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.
I really hope this shows up in a future book. I could totally see this happening to Catalina (maybe a house-warming present she feels guilty for not using?) or to Dina while trying to use “Orro’s” kitchen.
I always buy the yeast in the brown glass jars and keep them in the fridge. I’ve definitely used the wrong yeast and still had nice bread.
I got rid of my bread machine when we moved about 5 years ago. I mostly make the bread using the hook on my stand mixer.
I usually use the recipe from this article. I mostly use it for pizza dough. I have teenagers.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/five-minutes-a-day-for-fresh-baked-bread-zmaz08djzgoe/
My mum has a bread maker and she only uses it to combine the dough. She prooves and bakes it in the oven. She has arthritis in her hands so says it’s worth having the machine to save her from kneading the dough herself.
Dwarf bread!
Yes!!! It should go to the Dwarf Bread Museum too!
My family had a bread machine when I was a kid. The bread tasted awesome, but always looked basically like someone had used a trash compactor on a troll (though someone less deformed than what your bread machine managed to produce. I’m almost tempted to be impressed…). My mom hated how it looked so much that she stopped using the bread machine and eventually got rid of it.
I love bread and making bread. Hand made bread is far superior to machine bread, but hey, it’s bread, so it’s all good. Good luck with the machine.
We use ours for pizza dough, took a bit to find the right recipe though.
I had to laugh when I saw this post because the items were identical to some my husband got me for Christmas . Except for the book which I am now going to buy. We’ve made 6-8 loaves and while their tastyness has ranged from meh to yum, their appearances have been perfect . I am a terrible cook and after years of drooling at the food descriptions in your books and food pics and recipes on this blog I can only think that your Zojirushi is a lemon .
I am on my 2nd bread machine but I only use it for dough. I shape the bread and bake in the oven. I use regular yeast that I store in fridge and either all purpose or bread flour depending on the recipe. I do raise the lid and check during mixing that the dough has come together into a ball and it’s been great. Dinner rolls, sweet rolls, oatmeal bread, you name it. It takes 90 minutes from start to risen dough. I do use the order of wet ingredients on the bottom and dry on top. Good luck!
Is Brinner the equivalent to Brunch?
in Australia we’ll often to a brunch when you sleep in and it’s to late for breakfast yet to early for lunch ????
Brunch is breakfast plus lunch. Brinner is breakfast at dinner time. Of course, this only works if you are used to thinking of the order of your meals as breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you’re used to breakfast, dinner and supper, you may run into some difficulties.So, good luck with that, Carey!
I need that bread cutting board. Unfortunately you do need yeast specific to a bread maker, regular yeast won’t cut it.
My husband makes a delicious beer bread recipe sometimes. It is super-popular among our friends and he sometimes makes a massive number of loaves for pot lucks or as Twelfth Night gifts.
We don’t have any special tools or machines. I will inquire as to his recipe and post it when he gives it to me.
P.S. I have never asked for the recipe all these years out of fear that I will be called upon to make it. 🙂
My mom has been making bread machine bread for over 2 years now… it is good.
Mix flour, sweetener & salt together in separate bowl. Pour milk (room temp) and butter into mixing bowl. Pour in our mixture and add yeast. Mix and knead until smooth. Let rise for 1 hrs and 20 minutes or until double. Make bread loaves, oil tops, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hrs to 1 hrs an 20 minutes. Remove plastic ( unlike what i did) and bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.
See attachment…
Second attachment from her bread machine book…
I went one up on that ( we never had luck w bread machines), I bought my wife a Mock mill for Christmas, so we have that and a ton of various types of grain berries to make flour out of around the house. The flavor is way different than store flour, that is for sure ( even our brutal cat demands some, go figure.).
Ha, ha, ha! Very good.
