In a recent post, I discussed rediscovering my long-neglected bread maker. In reality, I have several bread makers, as you can buy used ones for very little. I love to compare gadgets. That is just me.
It was very inexpensive for me to make bakery-quality white bread using simple, readily available ingredients. The bread was delicious, but my wife believes that white bread isn’t as healthy as other types of bread, and so I’ll try baking a multi-grain recipe. Today I’ll be using a 20-year-old Zojirushi bread maker using the whole wheat setting. It is very likely that the following recipe will work with any 2 pound bread maker that has a whole wheat cycle.
Don’t have a bread maker? Shop second-hand stores or Facebook Marketplace. You can buy bread makers for less than $10 at secondhand stores, and I have seen many in the $10-$30 range on Facebook Marketplace.
Just a few bread makers that I saw on Facebook Marketplace.
The least expensive bread makers have a loaf pan that is more vertical than horizontal. The bread will taste the same; it just doesn’t look like a traditional loaf. If you cut the bread perpendicular to the pan, you will get nice “sandwich-style” slices. Horizontal loaf pans make more traditional loaves, but the slices are pretty tall. I’m using the Zojirushi today, because its two-paddle, long-pan design produces a horizontal loaf similar in size to the bread you buy in the store.
If you buy any machine second-hand, make sure that the bread pan and paddle are included. Plug the machine in and check to see if it powers up and the buttons work. The majority of machines will work if they don’t look abused, come with a pan/paddle, and power up. I think you are best off with a machine that makes a 1.5- to 2-pound loaf. However, one-pound machines will work too if you are a small family. Making a 2-pound recipe in a 1-pound machine will result in a mess, so make sure that you use a recipe sized for your machine. Often, you can download the instruction manual for your particular machine, which will include many recipes.
The loaf that I’m making today is from the Zojirushi instruction manual. There are whole-wheat versions of multi-grain bread that can be found on the internet, but I thought I would start with a recommended recipe before attempting an internet recipe. It makes a two-pound loaf.
This is the recipe that I used. Please make sure that you add the ingredients in the order listed for optimal results. This machine uses active dry yeast for regular cycles. However, some machines may require instant/bread-making yeast. Check your manual.
Like everything else, bread prices are rising steadily due to inflation and the Trump tariff taxes. There are reports online of people spending $8 to $10 on a loaf of bread. I’m in Chicago, and we are not that high as of November 2025. However, multi-grain breads are still pretty pricey. A Brownberry 24-ounce multi-grain bread is going for $4.99, and a half loaf of Lewis 12-ounce bread is $3.79 at my local store.
$4.99 for 24 ounces, and that is the sale price!$3.79 for only 12 ounces of bread!
The multi-grain bread that I’m making today is 2 pounds, or 32 ounces. I sourced the ingredients from Amazon, Costco, and my local market. I did try to get good prices, but I would have saved significantly more if I had bought some ingredients, like the bread flour and 7-grain cereal, in bulk.
Making the bread was beyond simple and took me less than five minutes to put together. A few button presses later, and the machine took care of the rest. It truly is a set-it-and-forget-it operation. I buy my active yeast in a two-pound bag from Costco. It is very inexpensive when purchased this way. I keep it in the freezer for future bakes. The only addition that I made to the recipe was ½ teaspoon of diastatic malt. I read reports noting that a tiny amount of this ingredient helps the bread rise.
The only addition that I added to the recipe was 1/2 teaspoon of diastatic malt, which helps with texture and rise.
Here is a cost breakdown based on price per ounce of bread:
-The 12-ounce Lewis bread costs: $3.79 Almost 3 x more than homemade
-The 24-ounce Brownberry bread costs: $4.99 (on sale!) Almost 2x more than homemade
-My 32-ounce bread maker bread cost was only $3.60
It is not only more accurate to weigh your ingredients, but it is also faster and involves less cleanup. All it takes is a few clicks, and the machine does everything else. I had to run some errands, and the bread was done when I got home. Bread machines mix, knead, proof, and bake bread automatically.A few beeps lets you know that it is bread time!A beautiful loaf. Let it cool until it is barely warm; otherwise, you will rip the bread apart.A crispy crust and soft interior. What more could you want? How about that it is significantly less than store-bought!
You simply can’t beat the quality and cost of homemade bread made with a bread maker. The varieties of bread that you can make are endless, and it is possible to buy a used machine for next to nothing. Why not give it a try!
Peace
Mike
images are my own or screen captures of images on websites. All are used for educational purposes only.
