Bread Machine (14 page)

• You can try one of the following solutions:
  Decrease the liquid by 1 tablespoon the next time you bake,
  or
  decrease the yeast by a quarter of the amount called for,
  or
  decrease the fat
  or
  the sugar in the recipe by half.
  

Gnarled loaves or the machine sounds like it is straining during kneading:
Too much flour; the blade cannot knead effectively.

• Too much flour was used for the loaf.
  Reduce the amount of flour by 2 tablespoons next time.
  

Squat, domed loaf:
Too much flour.

• There was too much flour in the loaf.
  Reduce the flour by
  ¹
  /
  ₂
  cup the next time you make the recipe and add the flour in increments of 1 table spoon until the dough ball is the right consistency.
  
• Loaf needed more liquid.
  Next time add liquid in increments of 1 tablespoon until the dough ball is the right consistency.
  
• Loaf needed more yeast.
  Increase the yeast by a quarter of the amount called for.
  

Lopsided loaf:
The dough was on one side of the pan during the rises.

• The dough ball was not in the center of the pan.
  Next time check the dough ball during rising. If you see it sitting to one side, pick it up (carefully, so as not to remove the blade with it) and set it in the center on the blade.
  

Loaf balloons up over the rim of the pan like a mushroom and is too big and light textured:
The dough has risen too much.

• There was too much yeast.
  Reduce the yeast by
  ¹
  /
  ₂
  teaspoon next time.
  
• There was too much liquid.
  Next time, reduce the liquid by 1 tablespoon.
  
• The proportions of the recipe were too large for the size of the baking pan.
  Reduce all the quantities in the recipe by one third or one half next time.
  
• The bread was baked on too warm a day.
  The baking process is affected by hot surrounding temperatures; bake again on a cooler day or in the early morning or evening.
  

Bread is not cooked throughout:
The dough was too heavy.

• Too large a percentage of whole grain flours was used.
  Next time use more bread flour.
  
• Too many heavy, moist ingredients.
  Next time reduce the amount of cheese, applesauce, sour cream, dried fruit, or other such ingredients.
  
• The dough needed an extra knead.
  Next time, reset the machine after Knead 2 and start the cycle again from the beginning to give the dough extra kneading time.
  
• There was not enough yeast.
  Increase the yeast by one fourth of the amount called for next time you bake the bread.
  

Added ingredients are clumped:
When the extras were added they did not get mixed in completely.

• The extras were added too late and did not get distributed.
  Next time, add them at the beep or add them during the pause between Knead 1 and Knead 2.
  
• The extras were too large or too sticky to get distributed.
  Next time chop the ingredients smaller and toss them with some flour to separate them.
  

After baking, the loaf has a long crease down the side that slightly separates from the loaf:
There was too much flour and the loaf did not rise enough.

• There was too much flour.
  Next time reduce the flour by 2 tablespoons.
  
• There was not enough liquid.
  Add more liquid next time in increments of 1 tablespoon.
  
• The dough needed more rising time.
  If your machine can be programmed for part of a cycle, next time you bake press Stop/Reset after Rise 3 and program the machine for an extra rise.
  

Leftover Bread Cookery

I always seem to end up with plenty of leftover bread from baking in my bread machine, most of which begins to stale in a matter of hours. So what do you do with leftover bread after you have eaten a multitude of sandwiches and tons of toast? How much room is there in the freezer? Has every neighbor been given a loaf? A few wayward crumbs thrown to visiting birds?

A loaf of bread can be the handiest staple to have in the cupboard; there is an entire world of recipes based on the leftover loaf. Many of them are quite old-fashioned, harking back to the days when no foodstuff went to waste. Besides providing for a well-stocked pantry of fresh breadcrumbs and croutons, bread provides the base for grilled sandwiches and French toast, and for a wide variety of beautiful, easy appetizers that can be topped with savory preparations of meat, fish, vegetables, or cheese. Bread can be floated in soups; used as breading, stuffing, and binding for meats, poultry, and fish; or used to create a host of filling desserts. Recipes for some of these creations are spread throughout this book, but here is an overview of some of the delicious ways you can use up leftover bread.

• Fine dry or coarse fresh breadcrumbs are the best substance for coating meats, eggplant, croquettes, and cheeses to make a crisp crust after sautéing. These are called “breading” for a reason!
  