Thank you for brightening my day. I’d blame the bread machine, the recipe or the yeast but definitely not you. Your own bread looks scrumptious. I’m sure you’ll find a solution. Still, thank you. I loved the photos. 🙂
OMG! We just bought a bread maker too, and I really like it so far. We were looking at the zojurushi model but it was too expensive (and we arent really bread eating or making people – just occasionally) so we bought the cuisinart one, and we have had some great successes so far. We made milk bread at home for the first time and couldn’t believe how heavenly it smells.
I hope your next batch turns out great!
I bought my bread machine from a secondhand store for $7. I looked up recipes for it on the internet. If you don’t have bread machine yeast, you just double your regular yeast. It makesv excellent bread
Oh, wow, I’m sorry but I laughed when I saw the bread from the machine. I do sourdough bread in my machine and I like being able to leave it for hours. I’ve had a few fails so I hope it’s an easy fix. Bread machine yeast works great. But your loaf looks beautiful whereas the other… Beastly ????
My question is, why doesn’t he make the bread in the machine and you do your way? A bake-off?
Well now, that conglomerate is all sorts of pebbles and lumps. Perhaps use that artsy Modge Podge and tah dah, presto bingo a garden ornament?
Frankly not even suggesting any baking tip. My hubby was bread maker fellow. I was discussing your erm, effort & he recalled why we stopped using machine.
What a lovely and thoughtful reason for bread maker.
Have a good rest of your day. ????
Bread machine recipes NEVER balance wet and dry ingredients correctly. Check a few times when it’s in the initial kneading cycle (you can open the lid) and add whatever it needs. If it doesn’t look like good dough 10 minutes into the initial cycle, add either water or more flour .
From the look of it…in the mixing process it didn’t get mixed properly. Therefore it wasn’t able to rise correctly and a mess ensued lol. I also want to say when it comes to bread machines that bake bread for you it always sucks. It just never comes out no matter what kind of machine it is. I’ve always just made the bread in the machine and actually use my stove to bake it in loaf pans or sheet pans for harder breads like french. Comes out every time. So, if it doesn’t work again try to bake in the oven and watch the mixing process to make sure it’s working right.
When I was in college, my dad gave me a breadmaker for Christmas. The first trial did not go well. Nor the second. Nor the third… My family called them “bricks.” The eighth or ninth trial ended prematurely, when my dad threw a ball for the dog and accidentally hit the breadmaker’s power switch halfway through the baking cycle. We used that as “glue” to build a tower out of my bricks. It was four feet tall before I produced an edible loaf. My dad said that, even if I never ate any of the bread, it was a good present, because I had played with it more than any other he had given me.
If your yeast were dead, you’d get a nice rectangular brick. Your loaf is much more interesting. It’s inhomogeneous. It didn’t mix. If something went wrong with the mixing mechanism, I’d expect dry flour and a gluey mess. Been there, done that. I think your dough was too dry. It’s harder to mix dry dough. By hand, you’d just knead it more. The machine doesn’t know to do that. Dry, stiff dough would also give the illusion that the yeast was dead. It doesn’t expand much.
Assuming that you measured ingredients correctly, your flour is at fault. Not faulty exactly. It just doesn’t fit the recipe. It needs more water than expected. To fix that, buy one large bag of flour and one jar of yeast. Using the same ingredients and the same recipe, change nothing except the amount of water you add. Repeat until it comes out the way you want it. Then edit your recipe. I’m guessing that you will need to add 25-50% more liquid.
You need to use dried yeast. Fresh yeast doesn’t work. And you have to put the liquid ingredients first. Love from Germany.
I have that bread machine and I love it…but I mostly use it for making low Fodmap friendly gluten free dairy free egg free “bread” because my poor husband is having a dietary issue and giving up sandwiches wasn’t going to work for us, and it had a pre-programmed gluten free course and I don’t have the time to make bread by hand once a week let alone gluten free bread which tends to be more finicky. I’ve found that if the bread recipe suggests adding the ingredients in a different order than generally the order recommended by Zojirushi, it’s best to try a different recipe. Almost everything we’ve tried (gluten free and gluten full) has come out resembling what it was supposed to – except the gluten free brownie cake – that was just….crumbs. It came out in a pile of crumbs. There is a “add” beep after the first rise cycle for most courses on that machine and it is the perfect time to scrape down the sides and “fix” any uneven mixing problems that may have developed.
