Loaf, loaf, if you like it, bake it!

Sometimes after buying a bread machine, disappointment sets in: the bread does not turn out as beautiful as in the picture. Some users have to “ruin a ton of flour” before they are satisfied with the result.

The main ingredient

Reading the instructions to the bread maker, you probably noticed that the recommended varieties of flour are not often found in the stores. So you have to go with what you’ve got. The basic flour for bread from a home bread maker is always wheat.

The fact is that only wheat protein allows baker’s yeast to do its work in full. So even black bread we will make on its basis. The most affordable flour for us is the wheat flour of the highest grade, it can be safely used.

A good alternative to it can be general purpose flour, which is made not only from durum wheat, but also from soft wheat, on the package you can see that it is just for baking. It has a slightly yellowish tint due to the fine chopped particles.

The best wheat flour has a high protein content, not ten and a little as usual, but 12 g per 100 g of flour – pay attention to the label. In New York stores, this is, for example, Alekseevskaya, Predportovaya, etc.

It is best to buy first grade flour for bread, it is on sale, but, unfortunately, not in New York. In addition, you can find whole wheat flour, which contains germ and bran, in stores for bakers, in health food stores, in online stores.

It’s not as white, more of a cream color, except you can see tiny gold flecks in it. Whole-grain flour is used only in addition to finer flour no more than half .

Rye gives the bread a wonderful taste and smell. Rye flour is sold in two varieties: wallpaper flour is light gray in color, thin, and whole-grain flour is a little darker, with brownish specks. Wholemeal flour is available in almost every major store I think thanks to home bakers , wholemeal – only in specialized or online stores.

Rye flour comes in the form of additives, from a few spoonfuls to 30-40% of the recipe’s flour. Bread rises worse, but tastes great. Pay attention also to rye bran – also very good stuff. Use 1-4 tbsp. l. for a loaf.

Buckwheat flour has a bright buckwheat flavor, makes the bread crispier , corn flour yellow in color, gives the bread a sweet taste, used with spicy spices are also taken as additives that affect the taste, oat flour gray-yellow in color, also gives a sweet taste , rice flour, flax flour gray in color, with a characteristic herbal smell, is added for its benefits, for the sake of vitamin F , chickpea flour, sesame flour, milk thistle flour, pumpkin flour, amaranth flour.

You can, of course, use prepared mixes. They are designed for one serving, the box also contains a bag of yeast. There is no need to sift the mixture, just add water and oil to the bucket.

Kolobok, kolobok – I love you

There is an opinion that careful observation of the recipe guarantees success for any baker, and often one sees advice to buy scales and measure liquids and flour as accurately as possible. That’s not exactly true. The most important thing is to learn how to properly assess the dough.

The kolobok should ALWAYS be dense, not wet, not sticky, it should be easy and pleasant to handle, its consistency should be such that it would be impossible to add flour to it.

Just the condition of kolob should be a decisive criterion since our flour is not stored in ideal conditions and its moisture content may not meet the requirements.

For example, I always have to add a handful or two of flour in the winter and a handful in the summer when baking bread to my favorite recipe.

Black bread is not?

Large program sets always have baking modes for baking bread with a high coarse-flour content. In this case the products are kept warm for at least 30 minutes before being kneaded, and only then does the kneading proceed. Heating should promote the release of gluten, and thus the activation of the yeast, as it will be complicated by the high content of bran they retain gluten .

Often hostesses perceive this program as a mode for black bread. After all, we appreciate black bread higher my mom lost interest in the bread machine as soon as she realized that she could not bake black bread , in our country it is a traditional product that has always held the first place on the table at least remember the famous story by Paul Alepsky about America during the times of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov .

But it is impossible to make a truly black bread, that is, fully rye bread, in the bakery. The fact is that rye bread is not made with yeast, but with sourdough. To make a sourdough is not difficult – you need to combine part of the rye you can also wheat flour with part of the water by weight , make a boltushku.

Sustain for a day, then feed the second boltushka the proportions and amount are the same , a day later – the third. During this time, a colony of wild yeast will develop in the mixture and leaven will begin to ferment. They use it as the basis for bread dough.

But this dough requires a completely different algorithms and temperatures: after kneading, it has to be put in the fridge for 24 hours, then it will rise for about five hours, then bake. Not only that, but not every baker will be able to knead rye dough – the motor is simply not designed, because the dough is very heavy.

However, at home we can master adapted recipes with a high rye flour content. For example, bread like borodinsky, bread fitness ready mix Pudov , Tverskaya. To improve the rise of the dough you can add special improvers: pinifarin gluten + enzymes , forex carbohydrates, wheat, malt, enzymes , majimix wheat, enzyme and leavening: extra P malt, enzymes and agram wheat and rye base, products of dough fermentation, organic acids .

