you…
Don’t ever let Orro see it…
1+
lolololol…….
I wasn’t until Mod R’s comment. That definitely calls for it. Good one, Mod R.
(You’re probably lucky you’re across an ocean from her, though.)
????
Does that bread machine cookbook not have a troubleshooting section?
Mine does and Middle has spent quite a bit of time reading it before she starts a new recipe for the bread machine (I’d rather make it by hand but I use it as my arm day exercises. )
????????????
My first thought upon seeing it is alien terraform. Glad I’m not the only one.
It looked like an anatomy lesson on the brain gone bad. 😀 If you dyed it grey with red and blue, it could be the grey matter, red for the arteries and blue for the veins.
I’m guessing there’s no point where you feel the mix with your hand the way you do when you’re kneading? My ingredients seem to vary a lot in water content, so I mostly add flour until it feels right, no-matter what the recipe says. If you can’t do that with a machine, I have no idea how you could possibly make bread. The more I think about it, the more confused I am by the whole idea of bread machines.
Nope, there is no point where you can get your hands on it. Once the ingredients are in there, they are in there. 🙁
With my bread machine, I can lift up the lid to check on the consistency during kneading…
It looks like a ‘Zo’ – I have a (much older, but still working well) Zo. You can lift the lid to check on it during mixing/kneading. You do have to make sure the paddles are seated to the bottom and add the liquid and dry ingredients in the order recommended or you end up with disasters. It is possible to bake in it, but we (well, these days mostly my husband since he took up bread and bagel baking during the pandemic when he couldn’t safely get fresh as often as he wanted) use the dough setting and bake in the oven (prettier bread that way). It generally does a really nice job making dough. Costco has instant yeast (large package, just freeze – I have had yeast in the freezer for a couple of years that still worked) [realize that just because Costco has been mentioned in Innkeeper a couple of times that there is not necessarily an obsession or a theme – sorry about tongue in cheek, BDH please don’t degenerate into a Costco debate] – wish they had bread flour. King Arthur Flour has information about the Zo bread machines – they use as their test machines – so can be a resource for trouble shooting and some recipes.
I am a Costco devotee. Thank you for the yeast tip!
Did you ever get Gordon to tell you why he bought a bread machine?
Here is Ilona’s answer from their Fb page:
“ My time is limited. Also my hands hurt so I think Gordon was trying to make it easier on me. Even when I have a dough mixer, I still end up kneading by hand to make it “right.” My husband loves me very much.”
https://www.facebook.com/100044564163704/posts/469029514592517/?d=n
#CoupleGoals
If you and the bread machine come to a reasonable accommodation with the recipes it provided, know that you have to make adjustments to your recipes to get them to work in the bread machine. We use one regularly for bread for toast and everyday usage. I usually use the mixer for specialty breads from traditional recipes. Bread machine recipes can be very good and the book Gordon got you is the bread machine bible as far as I can tell, but recipes in the bread machine usually require more yeast and sugar than traditional recipes.
Swoooon! We love how Gordon loves Ilona! Totally #couplegoals
“ add the liquid and dry ingredients in the order recommended”…truer words have never been spoken. Why magic exists between the layers I’ll never know, but it does.
Sorry if I am repeating someone else (I scrolled through and didn’t see anyone else ask this question)… Did you use BREAD MACHINE FLOUR? When I got a bread machine several years ago, the instructions said that I needed to use flour that is specific for bread machines. I had never heard of it, had to go looking. My local grocery store does carry it, so I’ve never tried to use regular (all purpose) flour in the bread machine. Don’t ask me what’s different about it, I have no clue, LOL.
I do find that my bread machine saves me some time. Good luck.
We have used both types of flour. When we use APF we add 2 tsp. Vital wheat gluten. Why you ask? No idea except Google said to.
King Arthur Baking also recommends it. What they say, I do!
You don’t have to. I use regular bread flour and it works fine. But yes, you do need the quick yeast.
I have never made bread “by hand”, but I do like my bread machine. I took it to work once and made several loaves during my 12 hour shift. I had all kinds of employees stopping by to taste test.
My bread machine allows a lift of the lid. I’ve had to do that a number of times if something doesn’t turn out correctly. Good luck.
At the moment, I’m only good at eating bread and not making them. Hopefully will get to learn it soon because it seems more cost-effective in the long run since I frequently crave soft, fluffy bread with sweet toppings.
There are some great guides for dipping your toe into making bread. There are some really interesting no-knead options that use time to replace muscle, and some fantastic basic kneaded recipes that are remarkably forgiving. I like King Arthur Baking and Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, as well as Basics with Babish.
Kim, all my love, but “dipping your toe into making bread” conjured the absolute most cursèd imagery ????
LOL. Yup.
+1 Srsly. And I am not a squeamish person, by any stretch of the imagination.
Bwahaha xD
There is. well heeled pun I would loaf to share with you … but I must cut and bun.
Awesome!
Toe Bread requires Toe Jam.
I did a little googling to those three and gonna check their youtube or facebook page for a look. Thank you :3
Fingers crossed for triumph over the machine 🙂
With my bread machine, I have to actively check it as it is kneading to make sure it incorporates, isn’t too wet or dry, etc. That naturally happens when one makes bread by hand but it seems to be a step often left out of the bread machine instructions. Best of luck!
Clearly he accidentally bought you a zombie bread machine.
Brains! Brains!!
Tell me that’s not what it looks like. 🙂
Bwahahahah! I lost it!
Rolls vs Zombies, the new game by Zombie Bread Machine ????