Years ago I had a bread machine. Once I started the machine I would set a separate timer for five minutes. When that timer went off I open the bread machine up and I took a spatula to all four corners making sure that nothing was left unincorporated. I close the machine and let it do its job. That always worked for me.
That looks like my first loaf that I made when I got a bread machine for my birthday a few years ago. I had tried to use all whole wheat flour instead of a mix of whole wheat and bread flour, like the recipe called for. After several other mishaps in the years since I got it, the lesson I’ve learned is that bread machine recipes are very exacting. You really do have to follow steps and ingredient ratios precisely or you end up with a lumpy mess. And you absolutely need rapid rise/bread machine yeast.
Omg, that bread! I’m laughing so hard, I think we’ve all been there before
I love my bread machine, it doesn’t always love me back. I’ve made bread that looked like that when I used self rising flour because I didn’t have any other kind, stupid pandemic shopping. My recommendations are always use sifted bread flour in your bread pan and use a scale to measure, and during the first kneeding check if it needs more water. I’m in Phoenix Arizona and if the humidity is really low then my bread usually needs more water.. *shrugs* Some great recipes from https://breaddad.com/
Guess I will try that recipe next few days. Have only done the white and whole wheat, but plan to do much more so as I can. Rapid rise/instant what I’ve been using yeast wise and using scale for gram measurements. No doubt, you will conquer this dilemma!
I have a breadmaker and you do have to use bread machine yeast and the ingredients have to be added in a particular order. That said, though my first loaves were bad, they weren’t that bad!
It’s funny to see all the various experiences people have with these machines. I use mine once a month to make pizza dough. My mother found a no knead recipe that has you cook your bread in a pie plate – it has become the go-to for the entire family.
Wait wait wait … you mean the “Gordon” half of your partnership bought a bread machine for you to use, not for use by himself? In my experience (admittedly very limited), bread machines are “boy toys”. Maybe it will work better for Gordon.
Um, Dear Ilona, That is a picture & some huh. I haven’t made bread since I was around 27, maybe 28, and I turned 70 in August. My point is, bread can be like swimming, you may have done some strokes, but possibly most likely not all, and sinking can happen without warning. This bread sunk. So, sure try again tomorrow, and see how it goes. Warmest regards, and all the best good wishes.
I have a bread machine and love it. I make the French bread and then bake a bulb of garlic and spread that scrumptiousness on the bread. So good. Hopefully the second attempt comes out better.
Ps….I also buy bread flour…..might make a difference.
Zojirushi is an excellent bread maker. I used mine about a year (this was a while ago), and it just didn’t do it for me. It was ok. I wish you success in you bread machine endeavors 🙂 I love your Russian tea recipe. I’ve made it several times already.
I am not a bread machine fan. I like the process too much to let a machine do it. I also have no counter space – no storage or cupboard or pantry space either- to hold it. Your milk bread looked yum. I might have to make some.
My bread machine does this when one of the propeller things isn’t working correctly.
I have been using a breadmachine for gluten free bread and found that pouring honey or Karo over the yeast supercharged it.
Bread machines seem to be a bit fussy on ingredient prep. My better half uses one and he always makes sure that all of the ingredients are at room temp and the butter is really soft. Still every now and then due to an infinitisimal change to something, the bread goes wonky.
Also, where could one find the milk bun recipe? Pretty please.
Here it is ???? https://ilona-andrews.com/2020/milk-bread/
Have been a fan for years, read & re-read everything you have multiple times and you are the only blog I follow and I follow it pretty faithfully. This is the first time I have left a comment (I think) and I just had to when I read this post and saw the pics. My comment is:
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah (deep breath) hahahahahahahahahaha!!
