Best Bread Machine Recipes: For 1 1/2 and 2-Pound-Loaf Machines

by Jennifer Darling (Editor)

A total of 80 recipes featuring a variety of flavors—sweet and savory—that make use of a bread machine’s convenient and timesaving features. Recipes give ingredient amounts for both 1 1/2-pound and 2-pound loaves. Every recipe tested in the Better Homes and Gardens® Test Kitchen in machines from a variety of manufacturers to ensure success. Answers questions from consumers that are commonly asked of the Test Kitchen home economists to help readers solve specific bread machine baking problems. Shows how to convert conventional bread recipes into bread machine recipes. Machine settings specified for each recipe. Nutrition Facts with every recipe in new easy-to-read vertical column format, include the percent Daily Values for calories, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol, carbohydrates, and fiber. Concealed wire-o binding allows book to lie flat for easy reading.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

128 pages, Spiral-bound

Published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINAL VERDICT: this book was FANTASTIC! Every recipe was a winner (except for the one that I did not follow correctly). This is the best bread machine cookbook I've tried so far.

***

The last few bread machine cookbooks I tried were abject failures. I took a break from cookbooks and just made the tried-and-true (but boring) recipe printed on the side of my bread machine. Every loaf was a success! But some members of my household have started grumbling about having the same type of bread every time, so I mustered my courage and borrowed another cookbook from the library!

This cookbook is spiral-bound so it lies flat on my counter, which is nice. Recipes are large and easy to read, black type on white background, with ingredients for 1.5 lb or 2 lb loaves. (My bread machine is labeled for 2 lb loaves, so I used those.) The intro information could have been a bit more detailed, I would have liked to see information on all the different types of yeast that are available now, and how to adjust the amounts correctly.

Recipe sections are:
Plain and simple
Sourdough
Whole grain
Savory
Sweet
International classics
Flatbreads and pizzas
Shaped breads

A table of contents is included before each section, but - oddly - the list of recipes is alphabetical instead of in the order they appear; that kept tripping me up. I expect a ToC to be ordered by page number, and an index to be alphabetical.

This book isn't huge, so a few recipes I was looking for were not there (no chocolate bread, no baguette-style bread, no brioche, no challah, no anadama) but it has a decent selection, with some interesting choices such as applesauce bread, French pear bread, and Welsh rarebit bread.

RECIPES I TRIED
Whole Grain Bread
I made changes all over the place. This isn't really a fair trial, since I'm modifying the recipes willy-nilly to make them match the liquid:flour:yeast ratio on the recipe that is on my machine. Past failures indicated pretty consistently that the cookbooks were calling for too much liquid and/or too much yeast. I'm tired of failure. I'm not trying to kick that football any more. And I don't always have the right ingredients - c'est la vie.

I meant to try the plain "whole wheat" bread recipe, but when I flipped to the "Whole Grain Goodness" section, this was the simplest recipe I could see. That's because the regular whole wheat recipe is in the "Plain and Simple" section, which I didn't pick up on at first, since the tables of contents are alphabetical.

This called for 1.5 cups liquid, 4 c flour + 1 c grains + .5 c nuts, 4 t sugar/honey/molasses, and 1.25 t yeast. I changed that to 1.25 c liquid, 2 T molasses, kept the 4 c flour, and added about .75 c of random grains that I found on my shelves, which were not at all what the recipe was calling for. Honestly, I don't know what "four-grain cereal flakes" are, so I added oats, corn meal, spelt flour, and some couscous. I used the 1.25 t yeast per the recipe. How bad can that be? ... Verdict: FAIL! It was much too dry (but I can't really blame the recipe since I changed so many things!).

Basic Whole Wheat
This time I followed the recipe exactly (although with some trepidation). It worked! This bread is basically half white flour & half whole wheat, it calls for more liquid and less yeast than my basic side-of-the-machine recipe, but it worked! The texture was lovely and the flavor was very nice. Verdict: SUCCESS!

Egg Bread
This was GREAT! SUCCESS!!

Buttermilk Bread
An ENORMOUS success! The crust was surprisingly crusty, and the buttermilk & wheat germ gave it a subtly different flavor. This makes fantastic toast, too. My kids asked me to make THIS bread "all the time." Clearly, this cookbook is a WINNER and I should follow the recipes exactly.

Beer Bread
(I used Founder's All Day IPA for this. The recipe calls for a sponge to be started the night before, and to sit at “room temperature (75 to 85 F)” and holy cow that’s a warm room!!!. Hopefully my sponge will do okay at my room temperature, which is closer to 65 F. I put it in the microwave to keep it away from drafts. Fingers crossed! ... 14 hours later and it looked bubbly and happy, so I guess my room temp was warm enough.) Verdict: Big Success!! It didn't really taste like beer at all, just a bit more yeasty than regular bread. Wonderful texture: flaky crust and soft interior. A winner!

Banana Blueberry Bread
(Note this one is made with buttermilk too. So if you're planning to use this cookbook, better have buttermilk on hand!) This - to my surprise - took THREE bananas! It smelled AMAZING while baking. I thought it tasted great but my kids were less enthusiastic. Verdict: success! I suspect this will be even better tomorrow.

Italian Cheese Bread
This recipe surprised me by having NO sugar in it! Yeast uses sugar as food to multiply, so most bread recipes - even savory breads - call for a small amount. I followed the recipe loyally, and indeed the bread did not rise as much as most, but it was not unpleasantly dense either. It's got a nice crisp crust and a coarse crumb with a pleasant cheesy flavor. This would be fantastic on the dinner table. It may also be great as toast for breakfast. Verdict: success.

