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Bread Making Machines: Bread Machine Mixes

Do I think that bread machine mixes are useful? Yes, some of them are, but the snag with all bread machine mixes is that they place limitations on your choice and do not encourage your creative talents. That may sound odd, but think about it for a while. If you depend on bread machine mixes you can only make the bread for which you can buy a bread machine mix and you can only tip the bread machine mix into the bowl and switch on the bread making machine. You are definitely not likely to alter the bread machine mix for fear that it won’t work.

What is the alternative? Well, the old-fashioned recipe book, of course! Not just any old recipe book, but a specialized bread making machine cookbook. Bread making is a very simple, but rather tedious process. The ingredients are ubiquitous, household items: water, flour, yeast, salt, sugar and oil. You already have those items in your kitchen|cupboard| with the probable exception of the yeast, which can be bought almost anywhere at minimal cost.

And I’m sure you already know what happens when you cook following a recipe, don’t you? You have already read the recipe through and you know you have everything in the cupboard, but when the recipe requires, let’s say, lemon peel, you open the cupboard door and see that you don’t have any lemons – but you do have orangess! Oh, well you think, oranges’ll do. You make do. You try things out. And that means that you are developing your talent and creativity. Bread making mixes will not do that for you.

A good bread making machine cookbook will have well over 100 recipes originating from several countries and you will get really enthusiastic about trying the different ones out. Have you eaten Welsh bread – Bara Brith? Or Amish bread? Cajun bread or onion bread? Banana bread is lovely too, but one of my favourites is Brazil Nut Bread – absolutely scrumptious.

The point is that you may not find recipes for all these breads in one place, but if you have a reference point, like a bread recipe cookbook, you can start off by using tried and tested gourmet bread recipes and gradually concoct your own – sometimes out of necessity.

I once made a really great loaf of bread by adding some of the leftover vegetables from my Sunday dinner. It was very delicious, however I could never quite make the same loaf again, try as I did many times, because I had not written down the weights of the added vegetables. I could only remember that I had added green beans, potatoes and sweet corn in it!

Bread machine mixes will never in a million years give you that, will they? And bread machine mixes are relatively expensive compared to the cost of five kilos of flour. I always vary the ingredients too: honey instead of sugar, milk instead of water, olive oil or butter instead of say, corn oil. Rock salt instead of sea salt or visa versa. You get the picture.

Bread machine mixes are not only limited but limiting too. Furthermore, a bread making machine is a great way to use up leftovers. I have added meat and fruit in my gourmet bread many times. My guiding principle is: if it’ll go in a sandwich it’ll go in the dough – like an Indian stuffed paratha or stuffed naan bread.

Don’t waste your money buying bread machine mixes – instead be creative with a bread machine recipes cookbook.

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