How to Make Bread Machine Recipes by Hand - Don't Waste the Crumbs (2024)

FAQs

How do you make bread not crumbly in a bread machine? ›

If you are dairy-free, you can add coconut oil or olive oil to increase the fat. I recommend adding about a tablespoon more of fat to the recipe to help with the dryness. The last culprit that can leave you with crumbly bread is cutting into the loaf too soon.

A loaf made from beginning to end in a bread machine tends to have ugly holes where the blades were; a less aesthetic shape; a denser structure, and a thicker crust. Whereas oven-baked loaves rise higher, and the shape and flavor can be easily varied. It also has a better crust and a chewier consistency.

Too much heat or humidity might lead to a too-quick rise and a crevice near the center of your bread. Conditions that are too cold might delay proofing or rising, resulting in a super-dense loaf.

machine's pan and baking cycle may be contributing to the hardness.

Your Bread Was Not Kneaded Enough

Kneading mixes the dough's ingredients and creates a good gluten structure for the bread. It is one of the trickiest parts of learning to bake bread because it's hard to tell if you've kneaded too much or not enough. Bread that is under-kneaded will have more crumbs.

Condensation can build up in a bread machine if it is not opened at the end of the baking program. If a loaf is left in the machine after baking it can absorb the moisture from the condensation and become soggy. For future bakes, remove the loaf at the end of the baking cycle.

One disadvantage of using a bread maker as opposed to your hands is that the paddles are typically fixed, meaning they remain in the dough when baking, often leaving a hole in the middle of the loaf. Whilst this is not the biggest hinderance, it can be an annoyance to those who aim for gold standard loaves.

Making bread from a machine is marginally cheaper than buying it, as long as you eat bread frequently enough to offset the cost of the appliance. Specifically, I see this as an investment that's smart for households that go through bread quickly, like large families or homes with multiple roommates.

In a nutshell, if you're buying basic, cheap sandwich bread, it's probably cheaper than you can make it at home. But if you compare two loaves similar to what you could make at home — one made with high-quality ingredients as opposed to one made with lesser quality ingredients — home baking becomes much cheaper.

Some attribute the demise of the bread machine to the fact that cooks were just disappointed by their results. Lara Pizzorno, the author of Bread Machine Baking, chalked it up to food snobs who regarded the machine as “the electric equivalent of The Bridges of Madison County” in a 1996 article in The New York Times.

What is the best flour for bread machines? ›

Just be sure to use a flour with a high protein content. King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, with its high gluten, is an excellent flour for bread machines. Numerous people have told us that their recipes worked in the bread machine using King Arthur, when they didn't work with other all-purpose flours.

Adding Ingredients to the Bread Machine

Manufacturers usually recommend adding the liquids first, followed by dry ingredients, with the yeast going in last. This keeps the yeast away from the liquid ingredients until kneading begins.

- Use bread flour, not regular all-purpose flour for all bread machine recipes. Bread flour contains a higher percentage of gluten than regular all-purpose flour. Using bread flour will produce taller, less dense loaves.

So heat and steam are a key part of getting that crust of dreams. To help even more, pre-heat a pizza stone in the oven before starting to bake. Place the baking tray or tin directly onto the baking stone. This brings a hot surface into (almost) direct contact with the bread you're baking.

Pack the bread in a covered nylon bag and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator. Keeping this way can leave bread all month long. Want to save bread for a long time but still soft, should use oil paper or nylon bag, tightly packed inside to have a lump of sugar and then to cool.

This tip applies to loaves specifically. For recipes like banana bread, lemon loaf, or pound cake, your best bet is to bake in a metal loaf pan. Metal is a quick and efficient conductor of heat. This helps to ensure your recipe will cook through the center and not collapse.

Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

There's something magical about the bread you get at your local bakeries - they're always sooo soft and fluffy. Many of these breads, especially packaged ones, are made with a ton of chemical additives such as calcium propionate, amylase, and chlorine dioxide which help keep them soft, light, and fluffy for days.