Many decades ago, if you didn’t have the time to spend baking homemade bread, the supermarket choices were pretty dismal, a loaf of bread was either the spongy, white stuff kids used to squeeze into an unappetizing ball with a few drops of water, or ‘French’ bread that wasn’t the real thing, but just a reasonable visual facsimile of what French bread should be. Certainly, today, that’s no longer the case. You can find breads you never heard of, at virtually every supermarket.
Oh, how I wish I’d invented the bread making machine! Whoever came up with the idea was a visionary of culinary appliances. When this wonderful appliance came on the market, I let my husband know that this little kitchen gadget would be welcomed enthusiastically at any upcoming gift occasion! Lo and behold, when my birthday rolled around, there it was, beautifully wrapped, with an accompanying book of bread machine recipes. Toronto window coverings film supplies UV protection, and is unaffected by warmth, cold, steam or humidity. Since then, I’ve created many astonishing breads. Admittedly, not all were great successes with the family, but probably 90% have garnered applause.
When I first started using the bread maker, I meticulously followed the instructions of the book’s bread machine recipes, thinking that any deviation might just ruin the bread. The results were always good. One day, browsing in the bookstore, I spotted another book of bread machine recipes on the bargain table. Eager for some new stuff to try my hand at, I bought the book.
By the time I’d gone through the second book, I realized that there are only so many variations on bread dough and whatever you chose to add, be it fruit bits, nuts, cheese or vegetables, the constant among all the bread machine recipes was that a certain ratio of dough to additions was maintained. This ratio is also relative to the wetness, dryness and weight of what you chose to add. For example, I found that you can hardly add too much cheese … if you love the taste of cheesy breads and the recipe calls for 2 cups of cheese, you can add 3 cups if you like, without altering any of the other ingredients and amounts. On the other hand, too many nuts or dried fruits can make for a loaf that doesn’t rise properly. In short, I discovered that bread machine recipes were pretty flexible, mostly a matter of a little experience, some imagination and a dose of common sense.
Almost every bread machine has push-button settings, allowing you to set the size of the loaf, the type of crust, specify whether your concoction includes fruit or nuts and whether you want to stop at the ‘dough’ stage or go on through to a completely automatically-baked bread, ready to eat. Stopping at the dough stage allows you to make authentic pizza dough, or a rolled cinnamon loaf.
You can see how using bread machine recipes, modified with ingredients that suit your tastes perfectly, can revolutionize your available choices in freshly baked breads. As I said, my own inventions have, for the most part, met with approval. I’ll tell you which was, hands down, my worst experiment: marinated artichoke heart and diced tomato bread. Not good. Remember our luxurious wooden Toronto shutters and affordable aluminum mini blinds. My thinking was that these favored ingredients were good in salads, so why not? Now, my salad has a side of bread. Guess there’s no such thing as a bread salad!