OMG! I think I giggled my self to death. Good luck with all the bread advice for overcoming the problems you ran into. I think you have a novel’s worth on what you did wrong and how to fix it so I won’t add to it. I will say the loaves and rolls you made by hand looked really tasty 🙂
Wow, it looks like the brains of a cauliflower monster ???? found in Unicorn Lane. Definitely should go into a story as I don’t know …. *mutters to myself….
As a bread machine user, I can tell that your “epic fail” didn’t have enough liquid. The amount of liquid needed for machine bread is variable, depending on the flour used. Or the humidity. Or a dozen other variables. You can add more liquid or flour during the knead cycle, in increments. The final dough should form a smooth ball, neither too sloppy nor hard and lumpy. Good luck!
I think the milk bread you baked in the oven looks delicious.
Sorry, but I have no tips on the bread machine. I bought one years ago, because homemade bread…yum. I only used it a couple of times before donating. I just didn’t love how it came out.
But again, that was years ago. Yours looks like an amazing bit of technology and I’m sure you will master it!!
Please share pics!
I dug my bread machine out of the basement during the pandemic. That is correct, I still had it from when we got married in 1991. It still worked perfectly. I use it to make the dough since I have bad shoulders. I love homemade dinner rolls. The instructions I still have from then have different measurements for each type of yeast. I keep my yeast in a mason jar in the fridge as my husband bought a bulk quantity.
Such a brilliant gift to bring relief to the aching wrists of a beloved One. Thoughtful of Gordon ????
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My mom uses regular yeast in her bread machine, which is a probably 15-year-old Zojirushi. You do have to make sure it’s on the right setting for the kind of yeast you have. It’s not very good at baking it evenly — one end is always darker than the other. Sometimes she has to adjust the liquid or flour during the knead cycle, and sometimes she has to help out with the kneading. But overall it usually comes out quite well, even the time she forgot entirely to put the yeast in. That bread was really dense but tasted good.
My mom bought one of those contraptions years ago. I found that whatever she baked in there tended to have the same base taste. (Special flour?)
But last December, I watched my brother mix some simple ingredients to start making yeast (for sourdough bread he said), and set it aside to let itself do its thing for a few days.
At showtime, he baked this awesome, whole-grain rustic loaf that was one of the most delicious rustic breads I’ve ever had, and I don’t even like sourdough.
Home-made yeast is the way to go!
I have the same machine just an older version. I use active dry yeast and bread or AP flour as the recipe requires. Most important thing is the make sure that you put the ingredients in as suggested. You can also check the consistency part way through the kneading, it might beep at you, but will get back to work when you close the lid
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This may be more about lugging in Colorado than using a bread machine, but if I get into trouble it’s because I need a little more liquid than the recipe calls for. If the mix is chunky I add a quarter cup of water.
I’m not sure if it’s helpful or not, but it looks better than my attempt at making gluten free bread…
Sigh. Yes, special yeast for bread machines. I went through 2 machines, then gave up on them. They could not handle the heavy workout I gave them. (I like multigrain, artistional breads) But I must confess that they were cheap machines. Not fancy at all.
I also received a bread maker for Christmas. Tried the French bread recipe first, since it only requires flour, salt, and active yeast, and that was all I had at hand. The result looked very similar to your picture. Was greatly disappointed. Then my wife went to the store and bought the nonfat dry milk I needed for the basic white bread recipe (which also needs some sugar and butter too).
The results were night and day different. The bread was fantastic. Before you toss your yeast as bad, try a recipe other than french bread. You may be surprised.
