Any Home Bakers Here?

[Sally PB]

Any tips from you all on getting the most out of this thing?

I have found that I needed to "tweak" my recipe to suit my machine. I started with my neighbor's recipe, and adjusted from that. I needed to add 10 minutes to the bake time and take out a bit of water and flour.

If you have questions on specifics, post your results, and we'll try to diagnose it here.

 

[jnicholes]

Classic gingerbread weekend! Half crisp, half soft.

Also, found out I'm getting a bread machine from my mother and... I'm SO excited! Not that I'll stop doing it all the usual way when I want that good crust and fancy design, but I haven't had time to bake much lately and really miss my fresh bread.

Any tips from you all on getting the most out of this thing? Best recipes?

Bread machines are really fun. Here is one useful tip that I found on the Internet when I first started out with mine.

For the flour, don’t use a measurement of a cup. Instead, weigh out 128g of flour per cup in the recipe. This has helped me a lot.

 

[castillo_de_luz]

I have found that I needed to "tweak" my recipe to suit my machine. I started with my neighbor's recipe, and adjusted from that. I needed to add 10 minutes to the bake time and take out a bit of water and flour.

If you have questions on specifics, post your results, and we'll try to diagnose it here.

Thanks! I plan to experiment and run some recipes during the day so I can check things out. Then when I hit on a good one I'll set it for overnight. Hopefully I can come back and post some nice little loaves!

 

[thecatumbrella]

Thumbprint cookies with a pistachio crumb and raspberry jam.

Update: the cookies aren't great. I also made my usual walnut fig version, which was outstanding. I think the pistachio overpowered the maple syrup sweetener... now it just tastes like a health cookie. Bleh. Hmmm, maybe there's a reason you see maple walnut everywhere and NOT maple pistachio!

 

[castillo_de_luz]

Bread machines are really fun. Here is one useful tip that I found on the Internet when I first started out with mine.

For the flour, don’t use a measurement of a cup. Instead, weigh out 128g of flour per cup in the recipe. This has helped me a lot.

Indeed, time to dig out the scale again for sure. And restock my flour! Appreciate the tip

 

[jnicholes]

Indeed, time to dig out the scale again for sure. And restock my flour! Appreciate the tip

No problem. There’s a good reason why I shared that.

When I first started using the bread machine, I tried making raisin bread. I measured out flour instead of weighing it. In the end, the raisins that I added at the proper time did not penetrate into the loaf, because the dough was too thick with flour. It also did not knead properly.

 

[jnicholes]

Good morning everyone.

Weather: Mostly cloudy
Temperature: 26 F
Forecast: 24 L 39 H
Wind: 10 mph
Humidity: 79%
B Pressure: 30.38 inHg
Glass reading: crystals on bottom receding/maintaining

 

[Sally PB]

For the flour, don’t use a measurement of a cup. Instead, weigh out 128g of flour per cup in the recipe. This has helped me a lot.

I was amazed at how much more repeatable my bread baking was when I started weighing my flour.

Another thing: I had bread flour, and used x amount of that for hubby's loaf of bread. (I'm gluten free, so mine is different.) Then I found a different brand of organic all purpose flour and used the same amount. It didn't bake the same. I had to take out a small amount, about a 1/4 cup, which got me to my current amount of flour, 338 grams.

One other thing I learned: Sea salt is not interchangeable with "regular" table salt. I didn't have any regular salt, so I used the same amount of sea salt. Salt plays a role in how bread rises. This stuff didn't rise nearly as well, and was DENSE. Using sea salt was the only change. I went back to table salt, and the loaf went back to being its wonderful self.

 

[R2elk]

Sea salt is not interchangeable with "regular" table salt.

Pickling salt is also not interchangeable volume to volume with either of those.

 

[Aria]

Pickling salt is also not interchangeable volume to volume with either of those.

And I never use Kosher Salt in my Bread Recipe.....UNLESS THE RECIPIE SAYS...
KOSHER. There is a difference....in amount of SALT and WHICH SALT. YES.
Aria