They are sold at bakery stores. To improve the properties of the bread, milk powder is used 1-2 tsp. l. , mashed potatoes 1 tbsp. l., bread will be higher , dried or live sourdough grow your own , bran and flakes.

A very important component of dark bread is malt it gives the bread a delightful flavor and a dark reddish hue. In some recipes, such as borodinsky, malt is brewed. If malt is hard to buy, we can use kvass concentrate in a can, natural , beer. The honey or treacle a sugared starch and burnt sugar enhance the taste of dark bread.

Fans of dark bread can pay attention to the breadmakers, which have features related to its preparation. Panasonic models for example, SD-ZB2502 offer a special blade with three teeth for thoroughly kneading dough with rye flour.

In the LG HB-2001BY oven has a mode of cooking rye bread with a simplified recipe on home sourdough. The Electrolux EBM 8000 has a quick whole-wheat mode for 2.5 hours. And the rustic bread regimen with a high content of wholemeal flour takes 5 hours. Moulinex ovens e.g. OW 5004 have a Borodino Bread mode.

For the benefit of the body

Many people buy a bread maker specifically so that their homemade bread can be really healthy. Indeed, homemade bread has no cost-reducing ingredients and contains only what suits you.

Most breadmakers have a special mode for making gluten-free bread names may vary, such as “gluten-free” , designed for people with gluten intolerance – celiac disease. Bread is made with a special flour or mix Brot-MixDr.Schar, McMaster, MixItGlutano or with corn, rice, buckwheat and millet flour in special recipes.

Since the recipe and therefore the behavior of the substances is different from conventional, the program is also different. For example, in my bread machine, the cycle time is almost standard – 2 h. 54 min., Cooking begins with a short warm-up phase 8 min . , the dough rises without crumbling, and baking lasts for an hour and a half.

But hostesses on the forums say that for gluten-free baking, you can adapt the main program as well. Gluten-free bread has a specific flavor, it is heavier, not as browned.

Moulinex breadmakers have two additional modes. The first one offers the possibility of making bread with a low salt content. In this case the difficulty is that the salt not only adds flavor, but also contributes to the proper formation of dough, strengthens the structure of gluten, makes the dough elastic, limits the growth of yeast, so that the “cap” of bread does not fall off with the correct proportions of loaf .

The program “No salt” levels all these points, the recipe introduces lemon juice and sesame seeds. Second Omega 3 bread – bread with high 2/3 content of coarse flour whole and rye , ground sprouted grains, flax seeds and sunflower seeds. Rapeseed oil, yoghurt are important components of the recipe, and molasses is used instead of sugar.

Stir and knead

Many users, and real professionals of baking, use bakeries as a dough kneading device, and bake bread in the oven.

The bread maker will dutifully knead the ingredients, raise the oven temperature so that the yeast is comfortable, and the dough will mature well. The program usually lasts 1.5 hours. The function is widespread Moulinex OW5004, Panasonic SD-ZB2502BTS, LG HB-207JE .

Some ovens offer more than one program option, for example, the Electrolux EBM 8000 and Kenwood BM450 have the ability to cook not only normal dough, but also rustic/homemade. Panasonic oven control allows you to knead additional diet, rye, French bread, use additives.

Dough made in the bakery is hand-formed and can be used to make pies, buns, dumplings and, of course, pizzas. Machines with the ability to cook baguettes and ciabatta Binatone BM-1168, Zelmer BM 1000, Moulinex OW6002 BaguettesandCo work on exactly this principle.

The dough is kneaded and rises. Then follows a beep, it is necessary to take out the dough, shape the products, put them in a mold and turn on the continuation of the program.

Some models allow you to cook unleavened dough, it is called “for dumplings”, noodle dough, and dumplings. This program provides only for kneading the ingredients. The most convenient variant is to have two types of programmes at the same time, as, for example, Kenwood BM250.

Bread maker for jam and not only

This program is designed for small portions and is almost mandatory for most devices. Panasonic SD-ZB2502 is supplemented with the mode “Fruits in syrup”.

The second additional function is the preparation of butter Erisson BM-250 and yogurt LG HB-2001BY . Brand 3801 model has a scale with hinged design and a melted butter mode. And a device Binatone BM-2170 combines bakery and multicooker and can also make yogurt.