I have a Zo bread machine (that’s what the cheeky manual calls it, “your Zo”). I bought it from the King Arthur flour catalog. It’s an old model, yours looks like the Tesla of bread machines. I know you used unexpired yeast — my manual does not specify a type of yeast (rapid rise or standard). I know you read and followed the directions. My manual repeats three times that if you do not add the ingredients in the precise order: liquid first then flour floating on top, yeast in a well in the flour — then the dough will fail. The fails I have had come from the flavor of the bread, bland. Not quite worth the effort. I plan to try honey instead of sugar for my next loaf. I did buy a new packet of yeast.
Even good bread machine bread has the texture of styrofoam and tastes off to me. Grew up on homemade bread and I’m a snob about it. I say return the beast of a machine and keep making delicious bread the old fashioned way. I’ve used your milk bread recipe and it’s a favorite in my house. So fluffy.
If you don’t have rapid rise yeast, just set the machine to the dough setting. Let it rise, then set to bake. I’d just use your normal recipe. I didn’t like any of the recipes that came with my bread machine.
If you’re looking for excellent bread machine recipes, I recommend Rustic European Breads From Your Bread Machine by Ekhardt and Butts(https://www.amazon.com/Rustic-European-Breads-Bread-Machine/dp/1626540659).
I have a similar model zojirushi breadmaker and I enjoy it. However, in our old 1950s Houston house, my results were often sad, sunken loaves. We moved to a brand new house one street north, and my dough and baked loaves are great. We think it was the wide variations in humidity in the old house. I use Z’s recipe for whole wheat most often, and found I need to add an extra tbsp of olive oil so that the dough can stretch better.
I have an older bread machine and just use regular yeast in it. You do have to make sure that the yeast does not touch the liquid, which goes in first. I have had my bread sink a bit sometimes but never anything like your picture. I make an oatmeal wheat bread most of the time. It seems like if I wanted to make french bread I would have to choose a different cycle. Just some things for you to think about. Good luck, I hope you have success (or you could just make it by hand again!).
I love making bread but my wrists are messed up so my husband bought me a machine. I love it bc it feels like using an ez bake oven…you put stuff in according to the directions and yummy bread comes out. I don’t use special flour or yeast unless the recipe calls for it.
HOWEVER..I learned the hard way that I need to weigh my flour. My ‘regular’ bread books say to do this too. Flour gets compacted and stirring or sifting gives variable results. The book that came with my machine has a table with weight conversions (i.e., 1 cup of x kind of flour = x grams). I think my book said the reason for the order of putting things in is because direct contact with undiluted forms of some ingredients kills yeast….?
What she said about weighing the ingredients. There are too many variables if you just use measuring cups and spoons.
From experience, I can tell you that a bread machine is a lot like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead…When it is good, it is very, very good and when it is bad, it is horrid. I like mine, except when I don’t. I would suggest that you start out with breads that bake on “basic” settings and branch out into the other buttons once you have figured out the idiosyncrasies of the machine/manufacturer. They never put the stuff that you need to know in the owner’s manual. I just went a whole round with my machine because I wanted to bake sourdough bread. It has a button for that. In the end, after weeks of baking sourdough hockey pucks, I figured out that, changing nothing in the recipe or ingredients, I can get excellent results if I use the basic cycle. Go figure. And good luck with figuring out your own machine.
The first time I used my bread machine without my Mom’s supervision….well, let’s say not even the backyard wildlife would touch it. It was at least vaguely bread shaped, but I could have used it to increase my arm strength it was so dense and heavy! I have to admit since then, I use the bread machine mixes and make more bread from scratch without the machine.
May I suggest the Better Homes and Gardens bread machine cookbook? It has a lot of recipes that I love. I especially love the smoked cheddar loaf (it’s a beer bread made with smoked cheddar cheese- so good).
Also, if you like honey wheat bread, the recipe on the package of King Arthur whole wheat flour is excellent.
+1 for the Better Homes and Gardens book… The pumpkin nut bread with or without the nuts! My daughter gave away four loaves for Christmas.
