So, I got the Zojirushi mini bread maker. I made four different loaves; each was only acceptable as a brick to use in the garden. I may keep the machine for just that purpose (not really. I’m gonna sell it on “let it go,” I think).
I bought a standard size (1 1/2 to 2 lb loaf) from West Bend. The bread it makes is very nice indeed! I’ve only made two loaves so far; a cinnamon raisin loaf and an olive/onion/feta loaf. While both sunk a bit in the middle, they are both delicious. I hope I can come up with a solution to the sunken middles without using the oven to bake the loaves. Otherwise, why have a bread maker, right? I’m sure I’ll graduate to hand formed loaves to bake in the oven, but for now, while I’m learning, I like the ease of the full automatic cycles.
My main beef with West Bend machine is that the included instruction and “recipe” book is poorly written and very frustrating (and it’s not translated from Chinese to German and then to English by a person who only speaks Dutch, so there’s no entertainment value, either). It makes no mention of the “add ingredients” alert and the recipes are just lists of ingredients, with no suggestions for additions, substitutions or variations.
I did buy a couple of cookbooks on Kindle. One called itself the “encyclopedia” of bread maker bread; it barely mentioned bread makers! The other is a very well written book, but every recipe it has contains added gluten. I’m not gluten sensitive, but isn’t this an unnecessary ingredient if you’re using bread flour? It’s not exactly an item you can find at your local supermarket! (To be fair, I’ve never looked for it at a supermarket. Now that I’m aware of it, I’ll probably see it in every aisle!)
If you have any suggestions for reliable cookbooks for bread makers that are available on Kindle, please let me know! Any tips you have from your personal experience with bread makers and recipes would be greatly appreciated too!
I bought a standard size (1 1/2 to 2 lb loaf) from West Bend. The bread it makes is very nice indeed! I’ve only made two loaves so far; a cinnamon raisin loaf and an olive/onion/feta loaf. While both sunk a bit in the middle, they are both delicious. I hope I can come up with a solution to the sunken middles without using the oven to bake the loaves. Otherwise, why have a bread maker, right? I’m sure I’ll graduate to hand formed loaves to bake in the oven, but for now, while I’m learning, I like the ease of the full automatic cycles.
My main beef with West Bend machine is that the included instruction and “recipe” book is poorly written and very frustrating (and it’s not translated from Chinese to German and then to English by a person who only speaks Dutch, so there’s no entertainment value, either). It makes no mention of the “add ingredients” alert and the recipes are just lists of ingredients, with no suggestions for additions, substitutions or variations.
I did buy a couple of cookbooks on Kindle. One called itself the “encyclopedia” of bread maker bread; it barely mentioned bread makers! The other is a very well written book, but every recipe it has contains added gluten. I’m not gluten sensitive, but isn’t this an unnecessary ingredient if you’re using bread flour? It’s not exactly an item you can find at your local supermarket! (To be fair, I’ve never looked for it at a supermarket. Now that I’m aware of it, I’ll probably see it in every aisle!)
If you have any suggestions for reliable cookbooks for bread makers that are available on Kindle, please let me know! Any tips you have from your personal experience with bread makers and recipes would be greatly appreciated too!