Are you in search for ways to avoid problems when using your bread machine? You’ve come to the right article! These tricks and tips will aid you in your cooking quest. Read on, chef!

1. Avoid uneven loaves by lifting the dough ball after kneading. Don’t you just hate uneven loaves? Imagine you’ve waited for a couple of hours for the loaf to finish, then when it’s finally done, it’s uneven! That just ruins the day, doesn’t? But don’t worry. There’s a counterattack for it. All you have to do is lift the dough after the kneading cycle and place it in the center of the bread pan just before it rises. What a piece of cake! Or bread!

 

2. Dealing with sourdough? Calm yourself. You have to be patient with sourdough. It deserves your clemency and understanding after all. Sourdough loaves usually take up 12 hours to rise. One thing you could do is use the bread machine to make dough, then use your oven for proofing or rising in the bread pan in the oven. That’s if you don’t like the idea of waiting half a day for your bread to rise.

 

3. Introduce Bread Machine Yeast to your bread machine for best results. Bread machine yeast comes in a jar that you have to refrigerate after you open. It’s a mortal sin not to do this hack.

 

4. Measure everything properly especially the flour. This is an important hack. You should follow the instructions in the recipe. When it comes to the flour, use a measuring scale to make sure you use the exact amount of flour every time. Scooping the flour into your measuring cup won’t guarantee the same amount of flour, so do yourself (and your bread) a favor and weigh your flour!

 

5. Combine whole wheat flour and bread flour. Yep, you’ve read that right! Whole wheat flour is ideal for making flatbreads and pizza crust like this delicious garlic+herb pizza crust recipe, but not for a sandwich bread. Plus, it doesn’t have the required protein to make a tall rise. This is why combining it with bread flour is a brilliant idea. The ratio could be 1:1 or 2:1, meaning you’ll need two parts of whole wheat flour for every one part of bread flour. Remember to use high-quality flours only! Don’t ever compromise the taste and texture of your bread by settling with cheap and low-quality flours.

 

6. Mix gluten-free flours. I’m sure you want to achieve a delicious gluten-free bread. How will you do that? Blend two or more gluten-free flours! The bread will
   taste, feel, and rise better!

 

7. Get to know your bread machine. Ahh, this is one of the hacks that are usually ignored. Sometimes you’re too focused on the ingredients that you neglect the getting-to-know stage you need to go through with your appliance. Either that or you think reading the manual once is enough. I’m so sorry to disappoint you, but it’s best to comprehend all the cycles on your bread machine before you start anything. Knowing how to customize or adjust the settings is going to be beneficial for you as well, especially when dealing with wheat bread and sourdough recipes.

 

8. Restart the bread machine if you have to. Go on, don’t be shy. If you think the bread hasn’t risen the way it should be or there seems to be a problem, restart your appliance. Unplug it and reset. You could select the same options or change the cycle—your choice.

 

9. Get rid of the hole in your baked loaf by removing the dough ball after kneading and pulling the kneading paddle off of the spindle. Another annoying thing that ruins the classic appearance of your baked loaf is the hole at the center. Who knew there’s a hack for that? All you have to do is take the kneading paddle off, restore the dough ball to the pan and let the machine do the rest of the job.

 

10. Check your automatic hoppers once in a while. This is applicable only for bread machines that are equipped with automatic hoppers that release fruits, nuts, or yeast to the recipe at a specified time. This feature is absolutely useful, but sometimes the nuts and fruits can get stuck in the hopper making their distribution late or impossible. What should you do? Make sure not a single thing gets stuck before the kneading cycle has finished.

Aside from investing in quality ingredients and taking good care of her bread machine, a beginner should also follow these tips to get the most out of the appliance:

1. Begin with simple recipes. Never start with a complicated one; you’ll just frustrate and disappoint yourself. You can begin with pizza dough because the recipe is almost idiot-proof. You can also make a simple loaf of white bread using white flour first. You may substitute the white flour with whole grain flours after being successful with white flour.

2. Open the lid if necessary. A lot of beginners are afraid of opening the lid because they think it’ll ruin the entire process. Actually, taking a peek after 5 to 10 minutes into the process is a sight to behold! Opening the lid makes it easier for you to identify if there’s something wrong with the blade or the machine, therefore allowing you to save the recipe at once. It’s necessary to check the moisture of your dough as well and you can only do that if you open the lid. If the dough seems to be too moist, add a tablespoon of flour at a time until the dough ball becomes a little sticky. The dough should come in contact with the pan’s wall and then draw away. What if the dough is too dry? Then add a tablespoon of water at a time until it becomes tacky. Don’t worry much about the dough, remember there’s this thing called beginner’s luck. If you follow the procedure and the measurements of the recipe properly, then you don’t have to get worked up.