Today was another beautiful fall day. The weather is cooling off in the Upper Midwest, making it a perfect time for hearty dinners. Today I will be making chili, an economical and delicious dinner, as we all battle inflation and the Trump tariff taxes.
There are as many ways to make chili as there are people making chili. Today I’ll be making some “from scratch.” However, if you want to take the easier route, you can buy a chili spice packet at your grocery store. My chili tastes better, but spice packets do a fine job, and they are inexpensive, especially if you buy the house brand.
Chili is another one of those dishes that is easy to stretch. If you have a bigger crowd, you can just toss in another can of beans. Let’s take a look at today’s recipe.
This recipe is from Budget Bytes.
A fall day’s chili
In a heavy pot or Dutch oven, brown a chopped onion, then add a heaping spoonful of jarred garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds. You can use real garlic (a few cloves) or powdered garlic (1-2 teaspoons) instead if you like. Don’t use garlic salt, as it is mostly salt.
Add around a pound of hamburger and brown it.
Prepare your spices: 1T chili powder, 1t ground cumin, 1/4t cayenne pepper powder (a little more or a little less depending on your taste), 1/4t garlic powder, 1/2t onion powder, 1/2T brown sugar, 1t salt, 1/2 t black pepper. Where T = tablespoon, t = teaspoon.
Add your spices and cook them for around 30 seconds. Then, add one can of chopped tomatoes, one can of tomato sauce, and one can of drained beans. Traditionally, kidney beans are used, but you can use any canned bean that you have on hand. I also added some canned corn for fun.
Stir, bring to a boil, and then turn the stove down to a simmer. Cover and cook for at least 15 minutes. However, I like to turn the heat down a bit lower than simmer and cook the chili for a couple of hours for maximum flavor.
Here it is, served with oyster crackers and green onions. Sour cream is also a nice addition. For those who like it super spicy, have some hot sauce on hand for “self-administration.” I’m serving it with some yeasted cornbread. That recipe is as follows.
Yeasted cornbread in a bread maker
Recipe from the Betty Crocker Bread Baking Cookbook
Add ingredients in the order listed to a bread machine pan.
1 egg plus enough room-temperature water to equal 1 and 1/3 cups.
1/2 cup or 170 grams of honey
1/4 cup or 60 grams of softened butter
4 cups or 480 grams of bread flour
2/3 cup or 100 grams of cornmeal
3 tablespoons or 25 grams of dry milk
2 teaspoons salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast. Make a little divot for the yeast.
Use the basic or white bread setting for a two-pound loaf.
The bread was immediately removed from the bread maker when the cycle completed, but it was allowed to rest in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it onto a rack. I then let it cool almost completely before I sliced it.
Here is the bread sliced. I sliced it thick and then cut it in half. It was a cross between corn bread and regular bread. It was slightly sweet and delicious!
This is another one of my posts, written to show those afraid of cooking how easy it is to make a delicious, inexpensive meal. You could skip the yeasted cornbread and use a quick-bread cornbread mix. Or, you could omit cornbread completely, as the chili can stand on its own.
We are entering fall in the upper Midwest, a perfect time for stew. The great thing about stew is that it is very flexible and can be made economically by adjusting the ingredients.
I have another reason for making stew today: I’m trying to clean out my freezer because I need the space. Once a year, I get a rebate check from Costco, usually for hundreds of dollars. That check has to be spent by the end of the year; otherwise, it becomes void. Traditionally, I have used this bonus money to buy Costco meat, which I’ll then divide into vacuum-sealed pouches and freeze. In fact, this stew meat is from last year’s haul.
It’s now November, so I’ll be going on a meat run soon. However, with inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, I may not have the bounty I had before. I hope my freezer cleaning wasn’t just wishful thinking!
Let’s get into this simple and delicious recipe. I’ll be using an Instant Pot type pressure cooker, but you could also make this recipe in a slow cooker or a Dutch oven. With that said, you would need to adjust your time and possibly liquids if you chose one of those methods.
Brown 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of stew meat in a little cooking oil. Browning isn’t necessary, but it seals the meat, making it more juicy, and adds depth of flavor to the dish.
Add 1 chopped onion. Your chopping doesn’t have to be precise, as the cooking process will dissolve most of the onion.
Add a heaping spoon of jar garlic. Naturally, you could use a couple of cloves of real garlic, or even some powdered garlic. I would not use garlic salt, as it is mostly salt, and could over-salt your dish. If you do decide to add garlic salt, use only 1 teaspoon, and add additional salt only when you adjust the seasonings at the end of cooking. If you don’t like garlic, omit it.
