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Farm Kitchen:  Should I buy a bread machine?  |
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babs
True Blue Farmgirl
226 Posts
Babette
MN
USA
226 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 15 2007 : 1:26:34 PM
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Oh I'm so glad! I think you'll like it. I love mine for the same reasons Brenda does. Promise now (my youngest just turned 9) is very into making "her own" bread and likes to play with adding cinnamon or extra honey and making her own personal bread for the day. Usually she has a loaf going by the time the rest of us are up in the morning. I'm getting a second one now just so we don't have to share. ;)
Send me your addy Sheryl-lyn and I'll send you off a bread mix to help you celebrate your new machine! :)
Babs |
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momtoeight
Farmgirl in Training
35 Posts
Laura
Medicine Bow
WY
USA
35 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2007 : 07:59:28 AM
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I have a bread machine, and use it constantly. We bake all of our bread, and while we DO use the Kitchen Aid to make large batches, we also use the bread machine. We have a large family, and our machine bakes a 2 lb loaf - just enough to go around once.
But... I homeschool, and we operate a home business. We are frequently out all morning, and come home for a fast lunch. We cannot eat "quick fix" foods (Crohn's disease), so before we leave, we can start a soup in the crock pot, and a loaf of bread in the machine, and when we come home, lunch is waiting for us. We can eat, throw more bread ingredients into the machine, toss some more food into the crock, and come home to have dinner waiting. If we stay home in the afternoon, we can still start bread to be ready at dinner time.
I am SO busy, even when I am home, I just do not have the time to bake regularly. And we require fresh milled flour. So if we don't bake, we don't have bread! The bread machine just insures that we have one more tool to get healthy food on the table around a terribly busy schedule.
I have a cheap Wal-Mart one - even the cheap ones are better than the expensive ones were 5 years ago. We make 100% whole wheat bread in it - no special settings. We use hard white wheat flour plus some other whole grains in it.
The first three to five times you make bread in a machine, you have to adjust the water or yeast amounts - especially if you live at high altitude. Remember how you adjust them (write it into your book), and from then on, MEASURE CAREFULLY. Bread machines use small amounts of ingredients, and the machine cannot make adjustments as it goes, so you have to measure precisely once you work out a recipe that turns out perfect bread each time.
If you put the ingredients in at night, and set it on a delayed bake cycle, you can wake up to hot bread - or you can set it to be done at dinner time, etc. But when you do that, the bread usually will rise just a tad less than if you set it to bake immediately. The reason is, the water temperature - when you start with warm, it raises just a bit better. The solution is that you can add a pinch of extra yeast, OR, you can add an extra tablespoon of water (moister dough raises more easily), just when you set it on delayed bake.
It takes about 3 - 3 1/2 hours for bread to finish in a bread machine - the entire cycle is slower than it would be if you did it by hand. But it is also completely automatic, and once your recipe is worked out, it is a "set it and forget it" process. To me, it just ends up being a tool for multi-tasking. :)
Laura
Mom to Eight
Firelight Web Studio - http://www.firelightwebstudio.com - Small Business Website Services with a Difference - Personal, Flexible, and Friendly |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2007 : 08:37:43 AM
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| This is so fun to read. You all have such great ideas for living a good life. |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
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beckels
True Blue Farmgirl
237 Posts
becky
warrington
pa
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2007 : 4:36:03 PM
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Of course my breadmaker is in the garage packed away because my parents kitchen is to small - and it was cheap....free!! I would go to yard sales and clearance racks and try those first (or borrow a friends to see if u like it) b4 purchasing one
beckels |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 1:09:01 PM
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Hi Kim!
I am not worried about you forgetting me! I am in Florida visiting my parents right now anyway, so no cooking going on with me. My mom is spoiling me and my 16 year old niece (she drove with me) for a week. She won't even let us help her cook or clean up! We have to do stuff to help her "on the sly!"
Anyway, I will be looking forward to cooking when I get home.
Babs: I sent you an email. You are a doll to send me a mix! Thanks! |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 8:18:42 PM
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Kim:
I am in Punta Gorda now and the weather is a little cool. It did get to 70 today and we got to sit outside for a few hours. It is supposed to get warmer each day from now on, so you will have good times.
Venice is not too far from here if I remember correctly. Will ask momma tomorrow in the morning. |
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2007 : 12:40:27 PM
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My husband bought a bread machine for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. He thought he was making my job easier for me. Well, I tried 3 different kinds of bread in it and they all came out really dry (yuck). So, I tried just making the dough in it and then just shaping the loaf and allowing to rise and bake it the normal way. Well, it comes out of the machine really gooey and you have to add a lot of flour before you can EVEN knead it and then it tastes "off". I like my own bread much better. So does my family. I didn't have the heart to tell my husband he chose poorly and wasted money until this year when I told him I was putting it in a yard sale. He looked diappointed but he handled it. Don't get one.
We come from Nature, we go back to Nature; health & happiness in between requires intimacy with Nature. |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2007 : 6:00:57 PM
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Hi Lisa: Funny how so many people have serious opinions about their machines, huh? It's either love it or hate it!! Thanks for your input.
I am actually getting a sourdough starter in the mail soon :) and then I will make more handmade bread. I make that other no-knead bread a lot too. Thanks!! |
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grace gerber
True Blue Farmgirl
2804 Posts
grace
larkspur
colorado
USA
2804 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2007 : 09:23:17 AM
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I just made the best potato bread yesturday and it is almost gone. I would never make bread if it was not for the machine. In high altitude it is such a blessing because or weather effects the bread so much and in the machine I do not have the same issues. I can also make a great pizza dough, quick breads, rolls, and I love that in the summer I am not getting the kitchen hot. In the winter also it leave room in the stove for the rest of what I am making. Good luck.
Grace Gerber
Larkspur Funny Farm and Fiber Art Studio
Where the spirits are high and the fiber is deep
http://www.larkspurfunnyfarm.etsy.com
http://larkspurfunnyfarm.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larkspurfunnyfarm |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2007 : 03:39:11 AM
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Hi Grace: You have made me hungry. I am up early this morning and wish I had the smell of baking bread filling the house! How are you guys doing with weather over there?
XXOO Sheryl-lyn |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2007 : 07:43:31 AM
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Hi Kim!
I got it!! YAY! You are so nice to do that. I have a little homemade treat coming your way within a few days. What a great day!
Sheryl-lyn |
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Farm Kitchen: Should I buy a bread machine? |
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Should I buy a bread machine?