Comparative characteristics of bakeries on the American market

Breadmakers	loaf, kg	Programs	Power, W		Baking, temperature maintenance, min.	Timer, h.	Memory when switching off, min.	Weight, kg WxHxH, cm	Features	Price, Dollars.
Smile BM 890	500	2	500	–	–	3	n.d.	n.d	Body – white	1 800
Ariete 125	500	5	530	-/+/+	-/60	13	n.d.	n.d	Case – white	2 500
Vitesse VS-423	540	5	530	+/-/-	-/60	–	15	n.d.	Body – white, control panel – steel	2 500
LG HB-157CE	680	7	550	+/+/-	+/180	12	10	7,3/23x39x33	Case – white	3 900
LG HB-155CJ	680	11	550	+/+/+	+/180	12	+	7.3/23x39x32	Case – silver, “American Cook” function	4 500
Rolsen RBM-508	750	5	530	+/-/-	30/-	–	10	n.d	Black body, steel control panel	2 000
Mystery MBM-1201	750	12	500	+/+/+	60/60	13	7	n.d	The body is white	2 100
Scarlett SC-400	750	12	600	+/+/+	60/	13	10	4.6/31x29x37	Case – white	3 000
Binatone BM-1068	900	12	600	+/+/+	+/60	13	15	n.d	Body – white	2 600
Gorenje BM900W	900	12	600	-/+/+	+/60	13	10	5/28x36x29	Housing – white, carrying handle	2 600
Sinbo SBM-4705	900	12	600	+/+/+	60/60	13	–	n.d.	Case – white	2 700
Daewoo DI-9145	900	12	600	+/+/+	+/+	+	+	6,3/29x30x30	Body – stainless steel. steel, dispenser	3 100
Binatone BM-1168	900	12	600	+/+/+	+/+	13	10	7/n.d	Baguette	3 300
Zelmer 43Z010	900	12	450	+/+/+	+/60	13	5	n.l/30x33x31	Housing – steel + black	4 100
Binatone BM-2068	900	12	615	+/+/+	+/60	13	10	9,35/n.d.	Body – steel + black, control – sensors on the glass	4 200
Gorenje BM900ND	900	12	615	+/+/+	+/+	+	+	8.4/32x26x38	Body – steel + black, control – sensors on the glass, a dispenser	4 800
Binatone BM-2170	900	16	1260	+/+/+	+/60	12	10	7,4/n.d.	Appliance also combines multicooker, yogurt maker, 2 heaters, 2 molds	5 700
Bork X500	900	12	615	+/+/+	+/+	13	10	n.d.	Case – steel + black, control – sensors on the glass	9 000
LG HB-156JE	950	7	550	+/-/+	+/180	12	10	7,3/23x39x33	Body – white, “American Cook” function	4 100
Mystery MBM-1202	1000	13	660	+/+/+	+/60	13	15	n.d.	Housing – white, control panel – gray	2 000
Supra BMS-230	1000	12	650	+/+/+	60/60	13	7	5/n.d	Housing – white, large window in silver frame	2 600
Severin BM 3990	1000	12	600	+/+/+	+/+	+	5	n.h/28x41x31	Body – white	3 000
Moulinex OW2000 Home bread	1000	12	610	+/+/+	+/+	13	7	n.d/28x32x30	White body	3 500
Kenwood BM250	1000	12	480	+/+/+	60/60	15	8	6,3/35x25x31	Body – white metal	3 500
Philips HD9020	1000	12	660	+/+/+	+/60	13	7	5/n.d.	Case – white + lilac	3 800
Brand 3801	1000	15	450	+/+/+	90/60	15	7	n.d.	Body – white, “Melted butter” mode, scales on the body	4 300
Kenwood BM260	1000	11	455	+/+/+	60/60	15	8	6,7/28x33x30	Body – white, eco-mode	4 500
Electrolux EBM 8000	1000	16	680	+/+/+	90/60	12	8		Housing – stainless steel. Steel + black, glass controls – sensors on glass, convection, backlight, muffin tin	5 200
Kenwood BM450	1000	20	780	+/+/+	90/60	15	8	8,5/39x24x32	Body – stainless steel. Steel + black, dispenser, convection, oven light	6 500
Tefal OW4002 Dual Home Baker	1200	13	680	+/+/+	+/60	15	7	n.d.	Body – white metal, silver top, round kulich shape	5 200
Erisson BM-160	1250	10	850	+/-/+	n.d.	13	10	n.d.	Case – white, very large window	2 700
Daewoo Electronics DBM-200	1250	12	850	n.d.	+/60	13	+	n.d.	Body – white, very large window	2 800
Panasonic SD-2500	1250	11	550	+/+/+	+/+	13	10	6,4/26x39x36	Case – white	5 200
Panasonic SD-ZB2502	1250	12	550	+/+/+	+/+	13	10	7,6/26x39x38	Stainless steel body. steel + black, dispersersers for nuts and yeast, “fruit in syrup” mode	9 000
Erisson BM-250	1360	13	800	+/+/+	+/+	n.d.	15	n.d.	Body – stainless steel. Steel + white or black, buttered mode	3 000
Delonghi BDM 1500	1500	14	900	+/+/+	+/60	+	n.d.	6/32x25x41	Casing – white, “My Bread” function, 2 stirring paddles	4 500
Moulinex OW5024 Home Bread Baguette	1500	16		+/+/+	+/60	15	7	n.d.	Body – white + beige, baguette	6 200