I was thinking brain coral, but that works too. It probably says something about me that my mind went to coral before plain old brains, maybe because it’s not the right shape for human brains? At least not before they’re partially eaten.
Wait, is that the finished product? Wow, epic fail! For that price, I think I’d want the machine to actually self-destruct if it produced something like that.
It’s not the machine’s fault. This is probably user error.
Signed,
User.
I mean, probably, but possibly the machine really did mess up. I got rid of my bread machine because I can mix dough in my stand mixer, and I hated baking it in the machine, but when I *was* using it, I rarely had instant yeast on hand, but it never did *that*.
And, on one hand, “How can you mess up dumping ingredients into a bread machine?” but on the other hand, “I’ve literally forgotten to add the blueberries to my blueberry muffins.” So… Don’t throw away the box in case it’s a defective machine, but definitely give it another try first. 😉
Hm. One additional comment is that we did once buy a machine where the included recipes were all fails. When we used our old bread machine recipes, it was fine. Bad conversion from metric to English measurements? Translational issues? I don’t know.
I’m convinced HEB is just a constant blessing machine made specifically for the TX area.
I was in Austin over the holidays and saw HEBs everywhere, but then I realized what I really wanted to see was the BUCEES. BUC-EES? Whatever. Apparently those were further out by the highways heading out of the area so I didn’t get to see one. Nephew driving back to NC hit one, though, and they bought some souvenirs for his future in-laws.
My husband and I had great fun in our first BUC-EES visit last year. My husband practically had a melt down because he couldn’t decide what to choose in the huge selection of jerky (I’m a vegetarian). Celebration galore. The bathrooms were super clean, too.
My hubby sometimes suggests I get a bread machine as I make bread regularly. I’m saving this picture for the next time he suggests it 🙂 I’ll stick to the old fashion way, though that’s a very nice bread slicing setup.
The bread slicing setup is available on Amazon and probably from many culinary stores; if I actually made loaves (instead of always doing rolls) I would so invest in one of these. Some even collapse for storage.
I have that exact bread machine, and yes, I’ve made the French Bread multiple times and it has never ever looked like that.
My thoughts are twofold- 1, it looks unmixed. Which may be if the paddles weren’t fully pushed down, or if the machine didn’t mix when it was supposed to do so. 2- the loaf won’t rise if the heating element doesn’t turn on correctly.
Since your loaf is baked, the second may not fully apply, but it’s worth checking during your second attempt if the machine is warm to the touch on the outside, or if there is steam in the viewport.
Good luck- I love my machine, and I hope you solve the issue!
I came here to say this too!
Additional tips I learned from using this exact machine:
Weigh ingredients with a scale – turns out vastly different to scooping with measurement cups.
Use specifically “bread machine yeast”.
I second the scale weights vs scoops! Usually when baking but definitely when using bread machine. I love mine because it saves me so much time and I ( usually) get a good loaf.
Also instant /bread machine yeast is necessary!!
Bread machine yeast has a different optimal growth temp (95F) than conventional yeast. You bread machine’s warm rise may have killed your conventional yeast.
Yes, I have set some sort of record with this fail. 🙂
As someone who tried (and absolutely failed miserably) to make sourdough bread a couple of times, I feel your pain though in my case, I think I just am not a good bread person. LOL
Honestly, sourdough is just touchy enough that it is easy to flub. Especially if you haven’t learned what 3/4 of the baking terms mean. Like ‘stretch and fold’, ‘hydration’, ‘baker’s percentages’, and so on. My first several loaves, while edible, were not really pretty, nor did they have good structure.
My loaf was edible but not fluffy and pretty at all. epic fail.
you should not decide you are not a good bread person because of sourdough bread. sourdough bread is finicky and a colossal pain in the tail feathers, front to back. feeding it is a pain, keeping it happy is a pain, using it is a pain, kneading it is a pain… clearly i was deeply affected by my sourdough period during lockdown.
i started baking as a child, have been doing it over 40 years, routinely wow people with my creations, and sourdough almost broke me. i eventually triumphed, but felt nothing but relief as i poured the rest of the starter down the drain.
That’s so funny because I feel exactly the same way and decided to yeet the starter ( that I have carefully kept alive for more than a year)
I’ve killed every sourdough starter I’ve ever owned. They’re all named Bob. “Welp, Bob X died this morning.”
Have you read “A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking”? It’s by T. Kingfisher. The only reason I mention it is because there is a semi-sentient sourdough started named Bob as a character…(not sure if it s a character if semi-sentient, but really, don’t make Bob mad…)
Love it, the BDH need to read this wonderful book and then all her others and the Ursula Vernon (same person different pen name) ones as well!
Funnily enough, I LOVE to bake. I taught myself to bake – even a pie crust. Not kidding. I come from a family that likes to eat the results but hates the actual baking part so I love to bake and they can eat. I make a wicked strawberry rhubarb pie and my peach pie is pretty tasty.
Making sourdough actually made me detest bread product baking and I was going to teach myself to make cinnamon rolls next.
It is nice to hear from others that my sourdough should not kill my baking love and I am not the only one who had trouble.
Your milk bread looks delicious. Would you post your recipe?
Here it is ???? https://ilona-andrews.com/2020/milk-bread/
Mod R how on Earth do you remember Ilona posted the recipe for milk bread in 2020?
I am amazed at your powers of recollection!
I remembered there was a milk bread recipe, but I just used the search function (down on the bottom of the page) for the specific post 🙂
Or maybe I’m actually Bug 😀 . I like that better.
But you did actually have to recall there had been a recipe! I’ve been coming to the blog for years and I definitely didn’t remember until you posted the link.