Add some spices. If all you have is salt and pepper, that’s OK. However, I like adding spices to my dishes for extra interest. Today, I’m using around one teaspoon each of thyme, parsley, and rosemary. I had one sad, broken bay leaf, so that is also going into the pot. I also added around one-half teaspoon of pepper and a scant teaspoon of salt. I’ll further adjust the salt and pepper at the end of cooking. Remember, once you add salt, you can’t remove it.
I then added about 4 peeled and cut-up potatoes, a big fistful of washed and peeled carrots, and about three stalks of celery. There are no absolutes here. If I only had two stalks of celery, that is what I would have used. If I were trying to get rid of more carrots, I would have added more. You get the picture.
If you have other vegetables, consider adding them. What are good choices? Green beans, peas, and corn come to mind. I personally love peas in soups and stews, but my wife has an aversion to them, so no peas for us! Fresh or frozen work, and if you want to bolster up your stew, you can even add canned veggies at the end of cooking.
My kids were over for brunch today, and two were remaining at dinner time, so I put them to work. One peeled and cut the potatoes; the other peeled and cut the carrots. Bonus for me!
I added one can of tomato sauce. This adds another flavor layer, but it isn’t required. If you don’t use it, you’ll end up with a traditional brown stew. If you go the tomato route, you can use what you have on hand. If you don’t have tomato sauce, you could add tomato paste or canned tomatoes. It is all good. I then added two cans of water. You need liquid when using a pressure cooker. Why two cans? Why not? I could have added one can instead. By the way, two cans are around 4 cups of water.
Here is another optional ingredient. I added a couple of tablespoons of cooking sherry to add acidity, which wakes up the dish. A little vinegar would do the same thing. If I were using vinegar, I would add around one tablespoon.
This is also optional, but almost a necessity in my book. I added a heaping teaspoon of beef bouillon. These products have a lot of salt, which is why I make most of my salt adjustments at the end of cooking. Remember, you can’t remove salt from a dish once it is there.
I pressure-cooked the stew on high for 40 minutes, and then let it rest for 10 minutes before releasing the pressure. Immediately removing the pressure can draw out the moisture from the meat and make it dry. This is the same reason you let meat cooked in other ways rest for about 10 minutes before carving them.
Here is the stew. I like my stew a bit thicker, so I mixed a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch with a little cold water and drizzled it into the boiling stew while stirring. However, adding a thickener is totally optional. This is the time when I would adjust the salt and pepper. The stew is ready to serve and is a complete meal. It fed four of us, and there is a lot left over for lunches. If cooking for one or two, leave out enough for an additional meal and freeze the rest for an easy future supper.
To make the meal special, I baked some delicious onion-and-cheddar bread in a bread maker. I have done quite a few posts on using a bread maker. You can often pick one up very inexpensively at thrift stores; make sure it powers up at the store and that it comes with the baking pan and kneading paddle. I love playing with gadgets and have more than one bread maker. The last one that I bought cost $4.99! It was pretty grubby, but cleaned up very nicely.
Here is the recipe for the Cheddar Onion bread. I made a 1.5-pound loaf and sliced it thick (after it cooled a bit). The recipe is from the Betty Crocker bread-making cookbook. I added 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning to their original recipe.
Cheese Onion Bread
3/4 C pluse 2 T of water
3 C Bread flour (you can also use AP flour)
3/4 C shredded Cheddar cheese
2 T Sugar
1 T Dry milk
2 t Instant minced onion
1 t salt
1 t Italian seasoning (optional)
1 and 1/4 t instant or active yeast (I used instant)
Note: T = tablespoon, t = teaspoon
Add ingredients in the order listed and use the basic or white bread setting for a 1.5-pound loaf.
This Cheddar cheese and onion bread is really delicious and is a perfect foil for any soup or stew.
Here is my $4.99 thrift store purchase. She looks pretty dirty, but she lit up when I plugged her in, and her buttons worked, so I took a chance.
Here she is after some elbow grease, soapy water, rags, and an old toothbrush. Now she looks brand new!
I’m writing these posts to encourage people to cook from scratch. Cooking at home will save you money, and it is much more economical to cook from scratch than to buy pre-made, highly processed foods. I taught my kids how to cook, and they make food and portion it into containers for easy meals during the week.
If you can’t stand leftovers, freeze your remaining food into meal-size portions to defrost for future use. Lastly, the more you cook, the easier it gets, so don’t be discouraged if your first attempts seem like too much effort.
