9 Simple But Important Tips For Making Bread

         I had a bread-making machine a few years ago and gave it away eventually because it was not the right machine for me. I bought my bread-making machine at a garage sale for a few dollars and not a big loss. Will I buy another model bread machine in the future? Maybe, if I have bigger storage at my house. I bought a bread machine because my friend’s mom recommended getting one. She served to us homemade bread with soup and I love it so much. However, I didn’t ask enough questions to make the right decision. However, I got great advice from her! Don’t invest in a new one, buy used and get a feel do I like it or not. I got it at my neighborhood garage sale!

        I like the convenience to make bread in a bread machine. I just put all ingredients and then close the lid ( remember to scrape the corners, maybe flour collects in them) and done! I have so nice bread aroma at my house and a loaf of bread for the family without any effort. Here is my guide if you are going to buy a bread-making machine and use it. Learn from my mistakes!

1. Capacity Of Bread Machine

Consider the capacity of the machine better for you. In my opinion, bigger is better. I saw 3 pounds loaves machine on the market. However, I had a small bread loaf machine. It was working so many hours and as a result a small loaf of bread. I had almost never left anything for another day. Here is my first requirement for my new bread-making machine – I want a big loaf machine!

2. Removing The Kneading Paddle After Kneading

        Bread from the bread machine will have a hole at the bottom from the kneading paddle if we don’t remove the paddle after the machine finishes kneading the dough. I learned this tip after I give away my bread-making machine and my machine instruction didn’t say anything about this option. So, my bread always had a hole from a paddle and I don’t like it. My son joked after he saw my first loaf of bread, “Do we have a mouse at the house?” We still have a small hole on the bottom of the bread after we remove the paddle anyway but less noticeable.

3. Bread Making Machine Is A Large Appliance

       The bread machine is a large kitchen appliance and takes space in the kitchen. I didn’t use a bread-making machine often but it takes space in my storage this was the main reason I gave it away.

4. Quality of The Bread From Bread Making Machine

       Every recipe from the booklet I tried was good!

5. Can We Use Bread Making Machine For Other Purposes?

     Yes! We can make a great dough that is required kneading. For example, stuffed dumplings or homemade pasta.

        Use filtered or bottled water for the bread dough. If we use faucet water, make sure it doesn’t have a lot of chlorine. Chlorine effects on yeast performance and can slow down our bread rising.

        To improve the taste of bread we can use instead of water whey. Whey is not only improving the taste of bread, but it enriches bread with nutritions. Just remember whey is not water and can change the recipe. It is a very common ingredient to make bread in the country, especially if people have a cow. I also used water with my leftovers of sour cream and it makes the taste of bread much better too.

What is whey? Whey is the liquid remaining after we stained curdled milk. From curled milk, we can make a great cottage or farmer cheese.

         Most yeast I tried works great. Just make sure, you check the date expiration before use. Make sure yeast not expired before use it in your dough, so you don’t waste all other ingredients. Remember a slow rise has more flavor development. I tried short time speedy recipes and always noticed a strong taste of yeast.

         If we need to speed the rise of bread better to use higher temperature rather than increase the amount of yeast. Very important the temperature should be comfortable for your hands. Yeast is a leavening agent and hight temperature can kill it, so make sure your dough in the right environment. I use a microwave (with warm water under in the bowl) or oven without turn on the heat. Here you can find more options to speed up rising of bread → 9 Substitutes Ideas For Baking Tools And Equipment

         Some recipes, required to mix the dry yeast with liquid before adding to the flour. I suggest following the direction on the yeast package how to add yeast to the dough for better performance. Some yeast needs to be dehydrated before adding to flour, some don’t.

        The best wheat flour to make bread is bread flour. However, I use all-purpose wheat flour mostly when pandemic starts. If we use flour from different companies, the result will be different. Some flour better than others. The best tip, check what contains in the flour. I remember my friend baker on my question “which flour is the best for baking?” She suggested King Artur flour. This company flour has only 100% wheat flour without additional ingredients. Flour can be absorbing moisture from the air and the best way to keep flour in an airtight container.

         Flour necessary to sift before making the dough to enrich with oxygen.

       Glutin free flours are absolutely different flour than wheat. For example, I used partially buckwheat flour or ray flour in my mix flours bread. What I learned, a better way is to follow the trusted recipe and use scale. Unfortunately, as beginners better to use the scale. Flour can have different moisture or sifted or not sifted. When we use the scale these factors are not important. Scales are not expensive, invest in one.

      Salt is slow down the yeast fermentation process. It is important to know when you add salt to the dough, don’t add directly on yeast. I suggest using scales to measure salt if it is possible for the best result.

      The best is freshly grounded pure coarse salt. You can read on the package what contents in the package. The reason is fine salt contains an anticaking agent and other ingredients that can be possible to slow down the bread rasing.

Very important for canning to use only pure salt too. Jars will be not preserved well through winter when we use fine salt. Especially picky are cucumbers!

      For some bread recipes, we need eggs. I cracking an egg in a separate small dish one by one before adding it to flour. The reason, if something wrong with the egg, I don’t waste my flour.

   Do not wash shell eggs before storing them. They are washed and sanitized at the factory when ready to go to the store.

*I like to wash the egg’s shell before cracking the egg. Not difficult to do. However, it is maybe not necessary.

With the internet, we can learn so much useful knowledge. However, sometimes the info is wrong. I don’t want to go for details of the story but shortly – NEVER STORE EGGS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE! According to the ServSafe coursebook store eggs at an air temperature of 45°F or lower.

        I substitute many times oil for butter in bread recipes. My family likes more bread with butter. The butter flavor in bread is a great addition and adds a great flavor and makes the bread softer. Remember butter should be warm temperature but not hot. Too much oil or butter can slow down the activities of yeast.

      Sugar is like food for yeast and we can substitute it for honey. We just need to keep in mind honey has its own flavor and it affects bread taste. Honey works fine as a sugar substitute but we can’t substitute sugar for artificial sweeteners. I don’t use sweeteners in my kitchen but I read about it in my breadmaker instruction and now know it is not an option to substitute natural sugar.

       The scale is a necessity and makes our life easier when we make bread dough. For example, a cup of sifted flour has a different weight than 1 cup not sifted flour. The scale is actually nice to have for many other purposes in the kitchen too.

        My advice is to buy a scale with manual off function. I have an automatic off on my large scale and battery life, of course, shorter than with manual shot off button. Another inconvenience with automatic turn off I have sometimes, my scale is off itself with ingredients on it in the middle of the process. For example, I got distracted by the phone call and don’t touch the scale for a certain time and my scale turns off itself. So, I have to start over to weight my ingredients. On the photo above, I have a small scale that I use for salt and yeast. This scale has a manual turn off button and I like it.

        Homemade bread doesn’t have any preservatives and is fresh for just a few days. What to do with homemade leftover bread? We can freeze it. I like to freeze sliced bread. Bread slices I layered with wax or baking paper before storing in the freezer. We can also make bread crumbs, croutons, use for pudding, or use for stuffing. Going out of town? Just feed bread to birds or animals.