Humm Mod Bug, Mod R Bug not sure either works but having Bug like powers would be cool just without the need for Equizol (spelling is probably wrong)
I feel like I’m preserving some wonder in the world because I’ve never looked up how bread machines work. Dumping ingredients in and getting a loaf of bread out feels like magic. Of course sometimes magic goes wrong!
My mom uses hers. Hers has a paddle in the machine that mixes.
Personally, It is just as easy to put dry contents for a loaf in a plastic bags. Then pull them out add the wet and activated yeast and kneed, grease a bowl, rise, punch, rise, bake
A machine seems troublesome. Too much cleaning.
Oooh, what a great way to avoid the mess! I use my food processor to make and knead my dough, and then knead it a few turns by hand just to make sure the gluten has developed enough, but I like your idea! Do you use a gallon bag, or larger?
There really is hardly any clean up. The baking pan is specifically prohibited from being immersed in water, you just remove the paddle , wipe out the pan and put the paddle back in and clean up is done .
Don’t give it to the birds – they would never take off! It looks like aggregate the road makers leave behind.
I love making bread; the physical process, and the smell of the yeast. At one point, we got a bread maker so that even if I didn’t have the time to make it, we could have fresh bread. I finally got rid of it for just the reason that you gave us an illustration of (altho I must say, yours is a spectacular fail). I can’t wait to see if your new, highly technical maker can actually make bread consistently well. If anyone can ‘make’ it work properly, I’m betting (and rooting) for you!
We have had a bread machine for decades. Well, we had to replace one because it fell on the floor as it was mixing the dough rather violently. But rather than bread we make pizza dough. Like 3-4 times a month. And it is amazing. I will say that we did indeed try to do bread once. I did a beer bread but it was nothing to write home about. If I produced that bread though, I would show it off so everyone could see it’s monstrous beauty. It’s very unique and others would be jealous, I am sure.
I say instead of bread, try the pizza dough. It is so worth it.
This is my favorite comment so far. Thank you.
Oh man, now you’ve done it. I had in my obscure to do list to make bread, I kept putting it off… but now I have to make it…. No knees seed bread, here I go!
I have that bread book and it is the best! I haven’t used it in a long time; kid was diagnosed with EOE and isn’t able to eat bread. Regardless, it has some amazing recipes! yum. I hope you get the machine to work.
Well I can’t say that we’ve gotten a cauliflower loaf out of our Zojirushi, but we have had more than one “ski jump” loaf. We found that if we position the paddles so they are pointing towards their respective ends of the loaf pan, we get a nicely shaped end product. And yeah – I’ve found that instant yeast yields better results.
Interesting! I never tried the tactic of paddles pointing opposite directions to begin with! I tend to set them identically for my symmetry-obsessed brain. But I’ll try this next time! Also, there is a point on the gluten free setting of my zojirushi bread machine where it beeps, and I can wet a spatula and wipe over the top of the bread, and this sometimes is super helpful to get all of the bits and bobs mixed in well together. That being said, my last load from mid last week was a mess, and I hadn’t had a chance to engage with it at all after adding the ingredients…
Oh dear…I hope the new yeast solves the problem. ☹️ My hubby asked me once if I’d like a bread machine, but while it would be really convenient for those times I didn’t feel like baking, I decided against it because 1) I always feel like baking and 2) I love taking out any frustrations or annoyance I might have on the dough while I’m kneading it! ????
I’m with you. Baking is my happy place and I’m always ready to be happy ???? ????
It looks like a mixing problem. There should be a small paddle in the bottom. Have you checked it post-washing to make sure it is still attached and spinning freely?
My mom loved her machine so much she gave me one but I never used it so I gave it back and now she uses 2. But she always does a little mixing of the ingredients first herself with a fork for similar reasons.
Yep this what I was thinking too. I did have a horrible mess once when the paddle hadn’t been put in correctly. It was found amongst the soggy mess.
That or the flour as someone else suggested.
I recommend checking out this page in the zojirushi blog: https://www.zojirushi.com/blog/?p=4617
It’s the troubleshooting page and has photos of things that commonly go wrong, the reason and how to fix it. Closest picture actually looks like a moisture/flour imbalance maybe?
I have had great success with my Zoji virtuoso. I started with the first recipe in the Zoji book — that let me check if all the parts (like beaters) were functioning, that the rise was ok and that the baking element was hot for the correct duration. You might give that a try, though YMMV.
I’d be very interested in how you like the bread slicing board. I have an old plastic one and a Mercer Millennium bread knife. Works great. But I was looking at upgrading and would love to know how you like the wood.
I have been using a Zojirushi for about 10 years. You do have to check the dough after it starts mixing to adjust the flour or water content. You also have to make sure the bucket is pushed down all the way and the paddles are spinning. I use SAF red star and gold star yeast, they seem to do well in the Zojirushi. Like anything, practice makes perfect. We all throw out a dough gone wrong now and again.
Great bread slicing board!
It may be the flour. When I was reading the instructions for my new bread machine, it mentioned that regular all purpose US flour doesn’t work. In the states you need some sort of bread flour. In Canada, our all purpose is a different grain/grind? In all the years I’ve been making bread machine bread, I’ve never had one as interesting as that. 🙂
Bread flour just has more gluten. Bread machines need more help rising in the quick times the bread machines run for. This means more yeast, fast yeast, usually some sugar and bread flour.
And cake flour has the least gluten and can’t be substituted. We have run it witH all purpose and it is a heavier loaf. When we use all purpose we don’t make the largest loaf size.
