A Must Own For Bread Machine Owners
Written: Aug 17 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of different bread recipes. Great tips.
Cons: A few more specialty item recipes would be nice.
The Bottom Line: I really love this book, if you are in to gourmet breads, or like to try unusual breads, as well as the regular stuff you will love this book too.
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| msmorvay's Full Review: Electric Bread 2ND Edition |
Electric Bread
Considered by many to be the Bible of Electric Bread Machines, once you open this book up you will have no doubt as to why. Not only is this book full of wonderful bread and bread related recipes but it also has all the good components of an excellent cook book, at least in my opinion. It has wonderful large pictures of each item. It has large printed recipes that are easy to read. Directions per say are not that important here, because if you are familiar with bread machines you pretty much know you just dump everything in., and each recipe comes with nutritional information. Each recipe also comes with success Hints, this gives the time settings for particular breads, and also other tips such increasing certain things to add flavor or spice.
Towards the end of the book you will find trouble shooting tips. These include the worse problems you may have when making breads. It tells you what you are probably doing wrong and what to do in the future. So if your bread comes out like a hockey puck or mushy in the middle you can find out what you have been doing wrong.
Bonus Information
One thing I really like about this book is the beginning. In it you will find helpful tips on bread baking. I highly suggest reading this part as it will help you to become a more successful bread baker. They also provide some information on ingredients. In this section they give their findings on their experience with different kinds, and brands of flours, yeasts, and spices. It is amazing to see how different brands produce different bread consistencies, for instance some produce a more brown, crispy, or chewy crust, to name just some of the differences that can be found by changing brands or types.
Some of My Favorite Bread Recipes
Leave it to me to pick the first recipe but I love the Health Grain Bread. It is just full of good healthy ingredients, like carrots, sunflowers and raisins, as well as bran Flakes and wheat germ. Alone these ingredients may sound healthy but not exactly tasty but put them all together, and bake them and it is lovely. Spread with reduced fat vegetable cream cheese, and make me a very happy woman.
Of course you have your white bread, your wheat bread, sourdough and your Rye bread recipes, and they are all fabulous I have tried them all but I think you want to hear about some more unusual recipes, don’t you?
How about Tangy Cranberry –
Perfect for Christmas or Thanksgiving – Cranberry Juice, Cranberries and Orange Marmalade, give this bread a refreshing tangy taste, but it is not really a sweet bread. It tastes great with sharp cheese or spicy mustard. Put a loaf of this, some cheese and some spicy mustard in a gift basket, this makes a perfect Christmas gift.
Bleu Cheese & Port
Talk about a great gift idea. How about this bread with a bottle of port whine, and some bleu cheese in a gift basket? If you want a fantastic appetizer slice up this bread, sprinkle each slice with a little blue cheese and toast under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Ooooh Baby!!!
For the Sweetie Pie
If you have a bit of a sweet tooth I would highly recommend: The Chocolate Cherry bread, the peaches and cream bread or the rum raisin.
For the Spice Lovers
For those who like it a bit spicy I would recommend the: Onion bread, the Pizza Pleasure, Garlic Bread, or the Cajun Spice bread.
Unusual Choices
I have also tried a couple of the unusual breads such as the Maraschino Pecan or the Peanut Butter bread.
I have just mention some of the choices available, there are still many I have not tried there are over 40 bread loaf recipes. There are also some international breads, such as: Cinco De Mayo bread. The next bread I am going to try is the Hawaiian Bread.
Beyond Loafs
In addition to the loaf recipes this book also includes specialty bread recipes such as:
Calzones
English Muffins
Braided bread
Fruit Spiral
Sticky Buns
Rolls
Bread baskets
Orange Kisses – They look like biscuits but taste almost like a cookie. YUM!!!
Pepper Jack Ties – A spicy roll
Spreads
This book does not stop at bread and bread items, they go on to give you recipes for wonderful spreads. This takes the whole bread gift giving idea to new heights.
There are two types of spreads some they call savory and some they call sweet. Some savory spreads are Zippy Blue Cheese, Curried Butter, and Hot Chili & Garlic butter.
Some sweet spreads are: Honey butter, Cheesy Lemon and Gruyere Apple Spread.
Advertising?
I am kind of torn between not appreciating this and possibly finding it useful. Towards the back of the book are a bunch of items that can be ordered. It includes the price, size, and an 800 number to call to order these items. I find some of the items useful because I hate it when I want to try a recipe and I can’t find the ingredients any where. They do have a gift basket that is just for this purpose, they call it the Basket of Bounty, it includes things such as spreads, SAF and Bakipan yeasts, wheat gluten, coconut milk, wheat germ, cracked wheat, bran flakes, 7 grain cereal and Cajun spice, you can get the entire basket for $49.95 at least that was the price at time of publishing.
Another item I found that might be helpful is the dried specialty fruits. There are also very cool adjustable measuring spoons, and clearly correct measuring cups. Of course you can probably find those at gourmet cooking stores, but I find them to be quite neat. There are also several other cool but not necessary items. It’s worth a look.
Cons
I think the specialty bread section could have a included a bit more, such as donuts, bagels, and pizza dough. But there are so many bread recipes you can keep busy just on those alone.
Recommendations
I am not only recommending this book, I am strongly suggesting it. If you have a bread machine you need this cookbook. I don’t see how anyone could be disappointed. Christmas is just around the corner, I know it’s only August, but it will be here sooner than you think. If you are looking for creative in-expensive gift ideas, why not make loved ones fresh loaves of home made bread and a fresh home made spread or two to go along with it. Throw in some in-expensive wine or sparkling soda. Print the recipe up on a pretty card, and you have a wonderful gift for someone with a personal touch and perhaps you won’t go broke this year. Instead of baking fattening cookies this year, make bread instead.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
msmorvay
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Location: Illinois
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