Bread Machine Dough Recipe (The BEST Bread Recipe EVER!) (2024)

FAQs

What is the best flour to use in a bread machine? ›

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.

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.

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. The bread machine works on a timer and hums along at its regular pace.

Both commercial dry yeast and instant yeast are suitable for bread machines because they are designed to be added directly to the dry ingredients, and they don't require proofing in water before use.

While bread flour is more than adequate for everyday breads, some professional bakers use high-gluten flour with a 14% protein content to provide extra strength to dense, chewy doughs like bagels and pizza dough. High-gluten bread flour gives milk bread it's taut structure and compact (but tender) crumb.

Pastry flour is the middle ground between cake flour and all-purpose flour. Professional bakers love that it's finely milled with a protein content that hovers around eight to nine percent, striking the perfect balance between flakiness and tenderness while maintaining structure.

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.

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.

So yes, you should use bread flour in the recipe. It has higher protein than all-purpose flour and will help your bread rise better and hold its shape.

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.

How do I make my bread machine bread better? ›

Some recipes will advise adding sugar, which, in addition to making the bread a little sweet, helps the yeast to rise better. Others also suggest adding a little oil, such as olive or vegetable oil. This helps the dough form, preventing it from sticking to the sides of the pan, and makes the bread more tender.

All it takes is a small amount of dough enhancer per loaf to create a much lighter and fluffier result. Using a dough enhancer like Vital Wheat Gluten works to improve the texture and elasticity of the dough and elongate the strands of gluten. Doing so allows more room for the gas in the dough to develop and rise.

Both commercial dry yeast and instant yeast are suitable for bread machines because they are designed to be added directly to the dry ingredients, and they don't require proofing in water before use.

Bread machine yeast and rapid-rise yeast are specially formulated for the bread machine and become active more quickly than active dry yeast. You can use active dry yeast in your bread machine, but it should be dissolved in water before being used.

Fresh yeast, sometimes called cake yeast or compressed yeast, is a block of fresh yeast cells that contains about 70% moisture and is commonly used by baking professionals. It's pale beige in color, soft and crumbly with a texture similar to a soft pencil eraser, and has a stronger yeast smell than dry yeast.

"Bread machine flour" and "bread flour" are interchangeable terms. So yes, you should use bread flour in the recipe. It has higher protein than all-purpose flour and will help your bread rise better and hold its shape.

Whole-Wheat Flour

Whole-wheat flour is much heartier than all-purpose flour and produces denser baked goods with a more robust flavor. Milled from wheat berries with the nutritious bran and germ still intact, whole-wheat flour is rich in fiber and essential micronutrients like iron, magnesium and vitamin B6.

Of course you can! But 'all purpose' flour has a little less gluten, so your bread won't rise as high. If you're making bread the old-fashioned way, by hand, you can let it rise a little longer. But a bread machine does it exactly the same every time.

King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour is perfect for bread machines.