And default English flour is actually self-rising and explodes out of the machine. I learned some stuff about baking when I lived in England. Their granulated sugar is bigger than ours so you need to use more of it Their caster sugar is close enough to use for granulated sugar. Their sugar is usually made from beets and isn’t as sweet. And for ordinary flour, you must see the word Plain on the wrapper.
In Canada most of the wheat grown is hard wheat, and the US it is usually soft wheat. All purpose flour is whatever wheat was easy to find for the mill. I gew up between the two countries and now make sure I know what kind of wheat is in my flour. Hard wheat = bread flour. Soft wheat = all purpose AKA cookie flour. I have given up on finding Cake flour in my usually grocery stores in the US. Cake flour is finely ground soft wheat. I don’t know what is in pastry flour, but nothing else works for piecrust, so maybe magic?
If you have a Publix, look for Swans Down Cake Flour. It’s in a box!
We had an older model of this brand bread machine that we used for years. We mostly used the recipe printed on the machine. And we bought flour that said on the package it was for bread machines (I don’t remember the brand.) Good luck!
Looks like yeast issue, but ymmv.
That is the exact bread machine that I have (my second one – the first lasted 30 years!) and my favorite bread recipe book. If you read the information in the front of the book it will give you really helpful information to improve your finished product. Yes, I suspect you had dead yeast. Enjoy!! and don’t give up if at first you don’t succeed.
I have the same machine. I went and bought all new yeast, dried milk, and flour – even though I had all these things, just to make sure the bread would be successful. After trying several recipes in the included recipe book, I have found the recipe for the small loaf of white bread to be the best. Good luck to you!
My bread machine is a life saver. My husband is allergic to gluten and using alternative flours can result in either a good loaf of bread or another failed science experience.
That’s an amazing picture. I’m sorry it didn’t work. Very disappointing! I love my bread machine, but as others have said, I most frequently use it for the dough setting. Perfect rise, no checking the spot I put it for warmth or time spent mixing. That being said- I always use instant yeast. And I usually add the liquids, then add the salt and mix and little before adding flour and yeast as the very last. (Just don’t forget the yeast! Done that too…) since salt inhibits yeast from rising, I find I get a slightly better rise that way. ????????♀️
Sorry, no help here! My dad had a bread machine, used it several times and complained about it and finally stopped using it at all. I thought, maybe I’ll use it and took it home when he passed away. Ha. If I make bread, I really prefer it to be hands on, so that machine lived at my house unused for 7 years until it went to Goodwill.
I have to admit, tho, my dad’s bread attempts did look better than the one you got, they just weren’t very good either. heh
Many years ago we had a breadmaker. It made reasonably good bread. Then it stopped making good bread and started making what we referred to as crumpet bread (You may have to google UK crumpets if you don’t know what I mean). Crumpet bread was interesting and tasted nice but wasn’t strictly bread. It had a LOT of holes. Unfortunately, depressed by its inability to make proper bread our bread machine then decided to end everything by throwing itself off the kitchen counter partway through the final loaf. RIP Breadmaker.
heeheehee.
Hahaha!
We have that model and it’s a wonderful machine once you get used to it! We’ve used ours every day for five years. (five kids)
I don’t know if you chose the recipe from their manual or the cookbook, but the result suggests one of two things from our experience.
1. The bread pan was not seated properly and so the dough didn’t knead properly.
2 the ingredients didn’t go in, in the preferred order. It has the best success if you put in all the liquids, then the salt and sugar. The flour then in a depression the yeast. The yeast and the salt don’t play well together for some reason. And the dough just doesn’t combine well if the liquid isn’t on the bottom.
My eldest who bakes also said make sure it’s an instant dry yeast preferably granulated. It didn’t combine and proof properly.
Plus she said to share the recipe
2lb bread machine recipes
Ella’s bread
1cup water
1/3 cup milk
11 grams salt
35 grams sugar
26 grams oil
544 grams four
3 tsp yeast
Dad’s bread
1 1/3 water
40 grams oil
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
540 grams Flour
3 tsp yeast
The bread is fluffier in the summer. Right now our bread gets chilled because the counter is near the back door.
Best of luck! 🙂 It’s one of our favorite appliances. 🙂
Ps. My oldest said to say we do use high gluten flour (we buy 25lbs from GFS) Because 3 boys (aka locusts)
Everything else is standard except we use generic olive oil as our oil.
(Mom that matters!)
I don’t bake, I cook. ???? (let me tell you of turkeys and roast pork loins)????
I have had the same bread maker for 15 years and have been using the same recipe for about the last 14. This recipe doesn’t come from the instruction book – they all turned out horribly and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Then, one day, I was saved! I was standing in the baking section of my local supermarket and an elderly lady started talking to me as I was obviously looking very perplexed. I told her my problem and she told me what to buy and wrote out her recipe in my diary and said just find a setting on my machine that will complete in 3 hours. I did and now I make a wholemeal bread that my husband loves. If I want any sort of ‘fancy’ bread I have to make it by hand and I’m scared that my machine will give up the ghost one day and I’ll have to upgrade and my recipe won’t work any more!
Recipe? Please??
I have to premix the dough, my breadmaker won’t mix the ingredients completely by itself. (It is supposed to, it does not.) According to the manufacturer, adding ingredients according to the owners manual prevents this. The manufacturer is fibbing.
I’ve also added the ingredients and then scraped the sides of the bread maker a couple of times (with it on pause) during the kneading phase and that works but is more trouble.
I use yeast from a large block that professional bakers use that I keep in the freezer. The bread maker yeast might also help, but I don’t tend to bake bread types that require a lot of oversight, where it might really make a difference.
My main complaint about the bread maker is that I get distracted and bake the paddle into the loaf constantly. Oops.
