Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I have the urge to dust off my old bread machine and bake some bread. I use to just buy those bread machine mixes but I want to try it from scratch. I like to use the machine through the dough cycle as I like to shape my own loaves (don't like the weird machine shaped loaves) Any suggestions for cookbooks or recipes? Thanks

I really like Bread Baker's Apprentice and Artisan Bread in 5 min. a day. I don't have a breadmaker though.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and its companion, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. No breadmaker recipes, but they're ALL no-knead recipes. The first book is filled with pretty classic recipes; the second with healthier (at least part-whole grain and/or gluten free) versions of classics.

PS- The second book has an easily-veganizable recipe for pumpkin pie brioche. 'Nuf said.

I love the Tasajara Bread Book. It's not a vegan bread book, but most of the recipes are vegan or easily veganizable. Also, no bread machine recipes, but everything I've made out of this book has been nombly.

Beth Hensperger has a bread machine cookbook/encyclopedia that I use quite often. I've also made a few recipes from this Better Homes and Gardens bread machine book and they were pretty good.

I have also had success with using baking books that are not expressly for bread machines, like Crust and Crumb by Reinhart, and just using the machine to knead and rise the bread. I've never baked bread in my machine. Weird, I guess.

I love Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day! I haven't tried to veganize any of the enriched breads yet, so it's good to hear that you had success. What did you sub for the eggs and egg wash?

I really like The nitty gritty bread book andBread Alone

I'm pretty sure they are from a time before bread machines, but they make excellent bread

I didn't really sub for an egg wash except to brush with a little nondairy milk. Not the same, but still tasty. I used flax in the wheaty ones, and chia in the GF ones. I haven't tried chia in the wheaty ones, but the flax didn't work as well in the GF ones.

Thanks. I will try that.

I used to really love the Tassajara. I still do, but my current favorite is the Laurel's kitchen bread book.

http://www.amazon.com/Laurels-Kitchen-Bread-Book-Whole-Grain/dp/0812969677

I'm having good results with Artisan Breads Every Day. It's an easy method with no sponge and less yeast. Just get it mixed and leave the dough in the fridge overnight until you get around to shaping and baking.

I found an old copy of Tassajara a while back. I need to take a crack at it soon.

I've had this book since the late 80s and I still use it ... a lot!

I stole my mom's old Better Homes & Garden's bread cookbook from the '60s or '70s and I haven't looked back. Most non-bread machine recipes can be easily made in a machine, you just mix up the order of adding things a bit and scale the quantities down (the easiest way to do this is figure out how much flour you need for a n-pound bread machine loaf, then multiply everything to reach that amount.

The Fanny Farmer baking book is also good to have around because it has a recipe for absolutely everything. Neither of these is vegan, of course, but they're easy to adapt.

I just got the Tartine Bread Book. It looks amazing, I have just started making my starter so it will be a couple weeks before I actually have any bread, but the book is gorgeous and has lots of very detailed instructions.

I second the Laurel's Kitchen recommendation! Any bread recipe that calls for kneading by hand can be thrown in the breadmaker and let run to the end of kneading - I do that all the time. You just have to check it occasionally with your hand to see if it needs more or less water.

On the old board someone reported success using liquid soy lecithin as a wash, but I forget exact details.