Inflation and the Trump tariff taxes have moved me into savings mode and I’m returning to my cooking roots. I love bread, but artisan and specialty breads are expensive. Yet, their ingredients are relatively cheap.
Kneading homemade bread can be therapeutic for some, but for me the process is too time consuming. However, with a bread maker making bread is literally, “set it and forget it.”
Making a custom loaf of bread takes about five minutes of adding ingredients to the bread pan then pressing a button. Three and a half hours later I have a fresh loaf of bread. This has allowed me to customize a bread for a particular dinner that I’m making, such as making a herb bread to accompany a hearty stew. I’m not baking bread for every meal, but I do it often enough that the process has become routine.
My bread maker is accessible; I don’t have to get it out of a basement or the garage every time I need it. The same can be said for my ingredients which are handy; putting a loaf together is effortless.
As far as measuring ingredients is concerned, I do the easiest accurate method possible. Some recipes are listed by volume (measuring cups and spoons). This isn’t the most accurate, but if that is what’s listed, that is what I’ll use. The one exception is that I will always weigh the flour (roughly 125 grams/cup of flour) as measuring flour by volume is notoriously inaccurate. If I’m given a recipe by weight in grams, I will gladly pull out my food scale and use that. Baking by weight is not only more accurate, it is less messy as I can weigh everything directly in the bread machines baking pan. In this case I may still measure very light items, like salt and yeast as I find scales are a bit flaky when measuring very small amounts. No mater what method I use, making bread is very simple, even when making loaves that include a few extra ingredients.
Today’s recipe is for Sally Lunn bread from The Betty Crocker Best Bread Machine Cookbook.
Sally Lunn bread has a brioche quality, but it is a bit less sweet. Its texture and color are similar to brioche and it makes a wonderful sandwich or toast. In fact, I toasted some this morning for an open face PB J sandwich for breakfast. Delicious!
A word about keeping bread fresh. All homemade breads will stale much faster than store bought breads as homemade breads lack preservatives. I have tried a variety of methods and in general two works the best. If I make a specialty loaf that I know won’t be consumed at a meal I’ll freeze half of the loaf for a future meal. If I make a general purpose loaf I have found that a traditional breadbox works the best to keep the loaf reasonably fresh and mold free. In my climate I can still use bread that I made five days earlier, although I’ll likely be toasting it towards the end. Plastic bags will keep the bread softer, but mold usually appears in 3 days. The fridge tends to make the bread go stale faster, so that is a no go. However, if you don’t want to buy a breadbox and want to keep your bread out for a few days then do what my grandmother did. She would wrap her bread in a clean cotton kitchen towel.
Here is the recipe for Betty Crocker’s 2 pound recipe for Sally Lunn bread:
I put two eggs in a measuring cut and added enough water to make 1 and 1/3rd cups of total volume. Not shown: I also added to the bread maker 1/3rd cup softened butter.
I added 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of regular table salt.
Then 2 tablespoons of sugar.
The recipe calls for 4 cups of flour. I always prefer to weigh my flour. Four cups should be around 480 grams (120 grams/cup), but I’m finding that I have to add more flour when I check my dough ball in the machine. Now, I weigh a bit more flour, 500 grams (about 125 grams/cup). That has been working out well.
Finally, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast.
I set my bread maker on basic white bread.
The bread maker has beeped. Bread is done!
Always allow your bread to cool before slicing. I know that it can be hard to resists immediately cutting it, but that will result in a lot of torn and squashed bread.
Here is a slice. Rich, very slightly sweet, wonderful!
With inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, grocery prices are insane, and meat prices lead the pack, but sometimes you want meat.
I was surprised that the price of a pot roast was actually less per pound than some hamburger offerings. Yet, a delicious pot roast dinner feels a lot more special than a hamburger on a bun.
You can see that this boneless chuck roast is $7.99/pound, which is less than some varieties of hamburger.
Back in the 1960s, my sister Carol was having dinner at a friend’s house. Her friend’s mother made a pot roast, and Carol thought it was the most delicious pot roast that she had ever had. She felt so strongly about it that a few weeks later, she made it for our family. Those were the days when people were discovering using convenience foods, like condensed soups, as ingredients. It turns out that her friend’s mother was doing just that, and the pot roast recipe became an absolute classic because it was not only delicious, but it was also incredibly easy to make.
The other day, my son asked me if his girlfriend could come over for dinner. “Of course,” I said. Usually, I keep my cooking simple on weekdays, so my goal was to make a simple dinner that tasted great. I went back to my mid-century roots and resurrected Carol’s pot roast recipe.
