It's More Fun To Bake Our Own Bread

I've always enjoyed making my own bread. I am not sure if was the old skul figure of a farmhouse kitchen, complete with relaxed and smile mother, well behaved babies and a fresh baked loaf that fooled me. But I bought the bread machine anyway. And despite the reality that neither my kitchen or my family look like the mythical one on the box, I do enjoy using my bread machine.There are more good reasons for making your personal bread, whether by hand or with a machine. If the flavor of a fresh loaf is not enough to convert you, here are some more argues to give it a try, and some hints for the unwary. The professionals Today's bread machines are cheap to buy and easily to operate. You can reduce the artistic creation of making bread down to measuring some ingredients into the cooking pan, pushing a button and waiting. There are many useful manuals around explaining everything you need to know about your bread machine. Some are basic models. It all depends on your budget and how often you'll use the machine.The kind of recipes available for home made bread, both sweet and savoury, are amazing. Breads made with herbaceous plant, beer, chutneys, sun-dried tomatoes, spices and chick peas to name but a few. You can also use the bread machine to create cakes and tea bread if it's a bake only cycle. If you prefer to make fancy, formed breads, let the machine do all the hard work of kneading and proving. Just remove the dough at the baking stage, form into baguets, plaits or rolls and cook in a conventional oven.you've control of all the ingredients in your bread, cutting down on preservativesand additives.Home made bread tastes better. Even my kids will consume the wholemeal variety, as it tastes yummy. You're only ever about 3 hours away from a freshly baked loaf, so running out if bread becomes a thing of the past.Some machines have a delayed cycle on it, meaning you can adjust the timer to begin baking in the early hours of the morning and wake up to the aroma of fresh baked bread.Making your own bread is cheaper, specially if you use strong bread flour and dried out yeast rather than a commercial mix. A loaf will cost you cents in comparison to the ever growing store costs.There are many great bread combines around, making the whole process even easier. You can get seed bread mix, ciabatta, whole meal, sunflower seed..even plain old white. And paying the additional for a combine still works at around half the price of a shop bought loaf. So are there any cons? Well, only a few. And most of them you discover the hard way. Using fresh yeast in a bread machine is tricky. Getting the amount wrong can mean the bread either goes bad to rise, or rises so much it hits the lid and overflows. Dry yeast gives preciser results.Always check that you've place the blade in the machine,or after 3 hours you'll finish up with a baked  of unmixed ingredients. Be sure you add the ingredients in the right order. Some machines specify wet ingredients 1st, others the dry ingredients.And the biggest. Having to wait for 3 hours to get your hands on that yummy, fresh made loaf. So while you are waiting, why not bake some cupcakes in the oven. They only take 30 minutes and taste yummy.

Posted in: Bread,Food,Recipe