When my friend, Debbie, couldn’t get her Oster bread maker to work, I took it home to experiment with it. I had not ever used an Oster before, even though we sell them on our website, BreadMakersUSA.com, so I felt excited to see what I could do with it. First, I read the instruction manual, including the whole wheat bread recipes included therein. Debbie, who expressed a great interest in making whole wheat bread, had only been able to make loaves that were extremely heavy.

I carefully followed the recipe in the instruction manual and had the same dreary results Debbie had, but I had an advantage, because I watched the bread as it mixed, rose, & baked. I discovered that the bread rose too high before the bake cycle began; thus, the loaf fell as it baked, resulting in heavy bread. The next time I made bread, I only put in 1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast instead of the 2 teaspoons the recipe called for. This time the bread was a little better, but still rose too high and fell. The next time I put in only 1 teaspoon of yeast. That worked pretty well. Then I tried My Favorite Whole Wheat Bread Recipe, which is posted on this website, but I did not have any dough enhancer, so I replaced that with 2,000 mg. of Vitamin C. However, this recipe still calls for 2 teaspoons of yeast, and the bread rose too high and fell again. Ugh! Would I ever get it right? The next time I used Debbie’s bread maker, I left everything the same as the last time, but just put in 1 teaspoon of yeast. Yahoo! It was perfect! This became the birth of My Favorite Whole Wheat Bread Recipe II, which is also posted on this website. I’ve tried that particular recipe many times in her Oster bread maker, and I’ve used it in my Toastmaster and Sunbeam bread makers and had great success.

I was ready to return Debbie’s bread maker along with the recipe when she asked me to try spelt flour. So I used the same recipe, My Favorite Whole Wheat Recipe II, just substituting spelt flour. Voila! It worked!

Now I could return the bread maker and the recipes, which I did. The next time I saw Debbie, she thanked me for helping her “fix” her bread maker. She loves it now, because the recipe worked.

That is the key to having a great bread maker: Just keep adjusting recipes until they work. I have found that the bread makers are not at fault. It’s just the recipes. I’ve said this before, and I will keep repeating: Recipes often have to be altered according to where you live due to atltitude, humidity, & who knows what other differences in your particular area. So keep on trying!

When I visited my friend and mentioned that I had a website on which I sell breadmakers, she said, “Oh, I have one of those, but I can’t ever get my bread to turn out good.” I asked her if I could take it home and experiment with it, which she was glad to do, because it was just sitting on one of her pantry shelves, a precurser to giving it to a charity or selling it at a yard sale. It was an Oster breadmaker, which I hadn’t tried yet. The amazing results I had with this experiment will be continued at a later date!  To find out what happened, look at my blog article, “How I Fixed My Friend’s Bread Maker.”

This recipe works really well (in Sunbeam, Toastmaster, and Oster bread makers) where I live in Southern Utah, but it may need to be adapted for other areas of the country and other bread makers. I have found that recipes may need to be modified according to altitude, humidity, etc. in various parts of the world.

1 2/3 cup water (room temperature)

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup raw quick rolled oats - sprinkle over water

2000 mg. Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) powder (I just add Vitamin C tablets or caplets into my grain mill and grind them up with my wheat.)

3 3/4 cups freshly-ground whole wheat flour (White wheat)

1 teaspoon bread machine yeast

Add the ingredients to the bread maker in the order listed. Bake on the basic setting. This recipe works well on the delay bake cycle.

This recipe works really well (in my Sunbeam and Toastmaster bread makers) where I live in Southern Utah, but it may need to be adapted for other areas of the country and other bread makers. I have found that recipes may need to be modified according to altitude, humidity, etc. in various parts of the world. 1 2/3 cup water (room temperature)

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup raw quick rolled oats - sprinkle over water

1 tablespoon dough enhancer

3 3/4 cups freshly-ground whole wheat flour (This is white wheat. If you’re using the old red wheat, you probably need to increase the dough enhancer to 2 tablespoons. You might also consider changing the whole wheat flour to 3 cups and putting 3/4 cup of white flour.)