I’m using a 3.5-pound pot roast.
In a bowl, mix up one can of undiluted condensed cream of mushroom soup with a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce. You can omit the soy sauce if you wish.
The mixture will look like this when mixed.
Add some oil to a heavy pot and brown the pot roast on all sides using medium heat.
When browned, remove from the heat and sprinkle on a package of dry onion soup mix. If that is too salty for you, use some sliced onions instead. However, using the soup mix is very convenient.
Pour the soup/soy sauce mixture over the roast.
Add your vegetables on top. I’m using some carrots and baby potatoes. You could use cut-up regular potatoes just as easily.
Cover and place in a 325°F (160°C) oven for 3.5 hours. For a smaller pot roast, use less time; for a larger one, use more time. The roast should be fork-tender.
When done, remove the vegetables to a serving bowl.
Here is the pot roast. It was so tender that I had to be careful when removing it to a cutting board. The juices make an instant gravy.
Plated up. It was really delicious. I’m serving it with a slice of “All American Beer Bread.” That recipe is coming up later in this post.
Today was a typical retirement day for me. I listened to some medical lectures to keep myself current. I then drove out to my friend’s worksite and brought him a cup of coffee and borrowed a ladder.
I was off to the self-car wash to clean Violet the camper van, and I needed the ladder to rinse off her solar panels. Afterwards, I felt an urge to go to Goodwill to check if they had any bread makers. Dear reader, you know that I have been posting about saving money using a bread maker. If you have followed my posts you likely realize that I already have several bread makers, so why in the world would I want another one? To be honest, it is just one of my quirks. I love machines and I love how subtle differences between manufacturers can impact outcomes. When you study machines you need machines to study (awkward sentence-I know).
Naturally, I wasn’t going to spend a fortune, but my eye spied a dusty, but cleanable bread maker from the mid-1990s for only $5.99! I had to have it, and I used it to make bread for today’s dinner. Of course, I scrubbed it from top to bottom before using it. Let’s go over that recipe, shall we?
Here is my $5.99 find.
The recipe that I used is from the book “More Bread Machine Bounty.” My only addition was to add 1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning to give it more of a savory flair. The recipe is called “All American Beer Bread.” I used the basic (white) bread setting which worked out fine, but I probably should have used the whole wheat setting as the recipe was more than 50% whole wheat flour.
Adding the ingredients took all of 5 minutes. I weigh a lot of my ingredients because it is not only more accurate, but also less messy.
The final product. This was a 1.5-pound (750 g) loaf. The crust was very crunchy, and the bread was the perfect foil for the pot roast.
The crumb was soft and the crust was crunchy!
It is my goal to show others that cooking economical meals can be both simple and delicious. A pot roast may be a bit of a luxury for a weekday meal in 2025, but there will be plenty of leftovers for sandwiches. Additionally, the bread was very inexpensive to make, but it tasted like it came from a fancy bakery.
We all have to eat, and cooking from scratch is one of the easiest ways to save money. I mentioned in that past that one of my daughters makes scratch meals for 4 and divides the food into 4 containers for 4 days of suppers. This way she has a delicious hot meal within minutes of coming home from work. She rotates around 10 different menus to give her variety over the weeks and never feels deprived while saving time and money.
Dear reader, I would like you to consider the art of simple scratch meal preparation.
If you have been following my posts, you know that I have been on a mission to help people cope with inflation and the Trump tariff taxes. I have been writing about everything from making your own bread to saving on cleaning projects.
One of the expenses we all have to deal with is food. It is clear to just about everyone that eating out regularly is an avoidable expense, and that goes for fast food, too. But what to do if you feel insecure about cooking?
I have been posting inexpensive and straightforward recipes to demonstrate how easy it is to make food from scratch. This post does the same; it is one of the easiest recipes you can make, yet it looks like you spent hours preparing a fancy Sunday dinner. Come with me on this recipe journey! Today we are making roasted chicken with vegetables.
A friend of mine just told me that the $100 beef tenderloin that I usually buy for Christmas dinner is now $190! I had to catch my breath. At this time, chicken is still reasonable, with whole chicken selling for $1.46 a pound. Yes, you are paying for some bones, but that chicken carcass can become another meal by turning it into soup!
If you are starting your cooking journey, this is a good place to start, as preparation is straightforward, and it is a “set it and forget it” dinner that looks impressive.
One item that you may want to consider for many cooking tasks is a food thermometer. I have had mine for many years and I think it was under $15. This one is selling for less than $6 and it is an Amazon choice item. If you don’t want to buy on-line you can find food thermometers at any hardware or big box store. They take the guesswork out of cooking, and are a very worthwhile investment.