I’ve had better luck with my (nearly identical, but older and from the thrift shop rather than new) machine when I use non rapid-rise yeast (which I have to go to the store today to pick up a new one!) in a glass jr.
But on a side note, your milk bread looks spectacular
Also, I tend to have mixed results as my breads have to be gluten free and with unusual sugars (weird allergy to cane sugar and honey). But I’ve done best with almond-based bread in my bread maker, and letting the dough sit/soak in all the moisture with a slightly longer rest period between mixing and the maker beginning to bake the bread. But I’m also guessing this is due to quirky gf dough, but who knows if instead it’s a quirk more related to this particular bread maker…
The bread machine is just a fancy mixer – I make all kinds of breads in it, not just recipes that are called bread machine recipes. If a bread does not taste good, it’s the recipe, not the machine. (Well, technique also, if you don’t check consistency of the dough early on). You can take a bread machine recipe and make the bread in a stand mixer or completely by hand, or a regular bread recipe and make it in the machine. Yes, you might need some adjustments, but you nearly always need to make some adjustments due to ambient conditions, specific temperature of ingredients, whatever.
I bought a bread machine several years back. While I am happy with the bread, I can tell you that the machine is very unforgiving. Use EXACTLY the bread flour, rapid yeast, milk powder, etc. it tells you. Anything else will result in epic fail. Ingredients have to be fairly fresh too.
So many answers, most likely you don’t need my tips, but writing in case it might help.
We eat a lot of bread so we use our bread machine almost everyday. Store brought bread tastes strange, and that is another reason to make our own.
The ratio of ingredients that worked for us so far is:
• 2 cup of water (I prefer to use warm tap water)
• 4 cups of flour
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp dry yeast
The order you place the ingredients in is very important. For us water, oil, salt, flour and the dry yeast on top. Used this order on every machine we had, but there might be some out there that are different.
Find that you don’t need sugar to activate dry yeast, so no reason to add it.
The way the dough is baked also makes a difference. We don’t like the way it turns out in the machine, so we use it on dough preset only. Saves you the work and you get to finish the product however you want.
For the receipy above just bake in a flat tray (grease tray with a bit of oil) at 425F for 5 min and at 370F until done.
My mom likes to massage the dough a bit before putting it in the tray. I can’t be bothered, just slap it on the tray, pat it with a bit of water, stab it with a fork and in the oven it goes.
Is that a face I see in it? It looks like it will devour you. The new and improved Blob.
I had a bread machine two years before I tested positive for gluten allergy. Had to give it up forever.
That said? Your yeast was half dead, and the flour might have been old?
Before I had a bread machine that was what happened to me.
I hope future loaves are fantastic.
congratulations, you have found a replacement for rancid spaghetti lmao
My inner kinder teacher wants to paint it into a landscape diorama. With a beautiful seascape and cliffs. ????????????
I’m a single mom of three. I have a Zo & we love our bread machine. It takes tweaking, and seeing the comments I’m sure you’ll have a beautiful loaf in no time.
Now each month I put together “bread bags” with all the dry ingredients. At night I put in the wet, dump the bag contents in & set the delay timer. Waking up to the fresh bread smell is amazing.
honestly i never liked the bread from my bread machine. It would have thick crust all over it so i used it just for the kneading but now i have a stand mixer and it looks a lot prettier then my clunky bread machine ever did
bread machines use instant yeast, which is different from rapid yeast in that rapid yeast needs to soak in water for a few minutes before being mixed with everything. Instant yeast starts working as soon as it’s wet.
+1. Yes, that was it. I remember the warm water.
I miss HEB, great tortillas in their bakery.
If it makes you feel better, I once made couscous that turned out like cauliflower florets. We all stared at it and gave it side eye.