2 teaspoons bread machine yeast or a package of Red Star quick rise yeast

Add the ingredients to the bread maker in the order listed. Bake on the basic setting. This recipe works well on the delay bake cycle.

I love to use bread mixes for their ease and convenience, and I plan to do a series of reviews on various bread mixes, the first of which is this one. The first time I made the Prepared Pantry’s “Sunrise Sugar Free Seven Grain Wheat” mix, I served it on Sunday. I put it in on the delay bake cycle so that it was piping hot and fresh for Sunday dinner. Mmm, mmm, what a wonderful aroma to come home to!

The bread looked good and smelled wonderful, and my 33-year-old son absolutely loved the taste, but he was the only one at this family gathering.. Later he said as he munched on yet another slice of bread, “I can’t believe there is still some of this bread left!”

My personal opinion of the bread was that I found it to be far too gritty for my taste. Also, the Splenda taste was too strong. I prefer freshly-ground whole wheat flour, which I realize is impossible in a whole wheat mix, but the old wheat flour made the bread taste like the whole wheat bread I could buy at the store.

The Splenda taste and the old wheat flour taste are problems I can live with, but the grittiness was too much. Therefore, I decided to try sifting out all the whole grains from the rest of the mix and grind them in my grain mill and put them back in when I mixed the bread. Bad idea! That took away the grit, but the taste was terrible! Some of those grains need to stay whole in order to be edible.

The next time I tried it, again I sifted the gritty whole grains out separate from the mix and put them in the bread maker right after I put the water in so they could soak for the night. That did take most of the grittiness away, but the Splenda taste and the old wheat flour taste were still there.

Bottom line: I wouldn’t buy this particular mix again, but if you don’t mind the Splenda and old wheat flour tastes, give it a try.

I have made whole wheat bread for the past 36 years — all of my married life. Before that I made white bread or a blend of wheat and white. When we first got married, we had a place where we could go to get our red wheat ground, and I mixed bread by hand. Somehow we managed to eat the bread I made as I learned how to make 100% whole wheat bread before the advent of white wheat. Since we didn’t have our own grain mill, we would get about 25 lbs. of wheat ground at a time for the convenience. We made an interesting discovery: The bread we made from the freshly ground wheat tasted really wonderful, but each successive batch of bread was a little less tasty as the flour lost its freshness. We bought a recipe book, Wheat For Man, by Rosenvall, Miller and Flack, which gave us this information: “only freshly ground whole wheat flour insures full flavor and maximum nutrition.”

After about four years, even though we were still struggling financially, we decided to make a grain mill a high priority on our needs list and started looking for one. We opted to buy one that would grind any grain or nut or seed — even make peanut butter. We’re still using that same mill after 32 years, although the power switch has had to be replaced a couple of times. It has been a very wise investment, and I would encourage any serious wheat bread bakers to invest in their own grain mill.

How good is the bread made on the Fast Bake Program of a
bread maker? I tried two bread makers, the
Sunbeam 5891 and the
Toastmaster TBR15CAN
bread maker, and put two different types of bread in just
to see how good the bread would turn out for supper.

In general, I’ve had better success with the recipes in
the Toastmaster Use and Care Guide, which may just be because of where I live.
(See my article, Breadmaker — Don’t Sell It on eBay — Use It.) I tried
the Fast Bake White Bread recipe in my Toastmaster bread maker and the Fast Bake Cheese’n Onion Bread recipe in my Sunbeam bread maker. Both recipes came
from the Toastmaster Use and Care Guide. Both bread makers have the 58
minute fast bake cycle. I had some milk that I needed to use for cooking,
(It got left out on the counter over night.), so I used milk instead of water in
both recipes. Otherwise, I followed the recipes exactly.

To our family’s great delight, both breads were delicious!
I wouldn’t hesitate to use the Fast Bake program again, and I would recommend it
to anyone else to try it.

