The Bread Maker: Filling Your Home With the Scent of Warmth

Winter soup and stew recipes beg for hearty, homemade breads to accompany them. A bread-making appliance should be mandatory equipment in every Mehlville kitchen this time of year. The basic ingredients are easy to keep on hand, so there is no need to run to the grocery at the first sign of snow.

Thanks to modern technology, making bread is a breeze. While each model comes with its own directions as to setting and baking times, they are all quite similar. When making bread, stick to the recipe. Baking with yeast is no time to be creative. The chemistry of cooking comes into play and ingredients like salt, sugar and yeast all have special roles in the process.

The bread pictured here is a potato bread that was made in an older model Oster bread-maker. The model has a delay option if you wish to begin the process a few hours into the day. Just a warning that breads containing milk or eggs should never be set on delay.

To get started, here is a good recipe for garlic potato bread. 

Place all of the ingredients in the baking container in the order in which they are listed.

2 cups water

¼ cup butter

4 cups flour

1-1/2 cups instant potato flakes

2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. dried dill weed or chives

2 crushed garlic cloves or ½ tsp. garlic powder

1-1/2 quick rise or bread machine yeast

Since it is a large loaf, the setting is on number three on my Oster, but check the instructions that come with the machine that you are using.

Notes: About 32 minutes into the process, most machines will beep. This is the time to add fruit, nuts or cheese to your bread. If you are not baking a bread that calls for these ingredients, just ignore it.

I buy the bread flour and yeast very reasonably at  or Sam's Club. The bread flour comes in 20 or 25-pound bags which I measure into four cup portions and put in Ziplock bags for storage. The yeast comes from the store in a one-pound vac-pack. Once opened, I place the yeast in a moisture-proof container and for extra protection, place it in the freezer wrapped in several plastic bags. Moisture will ruin yeast.

Some bread machines turn out vertical loaves while others produce horizontal loaves. Choose whatever is more aesthetically pleasing to you.

Newer machines have a fast-bake setting, but a different type of yeast is required.