Does the bread slicer work? Or help to get slices of bread instead of chunks, which is how I usually cut bread.
Hi Ilona!
Chuckle – thanks for sharing!
Love your home-made bread pictures – yummy!
You’ve probably already heard back on this but here goes anyways. We have had bread machines for a long time. We use bread machine yeast, Fleishmann’s brand FYI (it’s specially labeled as bread machine yeast). It works great in our bread machine. I (who is not the cook) make the bread, and like yours, our French bread recipe takes less than 5 minutes to put together, then 4 hours 10 minutes to get our final product of 1lb (we’re only 2, so we make small loaves often… ).
Hope this helps in some small way.
Best,
Louis
We have used and worn out 4 bread machines during our 30-year marriage, and are on #5. Helpful hints (I hope):
1) Start with recipes from the User Manual for the machine, not the generic cook book. Different machines are designed to add ingredients in a certain order. We have had machines that started with liquid first, and we have had machines that started with dry solids first and liquids last. It does make a difference, although it would seem not to.
2) The earlier commenters are correct in that rapid-rise yeast (sometimes labeled bread machine yeast) is required for correct rising.
3) Before starting, make sure the paddle is correctly inserted and DOES NOT SPIN AROUND when you jiggle it. If it does not correctly catch on the spindle, it will not knead the dough.
4) About 3 minutes or so into the kneading cycle, open the lid and look at the dough. It should be starting to form into a smooth ball. If it’s dry, add VERY WARM water, only a tablespoon at a time, until the rest of the dry ingredients get incorporated. If little piles of dry ingredients sit in the corners, but the rest of the dough looks good, carefully nudge them into the dough ball with a rubber spatula.
All in all, it really is not very difficult, but it is important to get the little details right, or there will be many spectacular fails. Once you get your rhythm right, though, you will throw things into the machine and a wonderfully perfect loaf comes out at the end.
OK, now I have to go put on a loaf myself! Umm, rosemary buttermilk …
I got the same bread machine a year ago. My husband took it over and uses it constantly. We’ve had no problems with it. He buys bread mixes online because he doesn’t want to mess with it. You may have a defective machine.
Somtimes things go wrong 😉
I use a different brand machine but I always have trouble with french bread, the recipes always seem like they have too much water. My other bread recipes usually are great in the machine. Good luck
I made brioche by hand once. It was long-winded and involved patience.
I don’t have patience.
I do have a bread machine, and I can throw the ingredients in, go away and do other things. 5 hours later I have a warm, fluffy granary loaf slathered in butter. In fact, my only complaint about the bread machine is that my family finish off the bread before it’s had time to go cold.
I loved my Zojirushi while I had it, but got out of the habit of it. IIRC, I used rapid rise, and I usually had to open the top to add some water. The dough should look like it does when you are kneading by hand, smooth and stretchy on the outside, by the time the kneading cycle is done. I used to check halfway through the knead cycle and add water a little at a time. Which meant setting a timer for halfway through, because I’d forget, which made the whole thing really not hands off.
My timer loaves were hit or miss for this very reason. This is when I learned that the moisture content of flour changes with the season and the humidity.
Dina should get a bread machine. Orro would have a fit. (I know, she would never do that to him. Maybe she wins it in an HEB contest. . .)
Definitely the yeast! Need the special yeast. That being said, your result looks like it could possibly be crumb cake. I’m assuming it didn’t taste like crumb cake. Your milk bread looked beyond wonderful!
I have that same machine. I usually use it to make dough and then shape and bake it myself. Your dough is way too dry in the second loaf. King Arthur Baking (flour) has one of the best problem solving/recipe websites out there. If you follow their instructions and weigh the ingredients your failures will recede to a distant memory.
The bread looks yummy. I’d get a bread machine, but it looks bigger than my apartment:-)
I am curious about why Gordon bought the machine. Was he a victim of infomercial or in store demo (w/yummy bread smell)?
I hope you all enjoy the machine and the bread!
PS: I love Mod R’s alien planet diorama idea ????
Lol! The first time I tried to make biscuits, I forgot to add any butter. I made bricks. The male members of my family used them as ammo to launch at each other. They CLAIM one of my brick-biscuits caused a head injury. I think they exaggerated, tho ????
Nothing to do with bread, just saying I saw on the news that a giant fossil sea dragon was found in the UK in a reservoir… it was on our morning local news outside Boston. They find the coolest stuff in Mod R “neck of the woods “!
I saw that! The ichthyosaurs https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59915689
???? ♥️
As a frequent bread machine user, I can say that they are stupidly sensitive to the yeast. I buy “bread machine” yeast (which is rapid rise). If it’s even close to the expiration date, the bread fails and I get a sad dense lump as a loaf. They also do not work well in very hot and humid environments. I don’t have air conditioning in my apartment and I can’t use my bread machine in the summer for that reason. Certain brands also have different requirements for the order that you add the ingredients. Some want the liquid first, others liquid last. That may have contributed to your mixing problem. I also always check to make sure the yeast dispenser isn’t stuck at all (though this may only be an issue in my heavily used machine). Good luck!
Your homemade bread is very beautiful. I am sure it is the best tasting bread in the world. I am sorry that your bread machine failed you. I think it is a stupendous looking failure, though. I love very much how ugly it is. I feel as that is an accomplishment in its own right. You should be proud! Personally, I don’t like electronic kitchen machines. They confound me. I bought a slow cooker recently, not an expensive one. Most of the heat comes out the surface of the device. Of course, the food on the bottom cooks faster than the food at the top, so you have to stir. My friends tell me that you have to let it sit and cook. How is this good? Why would you want to cook for 6 hours this way? It seems like the food on the top sits at room temperature for about half the time! I like stoves and ovens. I like mixing, stirring, checking the temperature, knowing that my food gets heated quickly and then it is done. It feels safer that way. I also think it tastes better.
