Bread Machine (4 page)

FRENCH BREAD

There is often a European, Crisp, or Home made setting for the same purpose. This cycle has become the new rage in bread machine baking. Use this setting for crusty country breads with no fat or sugar that need longer rising times, giving the yeast a good long while to do its work. (Older National machines have this cycle lasting seven hours, which would bring a smile to the face of a traditional baker from France.) This is also the setting to use for sourdough breads made with yeast. The baking temperature is at the high end, about 325°F. The breads baked on this cycle are crisp crusted with a fine-textured, chewy inner crumb. Some bakers like a dark crust on their country breads.

QUICK YEAST BREAD

While the newer models have this cycle as an option within the Basic, Whole Wheat, and Dough cycles, some older models have it as a separate cycle. Also known as Bake (Rapid), Turbo, Quick Bake, or just Quick, this program is specifically designed for use with fast-acting (instant) or quick rise yeast. This cycle skips the second rise, shortening the entire cycle time by forty-five minutes to one hour. You can make virtually any yeast bread recipe on this cycle. See your manufacturer’s manual to find out how to adjust the yeast. When using this cycle,
it is very important that the ingredients be at room temperature when you put them in the machine
. The time the yeast has to work is already shortened; having the ingredients slightly warm at the start ensures that the yeast will get activated right away. In general, this shortened cycle does still give you a very nice loaf of bread. This cycle, or the One Hour cycle, is the one to use for gluten-free yeast breads (
Gluten-Free Breads
), since these doughs require less rising time. Note that this cycle is
not
the same as the Quick Bread cycle.

ONE HOUR

The One Hour cycle is a second type of abbreviated cycle that, as its name implies, produces bread in one hour. Even faster than the Quick Yeast Bread (or Rapid) cycle, the One Hour cycle cuts out more than one rise. It, too, requires the use of fast-acting (instant) or quick-rise yeast. Your manufacturer’s manual will tell you how to adjust the yeast in a recipe for this cycle. I find that there is a loss in flavor and keeping quality to breads made on this cycle, so I don’t recommend using it. The One Hour cycle can be used in place of the Quick Yeast cycle though when making gluten-free yeast breads (
Gluten-Free Breads
).

BAKE ONLY

In newer machines there is sometimes a Bake Only cycle so that a dough that has been prepared on the Dough cycle can be shaped and then returned to the bread machine for baking. You could use Bake Only for a cinnamon swirl bread, or for baking a hand-mixed or a commercial dough. This is the setting to use if you made a dough and planned to bake it in a regular oven, and, well, changed your mind. The Bake Only cycle is invaluable when a cycle ends and a loaf is not quite done baking. You can program Bake Only to continue baking in increments for up to two hours. If you are doing lots of different types of baking, you will use this cycle.

QUICK BREAD

This setting, also known as Cake, is for non-yeast batters leavened with baking powder or baking soda, such as quick breads and loaf cakes. This cycle mixes the ingredients (although older machines require that the mixing be done by hand and the batter poured into the pan without the kneading blade installed) and bakes without any rise time. There is an option for further baking at one-minute intervals. This cycle works well with packaged commercial mixes for cornbread, quick bread, and pound cake. On some models you have to program the bake time for this cycle; with others it is automatically built into the cycle.

PROGRAM

Some machines have a function that lets you manually change the cycle times to whatever you want them to be, letting you increase a kneading, rising, or baking time as needed. You can also create your own recipes and program in all the times for them, and the machine will keep the instructions in its memory. This is a feature that I find people use only when they have become very proficient with the basic baking cycles. (Also called Personal Baker.)

JAM

Some of the new machines have a setting for small-batch fresh fruit refrigerator jams (not jellies), with or without pectin. This cycle can also make chutneys and fruit butters. To prevent leakage and overspills, make jam only in a machine that is designed to do so. Be sure to read the chapter on jams in this book (
Jams, Preserves, and Chutneys in Your Bread Machine
) and the guidelines it provides; there are strict proportions to respect. Skeptical? This is a
great
feature, so give it a try. It makes wonderful jam.

OTHER CYCLES

Some machines have Sandwich or Tender cycles for breads with a finer texture than those baked on the Basic cycle. Use these cycles for recipes that contain more fat and eggs, ingredients that make a softer bread. The Batter Bread setting, a new addition to Breadman machines, is for making especially moist yeasted breads that don’t form a traditional dough ball. As machines become more sophisticated, continue to expect more features. Some machines now offer a Pizza Dough cycle, a Bagel Dough cycle, and a cycle specifically for gluten-free breads (which can also be made on the Quick Yeast Bread or One Hour cycles in other machines). Pasta Dough has its own cycle, a subcycle of the Dough cycle, in some Oster machines (but can easily be made on the Dough cycle in any machine designed to handle heavier doughs).

