Days of the Bread Machine

# Days of the Bread Machine Link to [Bread Notes](https://hackmd.io/@aphanotus/breadlog) Link to [Bread Ideas](https://hackmd.io/@aphanotus/breadideas) ## Oatmeal Granola Bread 21 November 2020 - milk 1C - salt 1/2 tsp - butter 2 Tbsp - oatmeal 3/8 C - granola (Costco Ancient Grains) 3/8 C - honey 2.5 Tbsp - flour 3C - yeast 2 tsp Result: Too dense. June and I were suspicious from the beginning. It didn't look like enough liquid and the dough looked crumbly for a long time. The final product was very dense. My guess at solutions: - Warm the ingredients first! Everything went into the machine cold. - Increase the yeast by about 25% - Add about 2Tbsp more milk - Maybe something in the granola prevented rise? ## French Bread 23 November 2020 After the failure of the oatmeal granola bread, I wanted to check if it was the yeast or the coldness of the ingredients. I made a very simple French beard following the Bread Machine cookbook's recipe closely. I warmed all the ingredients to room temperature ahead of time. (Except the yeast.) It worked much better, but the rise was still a little poor. My conclusion is that warming the ingredients is important, but that our yeast might be a bit weak. We have a second jar, so it may be worth trying that one! ## Apple Bread 5 December 2020 This is based on a recipe from the internet https://www.food.com/recipe/apple-chunk-bread-for-the-bread-machine-118122 I cut the cinnamon in half and used dark brown sugar and olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I increased the yeast from 2.5 to 3 tsp. (I used an unopened jar of Fleischmann's active dry yeast, dated Dec. 4 2021.) - 1 C milk - 1⁄4 C olive oil - 2 Tbsp sugar - 1⁄4 tsp cinnamon - 1 1⁄2 tsp salt - 3 C bread flour - 3 tsp yeast - 1 1⁄3 C apples, peeled and diced I warmed the milk on the bench while I cut the apples. I then microwaved it for 30 seconds, so it was about room temperature. I also dusted the apple pieces in the flour and added them at the first beep. After a lot of uncertainty, I ran it on the "sweet bread" menu setting. It turned out okay. Tasted great. June and I ate half of it as soon as it came out of the machine. But it definitely fell. So I probably did too much to increase and prompt the yeast. In the future, I think it may be enough to use the new batch of yeast, sticking to the recipe's amount, and making sure the ingredients are at room temperature. ## Panatone 24 December 2020 Followed the bread machine recipe closely. The fruit settled to the bottom, sadly. The rise wasn't as much as it could be. But it was still tasty! ## Anadama This is a recipe that Serena has used before with good results. - 1 1/4 C water - 3 Tbsp molasses - 3 Tbsp dry milk - 1 tsp salt - 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter - 1/2 C cornmeal - 4 C bread flour - 1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast - Cook on medium, white settings ## Forget the bread machine! After this point we got sick of the bread machine. Things didn't rise and it seemed too much trouble to be worth it. Following these entries, I had several excellent French breads and Panetones using recipes from Mark Bitteman's *How to Cook Everything*. --- Link to [Bread Notes](https://hackmd.io/@aphanotus/breadlog) Link to [Bread Ideas](https://hackmd.io/@aphanotus/breadideas)