Application Guide

licious in their own right. And so, once you’ve armed yourself with a bit of knowledge,
some fresh ingredients, and your beloved machine, I hope you, too, will approach this
wonderful new realm of baking with an open mind.
Often described as looking like a leftover robot from Star Wars, the
maid in a futuristic Jetsons’ cartoon, or even a gem tumbler, the bread machine was
originally invented to go in small Japanese kitchens, which typically have no room for
Western-style baking ovens. Contained in this machine that is the size of an old-fash-
ioned bread box are an internal motor that turns a kneading blade, a nonstick mixing
and baking canister, an electric coil to bake the loaf, and a microcomputer that tells the
machine how to take your loaf right through the traditionally hands-on procedure. So-
phisticated electronics control the motor, temperature, humidity, all of the timing, and
can even store a recipe file in the bread machine’s memory bank. The machine can
weigh anywhere from fifteen to twenty pounds, and definitely commands your visual
attention as it sits on the kitchen counter. Once you get used to how different it is from
the method of preparing bread by hand—in which you have to be watching, waiting,
and noting times, and your constant presence is needed—you will see how convenient
this method’s minimal handling of the dough is, and how the fixed timing of the rising
and baking cycles eliminates guesswork. The machine truly does the work, leaving you
free to do something else while your bread is being prepared. The process is nothing
short of magical.
I feel compelled to warn you that this type of baking is very addic-
tive. Once I got rid of my anxieties about blowing fuses in my tiny kitchen, and set
aside my disgruntled attitude about making bread MY way, I couldn’t leave the ma-
chine alone. This appliance begged me to use it. When each loaf turned out better than
the last, I was glad to have hundreds of recipes to test. The amount of actual hands-on
baking time, after deciding which bread to make and assembling the ingredients, is just
minutes. And then, aside from putting away the ingredients and wiping up a bit of flour
on the counter, there is no cleanup, which is remarkable for a craft that is known for
being messy.
To set the process in motion, all you do is assemble, measure, and
pour the ingredients into the bread pan that serves as the mixing canister, then push a
button to specify a setting and another to program the timer, if you wish. The machine
mixes, kneads, deflates, allows for the proper rising time, bakes, and often cools the
loaf, all automatically. The machine does it all—you don’t need to know how to bake
bread to use it.
With a bread machine, a light, high loaf is the result of using a pre-
cise, carefully measured liquid-to-flour ratio in conjunction with the machine’s per-
fectly controlled series of risings. The controls may also be set to “Dough Only,” so
that the machine can be used just for the mixing-kneading-rising process, after which
you can shape the loaf yourself and bake it in your home oven for bread that looks
more like the loaves you’re used to. Most bread machine models now have a specific
setting to produce the crisp crust and airy texture characteristic of bakery-style
baguettes and artisan breads, although bread machine loaves will differ in shape from
their authentic relatives. You may wish to shape these kinds of doughs by hand into
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