Best Bread Machine Cooking Tips

We hope these Bread Machine Cooking Tips help you make successful bread!

• • Always use a good recipe for the bread. Do a bit of research on allrecipes.com and search for some 4 or  5 star recipes.
  • Always make sure that your liquids you use are at room temperature. If the temperature is too hot you will deactivate the yeast and your bread is not going to rise. Also make sure all of the dry ingredients are mixed very well before you add them into the bread machine.
  • Read your instruction manual and follow the directions they recommend for the sequence of adding your ingredients. This can vary from bread machine to bread machine for example some bread machines require the liquid ingredients first while other ones require the dry ingredients first.
  • Always monitor the consistency of the dough and add less liquid ingredients then a recipe calls for when starting out. This is because you do not want your bread mixture to be too wet when you are putting it into the bread machine. If your dough seems too dry, add warm water at a tablespoon at a time and likewise add a sprinkle of flour if the dough appears to wet.
  • Do not over handle your dough.
  • Know that sometimes even an automatic bread machine is going to need some help. Therefore, when the bread is being mixed together, check the pan to make sure that none of the flour has stuck to the bowl. If so, you can use a soft spatula to remove the flour from the side of the bowl to make sure that all of the flour is incorporated into the bread mixture.
  • Remove the load of bread immediately from the pan as soon as it is through baking. If you don’t you may end up with a soggy loaf of bread. The heat from the bread and the pan can cause  moisture at the bottom of the pan which is going to be make the bread wet.
  • Know when the bread is done or not. If the bread feels soft in the center when you touch it, then it is probably still a little undone. To fix this type of problem preheat your oven to 350 degrees, remove it from the pan and place it on the center rack of the oven. Bake in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes or until the bread is firm to the touch. Finishing the baking in the oven will give the bread a little bit of crust on it that a lot of people like.
  • Sometimes during the initial mixing, flour will stick to the sides of the pan. During baking some of the flour will bake the bread pan to the loaf. Use a sharp knife to separate the bread pan from the loaf.