Tomato Basil Bread - by Hand or Bread Machine Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to make bread by hand or with a bread machine? ›

Use the machine to mix and knead your dough only

Then shape the dough yourself and bake it in your oven. Using a bread machine can save you time and effort (although, honestly my method takes very little time and hardly any effort). But by shaping it yourself you can shape your loaf as a tin, a plait, a bloomer etc.

Okay, so, what's the final verdict? Making bread from a machine is marginally cheaper than buying it, as long as you eat bread frequently enough to offset the cost of the appliance.

Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough mix properly –out of many reasons out there. Some of the other potential reasons could be mixing the yeast & salt together or losing your patience while baking or even not creating enough tension in the finished loaf before baking the bread.

Adding Ingredients to the Bread Machine

Manufacturers usually recommend adding the liquids first, followed by dry ingredients, with the yeast going in last. This keeps the yeast away from the liquid ingredients until kneading begins.

One disadvantage of using a bread maker as opposed to your hands is that the paddles are typically fixed, meaning they remain in the dough when baking, often leaving a hole in the middle of the loaf.

Some attribute the demise of the bread machine to the fact that cooks were just disappointed by their results. Lara Pizzorno, the author of Bread Machine Baking, chalked it up to food snobs who regarded the machine as “the electric equivalent of The Bridges of Madison County” in a 1996 article in The New York Times.

The Breadman BK2000B Bakery Pro Bread Maker lets users choose to bake either a large loaf or a small loaf. Featuring a collapsible kneading paddle, the bread maker doesn't leave a hole in finished loaves.

The added protein and sugar from milk powder improves the structure and texture of yeast breads, making them loftier and more tender. It also intensifies the color of the crust, making your breads beautifully bronzed.

Bread flour has a higher protein content (around 13% more), which leads to more stability, form and rise in the dough, allowing it to lift and hold shape. All purpose flour has a lower protein content, resulting in lighter, shorter breads, which makes it an ideal flour for cookies, cakes and more.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Which yeast is best for a bread machine? ›

Therefore, while many bread machine recipes call for instant yeast or bread machine yeast, active dry yeast can typically be used as a 1-to-1 replacement.

Too much heat or humidity might lead to a too-quick rise and a crevice near the center of your bread. Conditions that are too cold might delay proofing or rising, resulting in a super-dense loaf. The bread machine works on a timer and hums along at its regular pace.

A: Before putting any of your ingredients into the pan spray it with a vegetable spray such as Pam.

The cycle could be too short for the recipe causing it to be baked prematurely. If that's not the case, maybe too much heat may have escaped from the bread machine as it was baking. You should never open the cover of your machine while it is on the bake cycle.

A bread recipe usually features some form of fat, be that softened or melted butter, vegetable oil, or olive oil. These fats can enhance your fresh bread's taste and texture. However, fats should only be added to the bread machine once they've reached room temperature.

Aside from being a meditative, stress-relieving activity, there are a multitude of benefits to kneading your bread dough by hand rather than using a stand mixer or other machines. For example, you'll notice improved texture in your final product due to better gluten formation that occurs while hand kneading.

Kneading dough in a stand mixer is more efficient than kneading by hand. The fast, efficient kneading rhythm used in stand mixer bread dough recipes helps develop gluten strands that give structure to the bread when baked.

But what if you love fresh bread but a busy schedule leaves little time for the many steps of mixing, kneading, shaping, proving and baking your own? In that case, a breadmaker is for you. Plus, if you buy a machine with a timer, the bread can be ready and waiting for you in the morning.