Bread Maker Recipe - French Bread

A good crusty French bread is hard to beat as an accompaniment to a hearty soup or other dish. The best news is that you can make a decent loaf of French bread in the bread maker. Notice that I didn't say “perfect” loaf. I've not been able to get that nice crunchy French bread crust on all sides of any bread baked in a regular pan, bread maker pan or not. Still, this is a tasty oil free white bread with a great crumb and chewy crust.

For this loaf, you only need half as much of the gluten as I would normally recommend. Putting in 2 teaspoons will make it rise too much and then break itself against the lid of your bread maker.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten
1/4 teaspoon dough conditioner
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

Put the ingredients into the bread machine loaf pan in the order listed for your machine. Add the wheat gluten and dough conditioner with the flour.

Set the machine for the French cycle. I prefer a Medium or Dark crust setting for this bread. Make sure you remove the bread from the pan as soon as the cycle is complete and let it cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

Bread Maker Review - Sunbeam 5891

Are you looking for a good bread maker at a budget price? Look no further. The Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker is a solid performer at a low price. Home cooks have praised it's ease of use and overall performance, as well as it's affordable price.

The Sunbeam 5891 is packed with all the basics you'd expect from a great bread maker: crust-color selector, regular baking and dough only cycles, you name it. Like most bread makers in it's price range, it makes a vertical loaf, rather than the horizontal one available in more expensive machines. It sports a good, no-frills approach with 12 preprogrammed cycles and, surprisingly, a jam cycle.

To be fair, we found a few complaints about its durability and many owners say the recipes in the manual could be better. (Not a problem for us. We just make our own!) A few reviewers have also complained about the LCD screen, saying it can be hard to read. In spite of these complaints, owners of the Sunbeam 5891, posting at Cooking.com and Amazon.com, awarded the Sunbeam bread maker a good over-all rating.

It is simply the best available bread machine in it's price range.

Don't pay expensive prices at the bakery for something you can make fresh and warm in your home, everyday. Get a Get the Sunbeam 5891 Breadmaker and start enjoying fresh home made bread, without all the fuss, today.

Bread Maker Recipe – Basic White Bread Made Right

A staple in the American diet, good ol' white bread from a bread maker can sometimes be a hit or miss affair. Adding the two secret bread maker ingredients can turn an “Um ... the top's okay” into a “what a great loaf of bread!”

This recipe works just fine with the timer, so feel free to set it up before you go to bed. You'll then awaken to the by the warm, toasty smell of fresh bread in the morning.

Ingredients

1 cup water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
1/4 teaspoon dough conditioner
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast

Directions

Add the ingredients into the bread maker pan in the order listed. Set the cycle for “white” and the baking control to the desired level. I like “light.”

If you'd like, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of non-fat dehydrated milk after the dough conditioner to enrich the bread. If you'd prefer a little more fiber and a few less simple carbohydrates, try this half-wheat bread maker recipe, instead.

Makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf.

Picture by Gaston Thauvin