Interesting fail, I suspect you’re correct and the yeast just didn’t rise in the time available. I would rather make no-knead bread than use a bread machine. I’ve never had good bread from one of them. However, I know many people who feel it’s a waste of time to make bread from scratch and want it to be ready just as they rise in the morning.
I love that cookbook so much I have also given it with breadmakers or to people I know have one. It’s almost time for a new copy of my own, it’s so beaten up, but transferring all the notes will be a pain.
And the Zojirushi was the best breadmaker I ever owned, and I am saddened I can’t get one in Europe.
Good job, Gordon. Ilona, I promise the yeast matters big time, but if you’ve never used a breadmaker before, If you’ve been doing it by weight or by feel, using cups takes an adjustment. You have to make sure to aerate the flour. I now keep my flours in big Tupperware-type containers and shake really well before measuring. And if you haven’t been using the wheat gluten, it also makes a big difference. Huge.
I’ve never had the feel for baking*, so I’ve always used machines, but a good friend got such bad arthritis she stopped being able to knead. She could not make breadmaker bread come out right, so I gave her that recipe book, because it has all kinds of explanations about the difference between making bread by hand and using a breadmaker.
___
*I’m a good cook, but a crappy baker
We use our bread machine all the time – the same one Gordon purchased. You will need to buy bread machine instant yeast if you want anything to rise and keep it in the fridge once open. The finicky thing is the mixing. Use a flashlight to peek into the top window. Occasionally, it doesn’t mix well and needs a bit of help. My husband makes Oatmeal Honey every week. All the purchased loaves taste like chemical now. It took several “bricks” before he got the recipe down but the end product was worth the experimenting.
What a coincidence! My husband was also requesting bread last weekend, so I dragged out my Breville machine. Made brioche, rosemary bread and oatmeal bread. Happy to have the machine do the kneading as I have a bit of arthritis. POINTERS-quick rise turns out much better if you add vital wheat gluten. Also, sift your flour if using measuring cups, or just weigh it.
I switched to a bread machine a number of years ago (for both gluten free and ‘normal’ bread), and I’ve found bread machine recipes are WAY more sensitive to humidity and liquid temperature than hand kneaded recipes.
I think this is because during hand kneading or mixing we develop a feel for the texture of the dough and know to add a bit more water or flour. With bread machine you don’t have tactile feedback. During first knead, rest, and 2nd knead I always check texture.
Also I’ve learned to make sure eggs and any other liquids are pre-mixed and at room temp before adding them to the machine, and I also whisk all the dry ingredients (except yeast) together before adding to the pan.
Always,always, blame the yeast. I most certainly do!
So hilarious. Thank you for sharing. Those pictures…perfect!
I used to host a bread baking forum on a recipe site, and spent a lot of time walking people through the finer point of bread machines. I switched to a bread machine when arthritis in my hands become bothersome, and have made hundreds of loaves. You can use any kind of yeast, but I would proof active dry yeast and add it to the liquid in the recipe. After about ten minutes into the cycle, always open the top of the machine and look at the consistency of the dough. As an experienced baker, you know what a good dough should look like. Add water or flour, as needed, to adjust the dough at this point. To me, it looks like you needed a little more liquid. Also, if like me you occasionally have a moment and forget to add yeast, tear up the dough into chunks, throw them back into the machine, and sprinkle some freshly mixed up yeast water over them. Restart. I almost never bake in the machine – I prefer shaping the dough myself. Because I am a single person household, rolls are often a better choice for me.
Good luck with the machine. I only use mine for dough, it proofs it for me and it is fun to work warm dough. I hope it is yummy and you can program it to complete a loaf for first thing in the morning.
You know how on science fiction shows/movies they always try to make alien fruits and veggies by spray painting something tropical and hoping no one realizes what it actually is?
That bread machine bread would make an amazing science fiction food.
I don’t have a bread machine, but I did come across the easiest bread recipe for dummies (me) that is excellent.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
It takes time but hardly any work and no kneading.
Maybe a fun ‘do with your husband and kids” project, then he can make his own!
I’ve had two Zo’s. I wore out the first one (love bread of any kind) and the second I ended up giving it away because the loaves were horrible on the second and I tested many versions. I found out it is easier to use my kitchen aid mixer and make my own.
This makes me sad, as I confess after seeing this I realized I could replace the Zojirushi I had twenty years ago by ordering from the US. And so I did.
The current line is no good?
It was over 10 years ago when I had it so I’m not sure about the current models. I wanted one that I could set up and have fresh bread in the morning and I had to watch it when it kneaded because of the amount of moisture needed.
A Zojirushi and a voltage converter. The reason I can’t get the Zoj breadmaker here is that they only make the rice cooker on the 220 voltage. Japan & the US are both on 110, so at some point a cost benefit analysis told them they could make a profit off of a European line of rice cookers, but not their breadmakers or vibrators (oh yes. Please don’t try to put those three together in your head).
Some things are cheaper to buy from the US and gave shipped here, and I include shipping, import fees, and the correct wattage voltage converter — KitchenAid stand mixers and Cuisinart food processors come under this heading. Other cheaper things seem random — The Bread Machine Cookbook cost half to buy from Amazon US and have shipped here (gifts, I brought my copy with) than to buy from Amazon.de.
Someday I will have enough counter space for the KitchenAid.
