One of the great inventions of recent times is the bread maker. You can now make your own delicious loaves rather than spending a fortune to buy inferior bread from the grocery store several times a week. You can put in all sorts of ingredients in your bread, like ham or bacon bits as well as garlic butter for garlic bread, bake it in less than an hour in a dedicated Bread maker, and end up with hot and tasty bread you wouldn’t be able to get at a bakery.
This appliance is a small oven with a computer that you can set via control panel for your desired doneness and crust. You can bake even make cakes, doughnuts or jam in your machine if you wish. The size of the loaf of bread you can make with a Bread maker depends on the model you choose; in general, the bigger the machine, the bigger the loaf it can make.
Possible Sizes of Home-Made Bread
Some small machines will produce loaves as small as half-a-pound, suitable for small families. After all, two or three people don’t need an enormous loaf that will cool off and quickly get stale; smaller breads are perfect for their purposes. There are many other machines capable of making loaves that are 1.5 pounds, 2 pounds or even larger, great for large families or when company is coming over. Be sure to check the capacity of the bread maker before buying.
The History of Making Home-Baked Bread
- The first bread machine was made in Japan by Panasonic (then known as Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co.) back in 1986. The first automatic bread machine was made by the Funai Electric Company in 1987 (released in Japan as the RakuRaku Pan Da and in the U.S. as the Dak Auto Bakery Model FAB-100-1). A decade later in 1997, the machine became popular in the U.S.A, Australia, and the U.K.
- The appliance has been steadily growing in popularity ever since. While most are not viable for making commercial-grade bread or French bread because the loaf shape is fixed for the sake of convenience, bread machines are still great for making conventional loaves that are suitable for usage at the home. They have presets and timers that also ensure you have the best results every time with kneaded dough even if you’re not necessarily an experienced bread maker.
- In order to make bread, ingredients are first measured into the bread pan in a specific order. First you put in the liquids, and then layer the solid ingredients on top of them. You can’t do a haphazard job in putting ingredients in the correct order because instant yeast activates as soon as it’s in contact with water, so they should be kept apart until baking begins. Many machines will also automatically add seeds, fruits or other ingredients when the time comes – a terrific feature if you can afford it.