Do I think that bread machine mixes are useful? Yes, some of them are, but the snag with all bread machine mixes is that they place limitations on your choice and do not encourage your creative talents. That may sound a little harsh, but think about it for a minute. If you rely on bread machine mixes you can only make the bread for which you can find a bread machine mix and you can only put the bread machine mix into the bowl and switch the bread making machine on. You are not encouraged to alter the bread machine mix for fear that it won’t work.
What is the alternative? Well, the old-fashioned cookbook, of course! Not any old cookbook, but a specialized bread making machine recipe book. Bread making is a very simple, but rather tedious process. The ingredients are everyday, household items: water, flour, yeast, salt, sugar and oil. You already have those items in your cupboard with the possible exception of the yeast, which can be bought everywhere at low cost.
And you know what happens when you follow a recipe, don’t you? You’ve already read the recipe through and you know you have everything in the kitchen, but when the recipe requires, say, sultanas, you open the cupboard door and see that you don’t have any sultanas – they were currants! Oh, well you think, they’ll do. You make do. You try things out. And that means that you are developing your talents and creativity. Bread making mixes cannot and will not do that for you.
A good bread making machine cookbook will have well over 100 recipes originating from several countries and you will get really enthusiastic about trying the different ones out. Have you eaten Welsh bread – Bara Brith? Or Amish bread? Cajun bread or onion bread? Banana bread is lovely too, but one of my favourites is Brazil Nut Bread – absolutely scrumptious.
The fact is that you may not find recipes for all these breads in one recipe book, but if you have a reference point, like a bread recipe cookbook, you can start off by using previously tried and tested gourmet bread recipes and gradually concoct your own – frequently out of necessity.
I once made a really great loaf of bread by adding some of the leftover vegetables from my Sunday dinner. It was very delicious, however I could never quite make the same loaf again, try as I did many times, because I had not written down the weights of the added vegetables. I could only remember that I had added green beans, potatoes and sweet corn in it!
Bread machine mixes will never ever give you that, will they? Furthermore bread machine mixes are relatively expensive compared to the cost of five kilos of flour. I always vary the ingredients too: honey instead of sugar, milk instead of water, olive oil or butter instead of just corn oil. Rock salt instead of sea salt or visa versa. You get the picture.
Bread machine mixes are not only limited but limiting too. Furthermore, a bread making machine is a great way to use up leftovers. I have added meat and fruit in my gourmet bread many times. My guiding principle is: if it’ll go in a sandwich it’ll go in the dough – like an Indian stuffed paratha or stuffed naan bread.
Save your money by not buying bread machine mixes and be creative with a bread machine recipes cookbook.
If you have been using bread machine mixes go on over to http://bread-machine-mixes.the-real-way.com to see what delicious loaves you’re missing. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.