Bread Machines: Not Just for Bread

There are only a few appliances that have the privilege of sitting on my kitchen counter. I prefer the clean, uncluttered, almost staged look for my kitchen. Not even my toaster makes the cut to sit out for all to see. It's hidden away in the cabinet along with the food processor, dehydrator, blender, mixer, and part of the year, my slow cooker. Even the toaster oven got put away this year. My only appliance that makes the grade to stay out year-round is my bread machine. Why is this the case? Well, there's a lot more that this machine can do besides make bread.

When I first got my bread machine, I was like, great. Now I can make bread. And I did make bread. But there were only so many recipes in the booklet that came with the machine and I didn't love all of them. I like homemade bread a great deal. Mostly, I like know what's going into my bread and I like learning how different combinations of ingredients work together. I can choose the thickness of the slices, the darkness of the crust, the size of the loaf, whether I want the rapid, hour and a half cycle, or the longer (which produces yummier bread in my opinion) three hour cycle. When I wanted more recipes though, I turned to www.allrecipes.com. This gem of a site has multitudes of wonderful bread recipes. My family and I have enjoyed experimenting with potato bread, oat bread, and even panettone. There are other collections of bread machine recipes on the manufacturer's website for whatever machine you have or are considering buying.

I discovered more functions of my bread machine. Although it takes longer, I can use it as a mixer. This comes in particularly handy for doughs. I like to make whole wheat pizza crust dough in it. The bread machine allows the perfect amount of time for rising, while making it by hand in the humid South doesn't always work so well for the rising. In a pinch, I've even made cake batter in there when I didn't have time to stand and watch my mixer and push down the batter from the sides. This works very well, particularly when you are making cake from a mix. The paddle and the mixing/baking pan (it functions as the baking pan when you are baking bread, but is the same pan that the batter or dough is mixed in) takes up less room in the dishwasher than do a mixing bowl and the dough hook or mixing whisk from a mixer. However, it does take more time to make dough in the bread machine than a stand mixer.

My bread machine also has a personal baker, which is handy when you are trying to adapt recipes from the oven to the bread machine. Additionally, many models have a jelly or jam maker as a part of them. This function makes it very easy to make freezer jam in. Also, some bread machines have an "add extras" feature to them so that the fruit or nuts do not get mixed in prematurely or too late.

A bread machine is a good investment if you are going to use it. However, many models are on the larger side and take up more space. Additionally, bread tends to have a slightly heavier texture than store-bought loaves and goes bad faster than those bagged breads that are commercially available. However, homemade bread never stays around long, so you may not have that problem! Bread machines are useful for more than just making bread - they help the baking process to be easier. They also help make it easy to have fresh bread after just 5 minutes of prep. Pop some ingredients in and your efforts are very well-rewarded just a short time later! And no driving to the store just to pick up a loaf of bread because you ran out.