3. Be very careful with your substitute ingredients. Beginners should always follow the list of ingredients in a recipe as much as possible. Doing so will increase their chances of being successful. If you want to replace some ingredients, you ought to be cautious. For instance, if you’re going to use whole wheat flour rather than white flour or use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, you should know that the ratio isn’t always 1:1. That means you should first study how they absorb moisture and the amount of gluten they contain before you consider substitutions. Also, be careful about the yeast because not all of them are similar. Other recipes might advise you to dissolve regular yeast first before adding it to the pan with other ingredients. At the end of the day, I recommend you to follow the ingredients exactly as they’re listed first—it’s the safest way for any beginner.

4. Mind the room temperature. Where is your bread machine situated? Is the spot cool or warm? If it’s in a room that’s too cool, you will have a problem with your dough rising to double in the time assigned by the Dough Cycle of your machine. It’s best to move the appliance to a warmer area in the house. Sure, the bread machine has its own heating element, but the room temperature can still affect how fast or slow the dough will rise.

5. Maximize the dough cycle, I beg you. When I say maximize, I mean use it as often as possible, especially when mixing ingredients. This will allow your oven to rest and save energy for the bigger tasks. Doing this will also let you have more control and shaping choices—even a better crust!

And that’s a wrap, folks! Just follow these tips, read these hacks, clean your machine properly, and practice!

Never underestimate the power of your bread machine! They don’t just produce typical bread; they can be used for the following as well:

1. Making Breakfast

Did you know you could make scrambled eggs for a crowd in your bread machine? Cool, isn’t? Here’s what you have to do:

Steps:

1. Whisk 12 eggs. Then add 1 ¼ cup of milk, ¼ cup of melted butter, 1 teaspoon of pepper, and of course, 1 teaspoon of salt. You may add finely chopped herbs as well if you wish.
2. Grease the pan of your bread machine lightly using nonstick vegetable spray.
3. Pour the eggs, select the Jam setting, and press the Start button.
4. Wait for the machine to finish the process and voila! You’ve just made scrambled eggs for breakfast! And the best part is, all you had to do was put the ingredients.

2. Making Your Own Tomato Sauce

Producing homemade tomato sauce can be messy because the sauce can splatter. Aside from that, it’s taxing too! But with a bread machine, you can just put the ingredients and forget about it until you need it. Sounds promising, doesn’t it?

Steps:

1. You need to prepare the crushed tomatoes, minced garlic, olive oil, parsley, chopped yellow onions, salt, pepper, and red wine.
2. Put them all in the pan of your bread machine. Please follow the order suggested by the manufacturer.
3. Select the Jam setting and press the Start button. You could also just allow the machine to run for an hour.
4. Let the paddles mix the ingredients and you’re done!

3. Making Homemade Vegetable or Fruit Butters

Thanks to the steady, slow, and enclosed heat produced by a bread machine, you can now make your own butters at home! Follow these steps for an apple butter:

Steps:

1. Chop apples (don’t peel or remove the seeds and stems) and prepare cinnamon, sugar, apple cider, cloves, nutmeg, and water. Note that the ratio of each will depend on your personal preference.
2. Put all the ingredients into the pan and cook for one hour on a low setting.
3. Take out the mixture and run it through a food mill. This will smoothen the mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into your bread machine pan again and allow it to cook for 90 minutes or until it’s thick like a butterscotch paste.

If you want to make a strawberry jam, follow the same process but change the ingredients into these:

• Strawberries
• Sugar
• A small amount of balsamic vinegar

And also set it on Jam instead of low setting.

4. Baking a Cake
   

Yep, you can make a cake with your bread machine! Isn’t that exciting? Here’s the procedure:

1. Prepare the ingredients: flour, egg, salt, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, softened butter or oil (follow your favorite recipe for the measurement of each ingredient).
2. Pour all the ingredients in the pan of your bread machine.
3. Set the crust setting to regular or medium. If your bread machine has a cake setting, then choose
   hat. Press the Start button.
4. Watch the cake as it bakes. This will make it easier for you to do something in case it doesn’t look good. Wait for the cake’s center to be moist and springy. That means the cake is done. Also, check the top part, it should have a nice crust.

5. Baking a Casserole

Using the oven means using more electricity because the appliance is bigger. So free your oven from simple dishes especially if you can make the dish using your bread machine!

Steps:

1. Take the paddles off from your bread machine.
2. Grease the pan lightly using nonstick vegetable spray.
3. Prepare the ingredients depending on what recipe you’re following. For instance, if you’re going to make baked ziti, you have to make your tomato sauce first. It’s a good thing you can make your own tomato sauce with a bread machine too!
4. Place the sauce and the cooked pasta in the bread machine pan and sprinkle cheese or breadcrumbs on top.
5. Set the machine to bake for 45 minutes then press the Start button.
6. Transfer your baked ziti from the pan and enjoy!

If you’re thinking a bread machine is just limited to making bread, then we just proved you wrong! One thing that’s great about a bread machine is its versatility. You can cook delectable recipes like these in a single appliance without having to worry much about watching the food. Another is the fact that it can make you feel like you’re a professional chef in your own home! A bread machine is truly a wonder. So if you don’t have one yet, let me ask you a question: What are you waiting for?

