Biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes

by Carrie Holcomb (Editor)

More than 400 recipes, including basic loaves, savory breads, sweet favorites, and holiday classics.Holiday-worthy butters and spreads to pair with your favorite breads.Two bonus chapters on Soups & Stews and Sandwiches offer more recipes and suggestions for enjoying delicious homemade breads.Basics chapter that takes the guesswork out of bread machine baking and includes a troubleshooting guide and substitution suggestions.

Genres: Cookbooks

416 pages, Plastic Comb/Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bottom Line First:
Given the reputation of Better Homes and Gardens, I had expected The biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes to be the most complete in fact the Definitive Bread Machine book. My expectations were too grand.

The Better Homes and Garden, Biggest Book of Bread Recipes is a good selection for the bread machine beginner. It has some good hints and a relatively basic selection. The fruited and desert type bread selection is pretty good, the whole grains disappointing. Overall I will be using this book enough to justify its addition to my library, but it is not the ultimate recipe book for which I had hoped.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There are some good recipes; however the selection tends towards the basic. Those I have selected have worked out well enough. The two best things I can say are that:

1. Of the several Bread Machine recipe books I have, these recipes call for an amount of water/liquid that more nearly matches what I need to get a good smooth ball of bread dough. I find that this texture associates with the best rising and the fewest "door stop" bread bricks. For some reason, Bread machine books tell you little about what a given bread dough should look or feel like.

2. The plastic spine binding looks cheap, but provides a flat, stay on the page cooking guide.
I also like that there are two widely separated lists of measures. Having the two bread sizes on opposite sides of the page makes it harder to begin combining ingredients for one size and ending on the other.

Once again a bead recipe book compromises the ability to read content in favor of having font colors and sizes that may look pretty. Ingredient lists alternate between a Navy Blue and Yellow (Gold?) ink. The Navy stand s out well, although given the size of the book a larger font would have been appreciated. Who ever thought any shade of Yellow would be easy to read? Has no one else had an instructor caution the class: "Do not use wild colors it makes your work hard to read and gives people headaches"?

[Elizabeth Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a bread machine, you need this book.

When I got my bread machine, I also bought a bunch of cookbooks to go with it. I tried recipes from all of them, but I kept coming back to this book and eventually got rid of the rest. This book has so many recipes, a normal person will probably never try everything in it, but it is fun trying. We have favorites we go back to regularly (sage & onion bread for Thanksgiving stuffing is the best!), but I am still trying new recipes in this, and I've had the bread machine for a long, long time now.

[Kathie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge array of bread machine recipes along with extras like soups, stews & spreads. I've tried quite of few of these & have had great results every time. I date the recipes when I make them & add comments ("More cinnamon next time" or "used Brand X flour" or "YUM!"). I'd like a more in-depth index (with cross-references like "Southwestern recipes," "sweetened condensed milk," etc.).

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book with LOTS of ideas for bread machine recipes. It includes recipes for 1 1/2 and 2 pound loaves so that you can use it with whatever size bread machine you have. It would be nice to have a copy. I found it in the Girdwood Public Library while Bart and I were down there in March. It inspired Bart to come up with his own bread recipe--which was a variation of one in the book.

[Lesli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the format. I think this is the book that recommended I measure the volume of my bread pan to know what size loaf I can make. Kudos for that alone! Also, found a Black Forest Bread in here. Hello! Chocolate and cherries, what could be better?!

I wouldn't own this, but I would certainly borrow it from the library again.

[Shootsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best bread machine cookbook I have been able to find. Most of the recipes come out perfect without any tweaking, and there is a recipe for every occasion. Highly recommended for anyone with a bread machine.

[Dioscita · Rating 3 out of 5]

We have a weird version of this book and have a love-hate thing going with the recipes (some we love, some we don't). Even still, the many ways a relatively-stupid machine like the bread maker has made our lives easier cannot be understated.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a treasure trove of fun bread recipes! I don't own a bread machine but I just love reading bread books and getting new ideas! I marked many recipes to try in here but will convert them to my style of baking :)

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who wants to make bread?!

[Flora Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this cookbook quite often, its my favorite cookbook. Its very easy to use and you can search by ingredient or type of bread.