Application Guide

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 al-
ways check the loaf to make sure the bread has baked all the way through. (See for in-
formation 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 con-
tent. 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 ex-
cess 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 ma-
chine 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 ex-
ample, 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
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