“(oh yes. Please don’t try to put those three together in your head)”
Bwahahaha obviously that comment immediately got stuck in my head ???? thanks for the laugh!
????
I only make breadmachine bread because im lazy, and i only use rapid yeast so that might be the case, also i found adding yeast on top of dry ingredients works and i have to make sure my milk isnt too hot. Good luck, we are spoiled by multiple posts
The dough needs more water. Check dough after it starts mixing. Add a little at a time until smooth. Facebook has bread machine groups with lots of tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwHEvOAv5xU&ab_channel=BreadMachine%26BakingVideoswithEllenHoffman
Sadly, I’ve yet to meet a bread machine that works very well. And while I finally did get one to put out decent bread, it still is not as good as the bread I make by hand. And my hand made bread is nothing special, but it’s good bread. I have 3 recipes and they work every time. One for pizza dough, one for one of those round loafs–I can’t think of what you call it, but it’s got a great crust and is wonderful for dipping in olive oil, and one for buns. Oh and I make bagels and yes I use lye water.
The bread machine works now and then with certain recipes. Mostly it puts out doorstops. Sadly the bread isn’t even big enough to use as a boat anchor although sometimes it is that hard.
I’ve had a Zojirushi for years and my bread turns out great. But I use bread machine yeast. Plus you have to put the ingredients in the pan in a certain order and the yeast shouldn’t touch the salt. Hope that helps. Happy bread making!
A person could be jealous of the Zo, but baking only for myself I got a less expensive brand, which is fine. And that is the best bread machine book. Yes, the right yeast makes a difference. Have fun! Try the wheat and multigrain breads.
I tried to make no-knead this weekend, but my yeast was OLD…..so needless to say it did not rise & I picked up new yeast at Target the next day…..bread was wonderful with live yeast.. Hahaha….
Also, I loved my bread machine I got 28 years ago for my bridal shower, until it died about 8 years ago…,,
That bread! Bahaahahahahhaaaaa! That is hilarious!
I’m a bread baker and also have never had success with a bread machine (typically for me the end result was a small square of dense ‘bread’). But if anyone can get that sucker working, it’s you! Good luck!!
I have that Zojirushi. ALL of the recipes included don’t call for enough liquids – this is the result. I do my own recipes – but since I HATE holes in my bread, use the dough setting and bake in my own pans. I do check the the dough about 2 min into the first cycle to see if it’s come together and needs a bit more water to come together.
And wanted to add, I do NOT use Bread Machine yeast. I use Red Star. I buy the 2lb pack, divide and keep some in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. I’ve had it last YEARS this way.
I make pizza (and don’t pull out a bread machine) and give the yeast a head start in warm water with a tiny bit of sugar and it gets frothy in about 2 min. My yeast was purchased at least 2-3 years ago at this point.
The Zojirushi has a separate setting for “quick” yeast – so Quick\Rapid rise isn’t really needed. My standard Honey Wheat\Milk loaf is about 2.5 hours from putting ingredients into the machine to pulling it out of the oven…..
Giggle, do the kids need supplies for a science project? I think dying it for a space asteroid is a good suggestion. We appreciate your sharing, who knew that many of the BDH have bread machines.
Good luck. My favorite kind of bread to make is beer bread. I love the crunchy outside, and the soft inside. I haven’t made it in forever though. I wonder if I can still do it.
I had a bread machine many years ago, I used to bake fresh bread with it often. I had one loaf that came out exactly like this, I realized that when I cleaned the machine I never put the rotating blades back in so it never mixed, just rose and baked in all it’s half mixed glory. It was absolutely terrible but highly amusing. Don’t know if that’s what happened here but I will say good luck!
Hello,
If I may venture a piece of advice (I am a French professional Chef Pâtissière et Boulangère = I am supposed to know how to make bread and cakes) : it looks as if there wasn’t enough water. It might be because American flour tends to be very strong and needs more water (to completely rehydrate the gluten.
This is a Japanese brand (very good one, I am jealous) and the recipes might need tweaking as their flour is very different.
Or it might be a mistake when the ingredients were weighed? (It happens to the best of us! You don’t want to know my horror stories).
Another easily done mistake is putting inadvertently yeast with salt… Then the salt kills the yeast and then you end up with a supposedly edible brick, that could actually turn into a lethal projectile…
Please let us know how your second bread turns out!
Good luck!
PS: i hope this comment wasn’t too boring… I cannot help myself when food is the topic….
Thank you so much Diana, not boring at all! Food talk is always fun!
* wasn’t too boring! Did this typo turned into a moment of truth?
I saw no typo ;). Fixed it for you :*
Thank you ModR, you’re a star!
My first try at making bread by hand turned out to be a brick! More loaves and I could have built a house ????
Maybe your expectations are too high. You have bread!! Even if it is a bit wonky. Smother it in butter.
I have a Panasonic bread machine & French bread is very high rising but you do need to get the right quick rising yeast. Best to get the type in individual sachets so they stay dry/OK/effective.
French bread tends to be my favourite but have tried different types. Never had anythingike the picture you posted even with heavier bread mixes. Also, important to add ingredients in right order according to model & ensuring separation of yeast from wet ingredients- hopefully instructions from breadmakwr & recipe book mentioned this.
Good luck on next effort!
Huh, whats that, mutant bread? I have used this recipe before and enjoyed it, maybe you would too: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-bread-for-the-bread-machine-recipe
Reviews say it works well for the bread machine? Unfortunately I’ve only ever made it by hand or stand mixer. bu
I used to bake all of our bread when our kids were home. I mentioned this at preschool one day and someone asked if I had a bread maker and I said yes, me. I have never been good around machines. My yeast is a very large bag that is old and I need to proof before I use it. I am sure that your next loaf will be a vast improvement. Why is there always a process to getting things right? My husband’s gadget of the year was an onion/garlic dicer. Definitely not on my list but he was so proud of himself I couldn’t take it back.