I used to put all my ingredients in the machine the night before so we could wake up to the smell of baking bread. I can no longer remember what I did when adding the yeast. For me, the yeast either worked or it didn’t. Can’t say I ever got cauliflower. But the bread didn’t taste as flavorful as what I made by hand. I tried adding more butter and salt than machine recipe called for and that helped.
wow, are you sure that isn’t a Baha-char vendor?
It is interesting that if one becomes known for making bread, the offer of a gift of a bread making machine often follows.
I have a large extended family who treasures me for my baked goods. (otherwise I’m kinda the scary/intimidating/weird/out-of-step-with-popular-culture sister/sister-in-law/aunt/daughter-in-law).
I was able to diplomatically and firmly turn down several bread machine gift offers. (It would not have resulted in more bread making).
I enjoy and sometimes need the opportunity to pummel, er, knead dough…
and I make baked goods when I feel like it and it’s not always something with yeast!
peace,
Perhaps the inaugural loaf could be repurposed as squirrel/bird food. That would be a respectful disposal method.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! That is just …. so … UGLY!
We’ve used a zojirushi machine for decades. It’s great for making dough. Don’t bake in it. Never bake in it. The crust will be terrible. But that would be my advice for all bread machines.
As for the bread fail, it happens. Once in a while, it just doesn’t mix right or whatever. Good luck.
P.S. Are you familiar with Innkeeper Pie?
Karen
I had a wonderful bread machine. I would set it and in the morning the whole house smelled wonderful of fresh bread. I gained 30 pounds. It’s in the garage now. When I started the recipes that came with it were awful. Cooking light had a magazine of bread machine recipes. Wonderful. Unfortunately I burned it at the stake. My favorite was just a white bread recipe.
This is spooky….with the exception of the bread machine model, I just purchased those exact items even unto the bread slicer!
I used to make bread the old fashioned way a long time ago. Now, I have joint issues in my fingers and wrists and thought the machine would be less painful.
I planned to experiment this weekend. I’m sure you will have the bread machine code cracked in record time! =D
I think it’s incredibly sweet that in the background of the “cauliflower” bread, the small end of the milk bread loaf looks like a tiny sleeping mouse.
We gave my parents a bread machine one Christmas and my dad became a bread baking fanatic. We did try an old family favorite recipe and it was a massive fail… did not mix properly. Mythought ks a good bread machine should have a yeast type setting, not force you in to buying one type.
Good luck with the machine. I just got some variations on a basic bread recipe from my aunt i am dying to try…. basically stuffed bread. But onion dill is still a big hit for me ❤
Basic White Bread Recipe
2/3 cup Warm Water
1 1/4 tsp Regular Yeast
1 TB Sugar
3 cups Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Milk
1 TB Butter
Combine the water, sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Let the yeast activate for a couple minutes. Add all the other ingredients to the bread machine. Add the activated yeast mixture. Set the bread machine to the DOUGH setting. Let the dough rise for 30min or until doubled in size. Set the bread machine to the lightest bake setting, it should bake the bread to a light golden brown.
Odd that this was posted. I have been baking bread for years – it’s the cream on top of a good meal, so I do it when I can. I had to go onto a low iodine diet for a month and they provided some “bread” recipes. I had new yeast, new flour and every bread product I baked from that cookbook was a failure. I should have taken pictures. Your “loaf” of french bread looks like my loaf of soda bread. I also tried saltine crackers and some white bread. All horrific. One more week and I can have baked bread with dairy in it!
I have a bread machine (and that exact bread slicing board, coincidentally) and I have read that different models of machines require you to add the ingredients in a specific order. Adding things out of order can mess with the mixing action. Best of luck getting it to work!
Hey, Ilona, if the bread machine continues to not cooperate, consider getting an Ankarsrum stand mixer. Sounds like you’ve already got killer bread-from-scratch recipes, and an Ankarsrum does a beautiful job of kneading. Instead of your typical bowl and dough hook (which can be too rough on bread dough) that rotates around the bowl, the bowl of this machine spins around a fluted roller that’s on a lever arm. There’s also a dough scraper attachment. The roller is gentle and thorough, so you get silky-soft bread dough in under 10 minutes. You still have to rise and shape it, but it would let you make bread by feel at every stage with minimal wear on your hands.
