Bread Machine Baking

Cookbook

Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time

by Lora Brody and Millie Apter

Hi, my name is Lora Brody and my mother and I wrote Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time—75 Foolproof Bread and Dessert Recipes Custom-Created for the 12 Most Popular Bread Machines (William Morrow & Co. Inc.). I was advised to begin by telling you right off the bat why this book is so important. Okay. Here goes. First,

More than 1 million automatic bread machines were sold during a recent holiday season. And when all the people who bought those machines find out that the recipes in the chintzy pamphlets that come in the box don't work and/or are written in Japanese, they will run out to buy bread machine cookbooks.

And what will the new bread machine owner discover about these cookbooks?

That all other bread machine cookbooks work on the incorrect premise that one generic recipe will work on any machine.

I thought writing a bread machine cookbook would be a piece of cake, or a slice of bread, so to speak. Hey, I figured I could easily knock off 75 recipes in no time. I sent out the call to friends and family for their recipes. I tried them right away and knew something was terribly wrong.

My mom sent me recipes she had developed for her bread machine.. My machine was a different make than hers. Her recipes didn't work in my machine, and my recipes didn't work in hers. When I acquired a third machine, I discovered that the recipes that worked in my machine didn't work in number three. Everything needed adjusting. I was adding a teaspoon more of this, 1/4 cup less of that, changing the settings and the order and timing of the ingredients as they were placed in the machine. It became obvious that each machine needed it's own custom-tailored recipes. I sent out the call for Mom to help bail me out.

We had to test each recipe on each of the 12 most popular machines. We had 100 recipes, and even someone who flunked math can tell you that 12 machines multiplied by 100 recipes is 1200 loaves of bread that rolled out of our kitchen.

To help readers avoid mistakes and blunders, Bread Machine Baking contains the most comprehensive chapter on bread machine troubleshooting found in any book. Here's what Chuck Williams of Williams-Sonoma has to say:

"Every owner and future owner of a bread machine should read the introduction in Bread Machine Baking and then try one or two of the recipes. This book gives new meaning and understanding to these remarkable machines—plus delicious bread."

Did we have fun writing this book? You bet we did! We used ingredients never before associated with bread: smoked tea, candied ginger, dried figs, chocolate nougat champagne and hazelnuts. The phone lines between Hartford and Boston were burning up with new and daring ideas: Mango Chutney Bread or Alsatian Spice Bread made with Gewurztraminer and dried apples.

Are bread machines a passing fad?

No way. I got my first bread machine 4 years ago and still make bread almost every day. Sales of bread machines keep climbing. I hope that my mom and I have contributed in some small way to this ongoing success. I know that for every recipe we've created just for their machine, a happy family is eating delicious homemade bread—perfect every time.

—Lora

Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time
75 Foolproof Bread and Dessert Recipes
Custom-Created for the 12 Most Popular Bread Machines
by Lora Brody and Millie Apter
William Morrow & Co.
1993; $20.00
Information provided by the publisher