Today’s recipe will be roasted chicken with vegetables. Let’s start with the vegetables.
Chop up an onion and add it to a pot. I’m using a Dutch oven, which is ideal, but you could use any big oven-safe pot with a cover. If you don’t have one, you could use a baking dish with some aluminum foil to cover it.
Add to the pot some cut-up carrots and small potatoes. You could also use regular-sized potatoes that you cut up. These potatoes were thin-skinned, so I didn’t bother to peel them. Wash your vegetables in water first. Peel the potatoes if they are thick-skinned.
Add some cooking oil. I’m using avocado oil, but you can use any cooking oil that you have on hand. I used a couple of tablespoons of oil.
Sprinkled on some spices. Around one teaspoon of rosemary, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a big sprinkle of garlic powder. I mixed it all up so all of the vegetables were covered. If you only have salt and pepper, that’s OK too.
Now it was time for the chicken. You can use just about any spices that you like. Smear some cooking oil on the chicken and sprinkle salt and pepper on it (inside and outside). I added some smoked paprika and garlic powder, but there are many other options, including oregano or Italian seasoning. Here again, if you have only salt and pepper, that’s fine. However, some spices will definitely add some interest to the chicken.
Cover and place in a 375°F (190 °C) oven for 45 minutes.
Then uncover to brown, and continue to cook for 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165°F (75 °C). It is normal to go a bit over 165°F; that’s OK.
Remove the chicken and, after letting it stand for around 10 minutes, carve it. Carving isn’t hard, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. I hold the chicken down with a fork and use an 8″ Chef’s knife. You can use whatever you have.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the roasted vegetables. By the way, check to make sure that they are done by piercing some of them with a fork. If the fork enters easily, the vegetables are done. If they are still hard, continue to cook them, checking every 5 minutes until done.
Here is the complete meal. I added some steamed broccoli for color, and I’m also having a little of my homemade oatmeal bread. Delicious!
This was a nearly effortless dinner. Yet, it looked and tasted like I spent the hours making it. The leftover chicken carcass will be used to create a chicken soup in a day or two. I’ll even toss in the leftover carrots and potatoes (I’ll cut them up) into the soup. Why waste them, as they will add great flavor to the soup?
Consider making a roasted chicken. If you are cooking for one, you will have several dinners, chicken for sandwiches, and soup to boot. If you are cooking for a family, they will be impressed with your efforts.
Inflation and the Trump tariff taxes have made grocery bills reach astronomical proportions. One way to stretch a dollar is to make meat a complement to a meal instead of the main course. Nothing does that more deliciously than combining meat with other ingredients in a one-pot meal.
Marry Me Chicken is also called Chicken with Orzo, but I think that the Marry Me title gives the dish a bit of interest.
One of my daughter’s friends was visiting us from out of town and offered to make us dinner. She made this dish which was delicious. My daughter now loves to make this recipe for herself as it is fast, and simple. She will portion it out into 4-5 dinners and have dinner prepared for much of the week.
The first recipe is the one that I’m illustrating here. The second is the one that my daughter uses and is more cost effective.
Use this recipe as a springboard. If you don’t have orzo, use some other pasta. No heavy cream? Try half-and-half, evaporated milk, regular milk with a flour thickener, coconut milk, or even sour cream.
In my daughters recipe the sun dried tomatoes and 3/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese are replaced by less expensive tomato sauce and smaller qualities of Parmesan Cheese. It is all good.
This is the recipe that I used (borrowed from the internet). It is a bit more upscale with greater quantities of ingredients and more expensive ingredients.
This is my daughter’s recipe (also borrowed from the internet). It is more cost effective. However, it is also delicious!
Here are the ingredients that I used. The sun dried tomatoes were drained and I did grate the Parmesan cheese. However, you could use the stuff in the green jar, if needed. You can also see the pesto bread that I made to serve with this dinner. I’ll have that easy recipe in another post.
The cut up chicken was cooked in some olive oil (any oil works) for a few minutes until it gained a little color.
In went the spices and the sun dried tomatoes.
I stirred it all up… oops, I forgot the garlic! No problem, I’ll add it now. Fresh is great, but I used jar garlic as that is what I had on hand. I cooked this mixture for a couple minutes.
In went the orzo and chicken broth. You could use water or water plus bullion if you wished. If you used bullion use less salt and adjust at the end. Orzo is awesome, but you could use some other sort of pasta if needed.