Four Grain Bread
The four grains are: wheat, corn, oats, and barley. This took some extra prep, since I had to find quick-cooking barley (which I had never heard of - spoiler: it looks like oatmeal), then I had to toast the barley & oats in the oven, allow to cool completely, and grind in a blender. The grinding process was not perfect because I am not a flour mill, so the resulting bread had a pleasant (and deceiving) whole-grain texture. (The only actual whole grain in this is the cup of whole wheat flour.) I did all that the day before so this morning I just dumped it all in the bread machine along with water, butter, and yeast. Turned out the "new" jar of yeast I had in the cabinet was actually quite old (but unopened) - "best by 2016" bwahahahahahah - so I was worried, but it rose okay. This smelled great and tasted great, a bit reminiscent of kasha (which was not one of the grains in it!), it's pleasantly nutty with none of the dry bitterness you sometimes get with 100% whole wheat bread. Verdict: success!!!

Applesauce Bread
This called for 1/4 t mace; I neither have nor like mace, so I substituted 1/8 t nutmeg + 1/8 t cinnamon - close enough, right? Verdict: Success The bread is fine, but not my favorite. I'm glad I didn't use mace! Even the nutmeg tasted wrong.

Harvest Bread
3 c white flour plus 1 c whole wheat and 2/3 toasted wheat germ. Verdict: SUCCESS!. This might be the best loaf so far, it’s got the perfect amount of everything.

Sesame English Muffin Bread
Didn't rise as much as I expected, and did not have the coarse "nooks and crannies" texture I expected, and at first I wasn't quite sure about this one because I have texture issues and do not like seeds in my bread ... but it grew on me as I ate it, and it's phenomenal sliced at room temperature the next day with a slab of butter! Verdict: success! This is also excellent toast!

The next few recipes I tried after I returned the book to my library, so they are from notes I took.

Herbed Green Onion Bread
I didn't plan ahead so I didn't have quite enough green onions for this one, and I wasn't sure what "crushed" meant for the dried herbs, so I gave them a swirl in the grinder. I must’ve transcribed something wrong with this recipe, it was very dry. I added water and restarted the cycle. As a result of all the extra rising/kneading, the texture was very fine, and the flavor was nice. This made good toast. Verdict: success (of a sort)

Cheese Bread
I got the orange cheddar for this because I thought the orange swirls would show up in the bread and look pretty, but it all melted and you can't see the cheese at all, so next time I'll just stick with white cheddar. And there will be a next time because this was amazing, it's not cheesy exactly, it's just a perfectly flavorful loaf of bread. Verdict: SUCCESS!!

Orange Cinnamon Loaf (with icing!)
Downside was that we had to wait for this to cool completely. The wait was agonizing! But the taste took me back to childhood. Verdict: fantastic!!



Other interesting recipes that I didn't get to try:
Wild Rice Bread
Honey Grain Bread
Welsh Rarebit Bread
French Pear Bread
Russian Kulich

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed making many of the recipes in this Bread book. Every recipe I tried turned out wonderfully and even when I made substitutions the bread still tasted great. I have made quite a few of the recipes and will continue trying more throughout the years, I'm sure.

You will not find very many artisan breads in here but there is a section with international recipes that I have been enjoying.

Thank you for a great bread machine recipe book! Well done. :)

[Gayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another bread machine cookbook with an excellent assortment of recipes, all easy to make. Sweet to savory to basic breads.

[S. Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cookbook of recipes using a bread machine, as the title suggests. The book contains an introduction, a chapter on bread machine usage, and eight chapters of recipes divided into the following categories: Plain and Simple, Sourdoughs, Whole Grain Goodness, Savory Loaves, A Sweet Touch, International Classics, Flatbreads and Pizzas, and Shaped Breads. The book also contains a metric conversion chart, and has both 1 1/2-pound and 2-pound recipes for each tasty food.

I have tried several recipes from this book, including White Bread, Whole Wheat Bread, French Pear Bread, and Pizza Dough. I thought that the White Bread recipe was not as good as a different recipe for it that I have, but I really enjoyed all of the other recipes I've tried. The Pizza Dough recipe has been a family favorite since the very first bite, and I now make it just about every week. It is the BEST Pizza Dough recipe that I have EVER tried, and is definitely better than the store bought pizzas, by a long shot. It is so easy to make, and one 2-pound recipe makes three thin-crust pizzas or two thick-crust pizzas. I usually have to tamper with a recipe to get it just right... in this case, that wasn't necessary! I think that's a first! I'd give the book five stars for this recipe alone!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s about time I read and use my own cookbooks. With the resurgence of bread machines, I dug one of mine out & a pile of cookbooks. I’ll admit I’ve been very partial to one bread machine cookbook, but am determined to try other recipes. I’ve flagged several recipes to try and am excited to make cheese bread, several sourdough loaves, blue cheese potato bread, Parmesan bacon loaf, Italian cheese bread, caramelized onion & walnut focaccia and the raisin bubble ring (monkey bread’s cousin).

[Kim Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only skimmed this one.
Has potential, but not sure how much I will really use it.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compared to Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook, this one pales. I did, however, appreciate the nutrition facts exhibited in the standardized fashion. Returning it to the library today with no intention of checking it out again.

[Lesli · Rating 2 out of 5]

No different that dozens of other bread machine cookbooks out there. Nothing stands out in this book.

[Aleeda]

Mixed bag in terms of the recipes. Some were better than others, and instructions could be a little better.