I used mine (have that exact same model) yesterday to make rye bread and it came out perfectly.
liquid on bottom
then flour
then on top of dry ingredients
The zojirushi made a beautiful loaf as always! Hope it gets better
I have this bread machine and I love it! I still prefer making bread by hand but this comes in handy. The only time I’ve ever had a bad bake is when I first got it and didn’t put the ingredients in the right order but it didn’t look anywhere close to that bad ????
Is it a type of bread that could be used by the dwarfs (see Terry Pratchett)?
sorry I couldn’t resist!
It’s not proper dwarf bread unless it gets dropped in rivers and dried out and sat on and left and looked at every day and put away again. Bonus points if a cat pees on some of it. 😉
Good one modR, so it can still happen! ????????????????????
😀 It did look a bit like the Scone of Stone, or *a* Scone of Stone anyway.
Hahaha ????????????????
We have a bread machine and I can tell you from experience, not all good, that flour and yeast will make or break bread in a bread machine. Good luck and enjoy the experiment. ????
So what nobody told me was that salt kills yeast. For my bread machine I put the liquid, yeast, flour. sugar and salt very last. If I put the salt anywhere near the yeast my bread looks like yours.
Altho truthfully my bread machine is in the basement and I use my KitchenAid to make bread. And I was screwing that up until I went online and found that the new bread hook takes WAY LESS TIME than the old one.
Now I throw milk bread together at least twice a week. I’m really not fond of commercial grocery store bread.
Hi! 30 plus years using bread machines here. I also make bread outside a bread machine.
A couple of tips. Although you can buy “bread machine” yeast, it’s not necessary – I buy the one pound package of saf red instant yeast, and it works well.
The other thing I always do when using a bread machine is open the lid about 4 minutes or so after it starts and “pinch” the dough to make sure it’s the right consistency for the bread I’m making. I add water if it’s too dry…or add flour if it’s too wet/sticky. Then do the pinch test again to make sure I got it right.
I’m thinking your experience was a combination of the yeast and not enough water.
Please let us know how this goes – I have had my eyes on this model bread maker for over a year, but can’t justify until my current machine dies. I’ve been known to send negative vibes it’s way…
Best regards!
Oh my. Bread failures truly are be spectacular. I’ve been doing okay with no knead wheat or spelt bread. Rye sour dough has given me some trouble my husband suggested a bread maker. Still, I’ve now gotten some lovely sour dough starter from a friend and now it is all working fine.
Best of luck Ilona with your second go, the milk bread looked fantastic!
That bread slicing board is badass! Can you please share the link/item ID? Good luck with the bread making…it is def part science and part luck. I prefer making bread using our machine but my hubs likes to make it by hand. Sometimes we split the difference and make the dough in the machine, then do the rest of the steps by hand (and oven).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077TK2H2B?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
Thank you!!!
This has probably been said already, but I think you needed more liquid. My guess is that the amount of water in flour varies, because in my experience the amount a recipe calls for is very likely to be wrong. For me, at the time I’m using it. I’ve had to just keep watch on the dough during the initial kneading to see that it comes together in the proper bread dough consistency.
Best of luck!
After my 2 and half week vacation in Mexico where i ate everything i could, I’m not going to eat carbs for awhile, so I will eat with my eyes the bread experiments that you make.????
It looks like an alien brain. . .
My mom loved to bake and my dad loved to eat anything she baked, so she baked something almost every day. When her RA got so bad that she couldn’t kneed the dough any more she was devastated that she couldn’t make Dad fresh bread and rolls every day. She decided to try a bread machine and after many horrible disasters she finally figured it out. She absolutely insisted that you had to have bread machine yeast and bread machine flour and always pay attention to the order the ingredients needed to be added. Over the years she perfected dozens of recipes by trial and error. In the 25 years that she was using a bread machine she wore out 4 of them before she passed away. My dad was thrilled that he still got fresh bread and rolls and Mom was thrilled to be baking them. I have her last bread machine which is only about 3 years old and all of her annotated recipes but I haven’t been able to bring myself to try a loaf yet. I will eventually and I’ll think about both of my parents when I do so.
<3
BAHAHAHA.
Paint it with pretty colors and it would be an awesome paper weight.
Your posts of mishaps always make me smile and laugh. Thank you.
We use a bread machine and my top tips are:
-yeast – fresh packet of one that says it’s good for bread machines.
– flour – Canadian bread flour is the best we get here (uk) freshness helps
– the order matters – I don’t mean the order of merciful aid but the order of ingredients. In our machine you out yeast in first and salt and water last so they stay apart for a while. Makes a big difference.
My roommate had a bread machine in college. I can’t remember if we had bread machine yeast but yes on the bread machine flour. It took me at least 3 or 4 tries to make proper French bread in the bread machine. I would get hallow loafs, pretty crust no middle. I haven’t used a machine since. These days I buy bread and stick to things like pumpkin, corn, or soda bread and biscuits with or w/o yeast. Enjoy experimenting .
Is it just me or did anyone else see a face in the bread. Maybe instead of bread, it’s a new life form.
Wow, that bread maker looks intimidating! I have the cookbook, and I’ve baked bread out of it at least once a week for almost eight years now. Some have turned out better than others, true. I recommend the butter bread. You do definitely need bread machine yeast, though. I hope your next effort turns out better!