This Bread Machine Dough Recipe Makes the BEST Homemade Bread! (2024)

FAQs

Do bread machines make good bread? ›

Because I was trying the machine with a money-saving mindset, I appreciated that I didn't have to buy any specialty ingredients to get consistent results. In terms of taste, the bread was good—very good—but not necessarily life-changing.

Too much heat or humidity might lead to a too-quick rise and a crevice near the center of your bread. Conditions that are too cold might delay proofing or rising, resulting in a super-dense loaf.

Homemade bread contains no chemicals, artificial additives, preservatives, or enzymes. These are often used in store-bought bread to make them stay fresher for longer and enhance the taste.

King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, with its high gluten, is an excellent flour for bread machines. Numerous people have told us that their recipes worked in the bread machine using King Arthur, when they didn't work with other all-purpose flours.

One disadvantage of using a bread maker as opposed to your hands is that the paddles are typically fixed, meaning they remain in the dough when baking, often leaving a hole in the middle of the loaf. Whilst this is not the biggest hinderance, it can be an annoyance to those who aim for gold standard loaves.

Some attribute the demise of the bread machine to the fact that cooks were just disappointed by their results. Lara Pizzorno, the author of Bread Machine Baking, chalked it up to food snobs who regarded the machine as “the electric equivalent of The Bridges of Madison County” in a 1996 article in The New York Times.

The Very Best: Instant Yeast

Instant yeast is the only yeast I ever use in my baking. Always have and always will. The yeast of choice in most restaurant kitchens and commercial bakeries, it's easy and convenient.

If your bread has a sour, yeasty flavour and smells of alcohol then you have either used too much yeast.or you may have use stale yeast or creamed fresh yeast with sugar.

After baking the bread, put it in a plastic bag just before it cools to room temperature. The residual moisture in the bread will soften the crust.

What adds flavor to homemade bread? ›

Using fresh ingredients to flavour your dough

Fresh vegetables such as peppers and cherry tomatoes work really well in bread dough. But don't add them in raw – they'll add too much moisture to your dough. Instead, roast them in the oven to both increase their flavour and dry them out.

In a nutshell, if you're buying basic, cheap sandwich bread, it's probably cheaper than you can make it at home. But if you compare two loaves similar to what you could make at home — one made with high-quality ingredients as opposed to one made with lesser quality ingredients — home baking becomes much cheaper.

While bread flour is more than adequate for everyday breads, some professional bakers use high-gluten flour with a 14% protein content to provide extra strength to dense, chewy doughs like bagels and pizza dough. High-gluten bread flour gives milk bread it's taut structure and compact (but tender) crumb.

By inhibiting gluten development, vinegar allows for a more delicate crumb and a soft, moist texture (e.g. my Oreo cake recipe pictured below uses a touch of vinegar to create a melt in your mouth crumb!). And It's not just cakes that benefit from a touch of vinegar, but also biscuits, muffins, and even bread.

You add the ingredients, and the bread machine makes and bakes the bread in one handy appliance. Liquid ingredients are added first, then oils or fats, dry ingredients, and finally yeast (if your recipe calls for it). The machine will mix, knead, rise, and bake the dough to a beautifully soft bread with a crisp crust.

If you enjoy making bread at home and want to have more control over the ingredients and customization of your bread, a bread maker can be a good investment. Additionally, it can save you money in the long run compared to buying store-bought bread.

It'll save time and give reliable consistent results every time - perfect if you're not much of a baker. But if you enjoy the process of making dough and creating rustic artisan loaves, you'll be better off baking them in your oven. A bread machine will feel too restrictive for you and won't be worth the counter space.

Considering you can pick up a loaf of bread for as little as $2 from some supermarkets and bakeries (although artisan loaves and good-quality bread can cost much more), and that a breadmaker can cost between $60 and $300 upfront, using your breadmaker to bake just one loaf a week may not be worth the investment.

Making bread by hand or in a bread machine comes down to personal preference. Both are healthier than store-bought bread.