• Bread slices or soaked bread or rolls are used as a filling starch like pasta, or to line casseroles, like a pastry crust, for savory
  stratas
  or sweet bread puddings.
  
• In cubes, chunks, or coarse crumbs, bread is the main ingredient for meat and vegetable stuffings; for fruit stuffings, as in baked apples; or to bulk out and bind ingredients, as in meat loaf, meatballs, and crab cakes.
  
• Toasted fresh breadcrumbs make a great crunchy and attractive topping for roasted vegetables, casseroles, or spreads, such as macaroni and cheese or deviled crab. They are also used as a separate ingredient tossed with pasta, topping pizzas, or in potato salad, offering a contrast in flavor and texture.
  
• Fresh breadcrumbs are mixed with eggs to form a mixture like a savory breading mixture, and cooked in broth to form a variety of old-fashioned dumplings.
  
• Breadcrumbs are used as a thickening agent in sauces like the tomato sauce for moussaka and for
  skordalia
  , the wonderful Greek sauce for fish and vegetables made with garlic, nuts, bread, and olive oil.
  
• Without bread there would be no fondue or Welsh rabbit, made simply of melted cheeses with bread.
  
• Crostini, or twice-baked breads, are the base for all sorts of warm and cold canapés.
  
• Crunchy toasts are floated in soups, such as French onion,
  pan cotto
  (stale bread is added to this Tuscan broccoli and potato soup), gazpacho (bread, vinegar, tomatoes, and garlic pureed together for a cold soup),
  panada
  (broth, vegetables, and bread baked until the bread absorbs the broth, and eaten with a spoon), and
  pistou
  (the French vegetable soup with a crouton coated with pesto on the bottom).
  
• Pita bread can be used for lining the cooking pot used to steam rice, the way it is done in Middle Eastern kitchens.
  
• Dry breadcrumbs are often used in place of flour to dust baking pans to keep cakes and cheesecakes from sticking. They are important in separating layers of strudel or filo dough, as in fruit strudels.
  
• European and Jewish baking use dry breadcrumbs as a main ingredient in place of flour for cakes and tortes. Breadcrumbs are often used in steamed puddings and in eastern European hearty rye breads.
  

DAILY BREADS

White Breads and Egg Breads

White Breads

Honey White Bread

Country White Bread

House Bread

Milk Bread

French Sandwich Pain au Lait

Sour Cream Bread

Yogurt Bread

Greek Bread

Maple Buttermilk Bread

Banana Sandwich Loaf

Coconut Milk White Bread

French Bread

Vienna Bread

Old-Fashioned Potato Bread

Instant-Potato Bread

Beer Bread

Hungarian White Bread with Fennel Seeds

One-Pound Loaves

Sampler Brioche Egg Loaf

Sampler Country White Loaf

Sampler Buttermilk White Loaf

Sampler Honey Whole Wheat Loaf

Sampler Oatmeal Loaf

Sampler Hawaiian Sweet Loaf

Egg Breads

Franskbrød

Butter Bread

Brioche Bread

Zopf (Swiss Egg Bread)

Jewish Egg Bread

Poppy Seed Egg Bread

Virginia Light Rolls

Egg Bagels

English Muffins

Hamburger Buns and Hot Dog Rolls

Pasta Doughs from Your Bread Machine

Egg Pasta

Whole Wheat Egg Pasta

Green Spinach Pasta

Semolina Pasta

WHITE BREADS

T
he world of baking has not always known white bread. It is the product of a sophisticated milling process that acts like a series of sieves, separating the bran and germ from the creamy white endosperm. Mills were first powered by steam in the 1700s, finally breaking the centuries-old customs of using wind, muscle, and water power for milling. This innovation proved a great success. Ingredients to make bread became easier than ever to obtain. The invention of high-speed roller mills became a hot topic among European inventors. Patents were finally granted to Swiss inventors in the mid-1800s, but it was a Hungarian, Count Szechenyi, who is credited with first putting such a system into widespread use in Budapest mills in 1870. The resulting finely bolted flour was used by the Viennese and French to create their sophisticated array of baroque coffeehouse breads and pastries. In 1879, a team of Hungarian engineers was invited to Minneapolis to set up such innovative systems of milling in America, and the General Mills Corporation was born.