Hello, my name is Alicia and I’m addicted to kitchen gadgets. Over the past 5 years, for every holiday that involves gifting, I have asked for kitchen gadgets and gizmos. Everything from Wusthof knives and Le Creuset cookware to my most recent wish list items, a bread maker and a yogurt maker. For years I’ve been going to local bakeries for my fresh bread and recently I started to make my own at home but, while some people find bread making a soothing cathartic experience, it was tedious, time consuming and held me hostage to the kitchen while I waited for dough to rise, punched it down then waited for it to rise again.
This Christmas my sweet parents got me the Cuisinart CBK-200 Bread Maker
and I immediately went to work. First I made a big loaf of seed bread that I ended up using for everything from sandwich and breakfast toast to crunchy croutons. Since my bread recipes are pretty much limited to seed breed and Challah (recipe in Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations
) I bought The Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook
by Beth Hensperger and started earmarking recipes immediately. I'll be baking from this book for years to come and will be, of course, sharing all the veganized recipes you with guys.
and I immediately went to work. First I made a big loaf of seed bread that I ended up using for everything from sandwich and breakfast toast to crunchy croutons. Since my bread recipes are pretty much limited to seed breed and Challah (recipe in Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations) I bought The Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and started earmarking recipes immediately. I'll be baking from this book for years to come and will be, of course, sharing all the veganized recipes you with guys. My first time making bread in my new bread-machine was otherworldly. I was instantly freed from my usual practice of mixing, kneading, rising, kneading, rising and baking to adding all the ingredients to the breadmaker and just walking away. While my bread baked I ran errands, jogged a couple miles, made lunch and cleaned the house all the while my house slowly filled with the sweet smell of fresh baked bread. Look forward to a year full of veganized recipes from starting with Potato bread next week (likely followed by a seed bread recipe I've been working).
We love our bread maker. One suggestion I always check to make sure the flour blends well by using the pause feature. Depending on the humidity sometimes you may need to add a tablespoonful of flour or water. Use a spatula to mix in the flour from the corners and restart. Did you get the pizza pan too?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion! I've done about 5 loaves so far and at one point I thought I would need to pause it to scrape down the sides or add a little extra water but I left it alone and everything came out perfectly. I'm really in love with this machine. Mine didn't come with a pizza pan but I already have a pizza pan for my convection oven and for my standard oven so it was needed.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about getting a yogurt maker myself because soy yogurt is 1.19 a container around here. Did you get the yogurt maker too? If so what kind did you get and how do you like it so far?
ReplyDeleteCan you make vegan yogurt in a yogurt maker?
ReplyDeleteHey Kim, I got the yogurt maker too and I'll be blogging about it shortly along with a few yogurt recipes. Made my first batch yesterday can't wait to share it with everyone.
ReplyDeleteAlex, you sure can. A yogurt maker is nothing more than an incubator. When making yogurt you need to keep it at a steady temperature in order for the cultures to grow. You can make any type of yogurt one could imagine with a yogurt maker. I'll be blogging more about it soon.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like your Bread Making Machine. I make yogurt about every week and a half. I mainly make Soy yogurt with fresh fruit.
ReplyDeleteGrandmother.
Yay! One of my NYRs is to do more vegan baking with the ultimate goal of finding a good vegan bread I can make in my bread maker. Hopefully one good solid sandwich bread and one good "sweet" bread (like banana or zucchini, ya know?) Looking forward to your experiments!
ReplyDelete