Making bread by hand is a task that requires much effort and time. Lucky for you, we’re now living after the 1800s and automated bread machines now exist to make the process easier. Today, you don’t have to hire a number of workers and work for several hours before you can taste bread; all you have to do is to stay at home and bake alone with a bread machine! Truly, the inventor made bread making faster and convenient! And who do we thank for that? His name is Joseph Lee.

Lee was born in 1848. Like other famous inventors, he wasn’t able to perfect the automated bread machine in one try. First, he invented the bread machine that could only crumble bread that’s a day old. That made old bread useful in other recipes, instead of just being thrown out. He sold his first design and made the bread machine similar to what we have now in our kitchens. Using the money he earned for selling the first design, he made the previous one better by requiring only one or two men to make it work instead of six. It could now mix the dough and knead the bread as well, allowing the bakers to concentrate more on the formation and baking of bread. Because of his genius invention, he was able to revolutionize bread making.

Bakers then started using bread machines to produce more bread. By 1950s, almost all bakeries used bread machines. However, the handy machines weren’t accessible to home chefs until 1986. Since then, scores of households started owning the appliance and manufacturers have been improving the machine for both professional bakers and home chefs.

Thanks to Panasonic, which was called Matsushita Electric Industrial Company back then, bread machines could now make a loaf of bread. This Japanese company triggered other manufacturers to produce similar versions of the bread machine as well. With the new invention, a cook just needs to measure and put all the proper ingredients into the pan of the machine and allow the machine to take over and finish what the cook started. At the end of the selected cycle, a delicious loaf bread will come out with an aroma so enticing.

The appliance is perfect for those who don’t have time to create the dough. They need only to keep the ideal temperature for optimal rising and put the ingredients in the order suggested by the manufacturer.

Bread machines today have improved a lot. Before, they would produce odd-looking bread, but now the loaves look classic and better. They also allow you to make various types of bread and add fruits and nuts to your recipes. Because of bread machines, you can consume healthier bread with the absence of preservatives unlike commercial breads. Plus, with an easily accessible bread machine, you can make your own recipes from the comfort of your own home! But remember, all these new versions of the appliance are just great, great grandchildren of Joseph Lee’s invention. Don’t forget to thank him the next time you make bread!

Bread, bread, bread. We can’t seem to get enough of it, can we? Whether you’re making a Swedish Coffee Bread, a garlic bread, or a simple bread stick, it has to be sliced before you serve it. But have you ever wondered why breads are sliced or when the slicing began? Let’s find out.

Bread has been around since 8,000 b.c.e. There’s evidence for that! Humans have been producing bread by hand and they even resembled Mexican tortillas back then. Years have passed and we now have a fluffier kind of bread that can either be store-bought or homemade. Though bread has existed for quite some time, sliced bread has only existed for less than a hundred years. Automatically sliced commercial bread was produced in Chillicothe, Missouri, on the 6^th of July, 1928, because of the machine invented by Otto Rohwedder. Rohwedder hailed from Iowa and was a Missouri-based jeweler. However, his journey to producing sliced bread wasn’t easy.

On 1917, his prototype and blueprints were destroyed by a ruthless fire. He was also doubted by bakers who thought that loaves sliced by the factory would rapidly fall apart or go hard. The doubters, critics, and the fire did not stop him; instead, these encouraged him to go and continue his quest. In 1928, he was able to rebuild a power-driven bread slicer with multiple blades. Thanks to his friend, Frank Bench, the machine was able to perform its purpose in Frank Bench’s Chillicothe Baking Company.

In July 6, 1928, his modern machine was reported in the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune. Some were a bit skeptical to see the bread sliced, but housewives were excited because each slice of bread was evenly cut. The cuts were neat and accurate, which makes them better-looking than bread sliced at home with a bread knife. The article on that day called Rohwedder’s contraption a “considerable research”.

Since then, it became a thing in the United States, proving that the machine and the product it made wasn’t just a fad. By 1930, it has become the talk of the town across the U.S. Loaves produced by the factory were made to be softer and because of this, they were harder to slice at home. The timing of Rohwedder’s device was just right because slicing modern loaves neatly at home was almost impossible.

In the same year, Wonder started distributing sliced bread. Wonder Bread was first sold in stores in Indianapolis in 1921. The bread was then owned by the Taggart Baking Company. In 1925, it was bought by the Continental Baking Company, and Wonder was then sold nationally. Thanks to their distribution of sliced bread, their popularity rocketed.

However, factory-sliced breads such as Wonder were banned for a short period of time by the U.S. government during World War II. They did this to preserve resources like the paper that wraps each loaf which maintained its freshness. Sadly, in 2012, Wonder Bread totally disappeared from stores after the Hostess Brands, its then-owner, declared that they were bankrupt. But on September 23, 2013, the Wonder Bread made a comeback on thanks to another company called the FlowersFoods, which bought Wonder on July 22 of the same year.

The Wonder brand not only supported Rohwedder’s idea of sliced bread, they made it known to other parts of the world. Still, it was Otto Rowhwedder’s determination that paid off and it’s him we have to thank for his glorious idea of evenly and nicely cut loaves of bread we now enjoy.