Cover the pan and cook on medium low for around 12 minutes. Every once in a while stir the pot to prevent the orzo from sticking. I tested the orzo at 12 minutes and mine needed a few more minutes to fully cook.
Add the heavy cream (or other dairy product). Stir it in.
Stir in a few handfuls of spinach and allow them to wilt.
Just before serving add the Parmesan Cheese.
Here it is served up with some asparagus, a salad, and my homemade pesto bread. Yummy!
Dear reader, inflation and the Trump tariff taxes are taking a toll on all of us, and I have been encouraging folks to save money by cooking from scratch. This is my small way of trying to help others during these troubled times.
When I rediscovered my bread maker, I was excited to remember how effortless it was to make really delicious bread, and how much cheaper it was to bake rather than buy. Is the cost of buying a bread maker worth it? Absolutely, but not everyone has cash to burn, and I knew that used bread makers could be purchased for pennies on the dollar.
To illustrate my point, I visited a local second-hand store and bought a bread maker for $14.
I never used a bread maker to make hamburger buns, and I was surprised by how simple it was using the dough function on the machine. I just tossed in the ingredients, and 90 minutes later, I had perfectly kneaded dough. Since the dough was well-kneaded, it was easy to form into buns.
You can buy cheap hamburger buns for a few dollars, but good buns are considerably more expensive. Since this recipe uses an enriched dough , I wasn’t sure if my homemade efforts would save any money. However, when I did the calculations, it was clear that my homemade buns were considerably cheaper than not only the upscale rolls, but also cheaper ones. Plus, they were really delicious! For those wondering, an enriched dough has extra ingredients like milk, eggs, and sometimes more sugar. This results in a richer end product, but more ingredients means a greater cost.
I wanted to share the recipe with you.
Alas, I can’t credit this internet recipe as I saved the image without the author’s info. Remember to add the ingredients in the order listed. Bake at 350°F (175 °C) for 12-15 minutes. I checked at 12 minutes and added a few more minutes to achieve my desired color for the buns.My $14 thrifted bread machine. I usually weigh the flour instead of using volume measurements.This machine does not have a warming pre-cycle. I used hot tap water and added the cold milk and egg to it. This resulted in a warm solution. Remember, if it is too hot to keep your finger in it, it is too hot for the yeast. I melted the butter in the microwave using short bursts of time (10 seconds). If you just blast the power, your butter will pop and splatter, making a mess. Into the bread pan it went. By the way, I really like this Oxo measuring cup. It has easy-to-see markings.In went the sugar. I was too lazy to convert 1/3 cup of sugar into grams. Perhaps next time.In went the flour. I substituted AP flour, and it worked fine. However, bread flour will give you a slightly better texture. Weighing the flour is vital as flour can settle, giving you wildly different amounts if you measure using a cup.In went the salt. I always put the salt far away from the yeast. Concentrated salt can kill yeast.Now the yeast. I made a little well and added the yeast. I buy my yeast in bulk, and it is significantly less expensive than in those little jars or packets. You can purchase it online or from places like Costco and Gordon Foods.I selected the dough cycle on the bread maker and pressed start. I had perfect dough 90 minutes later!This thrifted bread maker made perfect dough ready for shaping!I cut the dough into six pieces. Honestly, I should have cut the dough into 8ths as my buns were huge.I shaped them into balls and then flattened them a bit. Yes, I’m not the best shaper. Then, I covered them with a tea towel and let them rise for 30 minutes. I then baked them at 350°F (175 °C) for 12 minutes. I checked them and added an additional 3 minutes to achieve the color that I wanted. This step is optional. After the buns rose, I gave them an egg wash and added some poppy seeds. I didn’t include the seeds in my cost calculations as I had some in the pantry and had no way to calculate their price. I’m using parchment paper, but you could use a reusable silicone mat or any other option that suits your preference.All baked and ready for today’s BBQ. I’m storing them using a cake cover to keep them fresh. But what about the costs?
Cost analysis
This recipe made over 1.5 pounds of dough. The cost of ingredients was $1.62. Cost would be less if I bought the flour in bulk. Cost would be more if I bought the ingredients at a more expensive grocery store.
I’m comparing prices by the ounce. Buns are from Walmart.com.
These are cheap hamburger buns. A 15 oz package is $1.97. These buns were 1.8 x more expensive than my homemade buns and not near the quality. This surprised me as I thought my buns would be more expensive.
These 16 ounce Brownberry buns were $3.78 and represent a better quality bun. However, there were other hamburger buns at Walmart.com that were even more expensive. These buns were 3.4 x more expensive than my homemade buns!