In addition to their baking cycles, bread machines have some or all of the following features:

DELAY FEATURE

Almost all machines have a Delay Timer, which allows you to place the ingredients in the bread pan, choose the baking cycle, and program the machine to begin the process of mixing and baking your dough 3
¹
/
₂
to 24 hours later. This is a popular feature, since it enables you to program the machine at night and wake up to fresh bread in the morning, or have fresh bread ready when you get home from work. I have noted throughout the book which recipes are not suitable for this cycle, but please remember that whenever you program the machine for a delay of even a few hours, you should not make a bread that calls for any fresh ingredients, such as milk, eggs, or cheese (including cottage cheese, sour cream, or yogurt), bacon, or fresh vegetables. Ingredients such as these can grow harmful bacteria at room temperature that can result in food poisoning. Many bread machine recipes call for dry milk and powdered eggs, which are safe to use with the Delay Timer.

In order to get optimum results using the Delay Timer, it is important that the yeast not come in contact with the salt (which would inhibit its rising power) nor with any liquid (which would activate it before the mixing began) when the ingredients are standing in the bread pan. Add the liquid ingredients first, then the salt, then all the dry ingredients, and finally the yeast at the end (or switch this order around if your machine so requires). Many bread machine books stipulate this precaution for all their recipes, but it is only really necessary when using the Delay Timer.

PREHEAT

Some machines have a Preheat or Rest period, which was created so that you could put ingredients at cold and warm temperatures into the machine and have them at a uniform temperature by the time the mixing starts. (Perhaps a throwback to the days of warming the flour on the oven door to take off the chill and encourage the best rising?) This allows the yeast to perform at optimum capacity. This phase lasts from 15 to 30 minutes. Remember that there is no blade action, so the machine will be quiet during this phase. In some of the more sophisticated machines you can bypass this step, in others you cannot. Some machines have it built into every baking cycle; others, like Breadman machines, just have it on the Whole Wheat cycle. Some people like this feature, believing it produces better bread, and some don’t, since it adds time to the whole process. You can use the Program setting (see
Program
), if your machine has it, to bypass the Preheat cycle.

CRUST CONTROL

In addition to choosing the cycle for your loaf, most models offer a setting that, by varying the baking temperature or timing slightly, gives you the choice of a light, medium, or dark crust. You are choosing how your loaf will look when it is finished baking. Some models have just two crust choices, Bake (Light) or Bake (Normal), which are built into their Basic cycle. The crust setting, because it does change the baking time and often the temperature, also affects the doneness of a loaf. I usually use the medium or normal crust setting for basic and whole-grain breads, but I almost always check the loaf to make sure the bread has baked all the way through. (See for information on
how to check for doneness
.)

If the crust on your bread is too light and the loaf is underdone, next time set the crust setting for dark; if the crust is too dark and the bread is overbaked, set it for light. Some people like light crusts on whole wheat breads and dark crusts on their French breads. I set the crust on medium or dark for artisan and country breads, and on light for sweet breads, which brown more quickly due to their higher sugar content. Since the specific ingredients in loaves often have a lot to do with how their crusts brown, it is a good idea to experiment with the crust settings.

LOAF SIZE

This setting asks you to choose the size loaf you will be making in the machine—1, 1
¹
/
₂
, or 2 pound. With this feature, each size loaf has slightly different cycle times and bake times.

PAUSE

The Pause button allows you to interrupt a cycle at any point and resume again where it left off. This is different from pushing Stop/Reset, which cancels the entire cycle. Most of the machines now have a Pause button, but some of the older or less expensive models do not. If your machine does not have this feature, you may wish to skim some of the more complex recipes in this book before making them—there are a few recipes that require this feature in order to manipulate the cycles.

COOL DOWN OR KEEP WARM

Bread recipes always state that the loaf needs to be removed from the pan immediately after baking to prevent it from getting soggy. The Cool Down or Keep Warm feature allows the loaf to stay in the baking chamber as some heat or a fan evaporates the excess moisture and pushes it out of the machine. This is not a separately programmable cycle, but, like Preheat, is a feature preset within one or more of the bread cycles on many machines. If you do not remove your loaf from the machine when the baking has finished and press Stop, a machine that has this feature will automatically go into a Cool Down or Keep Warm mode. The bread will be very moist if it stays in the machine on this mode. Without this feature, expect bread that stays in the machine after baking to be wet and soggy. I advise you not to leave a loaf in the machine on this mode unless it is absolutely necessary, when you have used the Delay Timer, for example, or if you are off taking a nap while the machine is running. Surprisingly, I found that country breads benefited from this Cool Down/Keep Warm phase, as it thickened the crust. Whole wheat breads, rather than getting soggier, dry out too much if left in the machine through this part of a cycle.

MAKING BREAD

T
his section is very important to understanding baking in your bread machine. It would be worthwhile to familiarize yourself with this information before baking from this book.

The Ingredients

All loaves are a combination of flour, leavening, salt, and liquids. The equation is so simple that each loaf is only as good as the ingredients that you use to make it. Additional ingredients such as sweetening, eggs, fat, or other flavor enhancers like cheese and herbs, produce loaves of different flavors and with individual characters. I include vital wheat gluten in the following list of basic ingredients, since it is an essential ingredient in every recipe that is baked in a machine.