If you just got a Breadmaker and are trying to figure out what to do....

[leapin_jot]

For Hez and anyone else who just got a breadmaker for Christmas.  (cross posted to bread_machine ).

• Bread flour is expensive.  Skip the cost by purchasing Vital Wheat Gluten and adding that to all-purpose flour: 1 tsp. of gluten for every 1 cup of flour.
• Weigh your flour rather than using measuring cups.  That way, whether the flour is densely packed or sifted

Comments

[kelleypen]

Well...I got a nutrimill flour mill for Christmas. So I can grind just as much fresh flour as I want to use. Yippee!
My bread machine frustrates me. I usually use it for mixing and rising the dough, then take it out and bake it in the oven. I just don't like my bread with mixer holes in it.
My biggest challenge is finding a recipe and adjusting it for altitude. My favorite bread book disappeared in the move two years ago, and I've been going a little nuts trying to find a good and always reliable Wh Wheat recipe that works. Plus the others that were my favorites, like the onion cheese bread and the hard roll recipe. The loaves I made yesterday look like bricks.
If anyone knows of where I can find a copy of the recipe book I lost, it's called Blue Ribbon Bread Recipes. It's a little paperback and was probably published before I was married, which was 1979, since it wasn't long after I was married that I found it and started using it. What's nice, is I would just look at the recipe and see which state it was from and the

[prplhez8]

Thanks, L, for posting this and for the email!!!! I will add it to my memories and keep track of it. Not planning any bread making until next weekend as I've got a mammouth house cleaning session to do today. Blergh. But, thanks again!!!!!!!!