Here are the two recipes as they appear in the Toastmaster Bread Maker Use
and Care Guide:

White Bread, 1.5 lb. loaf, Program: FAST BAKE

1 Cup + 2BL. water 110-115 degrees F/43-46 degrees C (warm)

2 TBL Oil

2 TBL Sugar

1 tsp. Salt

3 cups Bread Flour

1 TBL Red Star Quick-Rise Yeast or Bread Machine Yeast.

Cheese’n Onion Bread, 1.5 loaf, Program: FAST BAKE

1 Cup + 2 TBL Water 115-125 degrees F/43-51 degrees C (warm)

3/4 tsp. Salt

4 tsp. Sugar

1/2 cup Sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

4 tsp Dried onion or Onion powder

3 cups Bread Flour

1 TBL Red Star quick Rise Yeast or Bread Machine Yeast

Don’t Sell Your Bread Maker On eBay – Use It!

Is your bread maker stuck on a back shelf collecting dust? Or, worse still, is it in your garage or basement waiting to be sold on eBay or at a yard sale?

I have talked to several people lately, who are disenchanted with their bread makers because their bread is heavy or has poor texture or has fallen — just generally inferior. Here are some tips that will help:

First, get to know your bread maker and your favorite type of bread maker recipe. It’s amazing how a seemingly bad recipe can become a favorite when modified to fit your bread maker and your home and even the type of wheat flour you are using. The first time I use a new bread maker and/or bread maker recipe, I watch the machine, keeping track of the dough to be sure that the ingredients are mixed thoroughly and that the dough is neither too dry nor too sticky. If the recipe needs liquid or dry ingredients added, I carefully measure whatever I add and make meticulous notation on the recipe for future use. Near the end of the baking cycle, I keep track of the bread to see what is happening with the crust, whether it is too dark, too hard, etc., and turn the bread maker off early if necessary, noting on the recipe the crust setting I need to use. Then the next time I use that particular recipe, I have the knowledge of turning out superior bread even while I’m sleeping! Note: Sometimes it takes two or three tries before I have the recipe fine-tuned, but, believe me, it is worth the effort.

Another important factor to making good bread in your bread maker is: no more by guess and by gosh!

“Measure ingredients exactly” must become your motto when using a bread maker. According to the Toastmaster Bread Maker Use and Care Guide, when measuring liquids, place a see-through measuring cup on the counter and read the measurement at eye level. Be very fussy so that it is exact. When using measuring spoons, be exact.

When measuring dry ingredients, use a knife or other straight edge to scrape off the excess until it is level. For flour measurement, spoon it lightly into a dry ingredient measuring cup and level it with a straight edge such as a knife. By doing this you will get an accurate measurement. If you scoop the flour in with the measuring cup, tap it on the counter, or shake the cup, you are likely to get more flour than the recipe calls for, resulting in inferior baked goods.

The Sunbeam Breadmaker User Manual gives us the secret of adding the ingredients “into the bread pan in the exact order given in the recipe: first, liquid ingredients; second, dry ingredients; last, yeast… Also, make sure the ingredients are at room temperature, unless otherwise noted. Last, it’s a good idea to start with fresh ingredients (especially fresh flour and yeast).”

Regarding bread maker recipes and why so many of them seem to be bad recipes, keep in mind that where you live really does affect how your bread turns out. My friend, Sheila, had to modify her bread recipes each time she moved to a different city in order to accommodate altitude changes. Therefore, if the recipe you are trying was created in a different city than where you live, it will most likely need to be altered.

If all else fails, try using one of the fantastic bread maker mixes available on BreadmakersUSA.com. I have tried a number of them and found them to be wonderful.

In summary, before you decide to sell your bread maker on eBay, get to know your bread maker, measure ingredients meticulously and in the correct order, experiment with your recipes to make them truly yours, and try some of the great bread mixes out there. Happy bread making!