It’s a big-capacity machine, so making just a single 1-lb loaf in it requires one of us to stand over it and work the lever arm and poke with a silicone spatula to keep the dough engaged with the roller instead of thumping to the far side of the bowl. I expect if we made a larger batch of dough this wouldn’t be necessary, but a 1-lb loaf is plenty for just the two of us.
The machine and its components are all made in Sweden, so I expect it’ll last for years. (You need to order it through a U.S. distributor.) It comes with lots of other attachments for cookie dough, etc. The link below is through Bread Beckers, the Georgia kitchen store we used, since there wasn’t an Ankarsrum distributor in our state. Bread Beckers posted some good YouTube videos on using it, and I wound up talking to the very nice lady who made their videos when I had specific questions about high-altitude adjustments with this machine.
https://www.breadbeckers.com/store/pc/Ankarsrum-Original-Kitchen-Machine-AKM-6230-Mixer-w-FREE-Shipping-315p3639.htm
Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post.
Gordon loves you a great deal. He bought you the bread makers “bible” AND a bread machine.
Personally I don’t have a bread machine as I don’t eat much bread. The closest I get is yeast rolls to go with roast beef and pancakes on Sunday. However my siblings that do (male and female) all say MUST use rapid yeast. G said something about adding layers properly but he can be rather Particular about things. There that should be PC enough. Bless his heart. ????
I’ve had this problem and it might not be the yeast. Although, as others have suggested, I do store mine in the freezer (quick rise).
Just like not all ovens are the same, not all bread machines are the same.
It might need a bit more water. The next time, try two tablespoons more and keep experimenting. It allows the dough to come together more smoothly.
One thing I’ve learned to do is use the dough option for kneading/rising and then bake it in the oven.
Good luck!
We use bread machine for last 5 years and everyone loves it.Usually the yeast is to blame for failure.
The milk bread looked great. Maybe he knows you love bread and wanted to make sure you got fresh bread? I mean, I once asked my husband what my favorite food was and I expected him to say something like lobster, or prime rib, or something. But he said bread and butter. And I’m like… yeah, I resemble that remark.
Looking forward to further bread experiments. I hope your hands are feeling better.
It’s been a while since I used a bread machine (found out I needed to go gluten free a few years ago) but I have vague memories of needing to separate out the yeast when combining. Something like needing to dig it a little hole in the dry flour so that it avoids the wet ingredients?
This is off topic but I tried the Fortnum and Mason Christmas Black Tea and loved it. Williams Sonoma has it on sale right now with an extra 20% off. Just fyi. Ilona may have found her bulk purchase place already. 🙂 Thanks for the recommendation!
I laughed so hard!!!
I have the same machine and cookbook. It’s not the yeast. There wasn’t enough liquid in the bread. Next time check as it’s mixing and kneading and add a little bit of water till it’s smooth and forms a ball like regular bread making. The machine is wonderful – you just have to figure out what adjustments you might need to make.
Hey the cookbooks that come with the bread machines are rubbish. My MIL has one and it was lots of trail and error to tweak them. Now they make delicious bread. In my country, you can buy “live” baker’s yeast, the one that comes in small squishy cubes. I would say leave the yeast to leaven for 15 min on its own, add it and then start the process
Did we ever get an update on if the second loaf turned out with the different yeast?
Different yeast and adjustment on the amount of flour resulted in success ???? https://www.facebook.com/100044564163704/posts/469233497905452/?d=n
I use regular yeast in my machine but I proof it first. So I take the required water salt and sugar, stir it up, add the yeast, let it sit for 10 minutes, then I pour it into the machine and then add the dry ingredients on top. Otherwise you have to use bread machine yeast.