I thought making hamburger buns would be more difficult than it was. With the bread maker doing most of the work it was then simple to shape and bake the buns in the oven. I’m sure I’ll do this again.
I knew that my buns would be less expensive than the Brownberry buns, but I was surprised to see that the price per ounce was 3.4 times more. Even more surprising was the fact that the cheap, Bimbo buns were 80% more expensive than my much higher quality home made buns.
Yes, you can save money by making your own hamburger buns, and it was really simple to do so. The $14 bread maker made light work out of a normally labor intensive task!
Peace
Mike
images are my own or screen shots from websites. All images are for educational purposes only.
Inflation and the Trump tariff taxes have impacted many areas, but price increases have been felt the most at the grocery store. Add to this beef shortages, and the cost of beef has gone through the roof.
Above, we have a “nothing special” pound of ground beef going for $9 a pound!
I have done posts on how to stretch your meat dollar. One way to to make a classic meat loaf which uses fillers like bread crumbs or oatmeal to bulk out a small amount of ground beef to proportions enough to feed a family. This is a useful strategy, but what is you could go a step further? What if you could find a very inexpensive substitute to replace 50% of your ground beef in a recipe? What if that replacement was healthy, high in protein and minerals, and offered fiber for gut health? That is today’s experiment.
TVP or textured vegetable protein was developed in the 1960s as a way to use up waste material from soybean oil production. After the oil was squeezed out of a soybean the solid matter that was left over was dehulled and turned into soybean flour. That flour was then treated to separate the protein which was heated and extruded through a mold. The extrusion process can be adjusted to make differed shapes, such as crumbles, strips, and chunks.
TVP can be made from various plants, but it is most commonly derived from soybeans. Soybean TVP is low in fats, high in complete proteins, and high in multiple minerals, including iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. Despite what you have heard, there is no need to worry about soy-based estrogens, as they are different from human estrogens.
The cost of TVP is significantly less than that of ground beef. If you buy small amounts from a boutique health store, it will be more expensive than if you buy it in bulk. Shopping on Amazon, I found drastically different prices for TVP, which is interesting, as there isn’t a lot of difference between brands, as this is a very basic food product.
I find that 1 cup (100 grams) of dry TVP, when hydrated, is about the same bulk as 1 pound of ground beef. One pound is around 450 grams, so one pound of dry TVP makes (roughly) the equivalent of 4.5 pounds of hamburger.
This Bob’s Red Mill TVP sells for $6.88 a pound, so 1 pound of hamburger equivalent (using 100 grams of dry TVP) costs around $1.52.
If you shop around, you can buy TVP in bulk. On this site, TVP is $3.80 a pound. For 100 grams of TVP (1 pound hamburger equivalent), the cost is 84 cents.
Looking for an even better bargain? This bulk bag of TVP is 50 pounds. One hundred grams of dry TVP (1 pound hamburger equivalent) costs only 37 cents! It is unlikely that you will buy 50 pounds of TVP, but it does have an extremely long shelf life. Additionally, you could buy a bag and split it in a group purchase.
TVP has essentially no flavor, and like its cousin, tofu, it picks up whatever flavor is in the dish. TVP is usually soaked in boiling water for around 10 minutes before using. I use a 1:1 ratio of TVP to water and find that adding two teaspoons of a bouillon like “Better Than Bouillon” to I cup of boiling water gives TVP a meaty taste. Vegetarians and vegans have created a variety of “soaks” for TVP that are meatless, yet add a meaty flavor. Since TVP comes in a variety of shapes it is possible to create all sorts of meat-like dishes using this ingredient.
You have probably eaten TVP many times, as it is often used as a meat extender in many frozen meals. The ingredient list on the package may say TVP, or textured vegetable protein, or TSP, or textured soy protein, or soy protein isolate, or soy chunks, or soy meat, as well as other terms. All of these names are synonyms for TVP.
TVP granules are readily available and can be found in many grocery stores. Chunks and strips can sometimes be found in health food stores and are available at online retailers.
TVP is best when combined with flavorful ingredients. Although it can stand alone as a “meat,” I find that it is easiest to use it as a substitute for 25-50% of the hamburger. In today’s example, I’ll be using it in a classic meatloaf recipe.
Let’s look at the easy process of substituting TVP for 50% of the hamburger in this meatloaf. recipe
Here you can see that 100 grams of TVP is the equivalent of one cup. As I mentioned above, I find that 1 cup of dry TVP, when hydrated, is approximately equivalent to 1 pound of hamburger.
I measured 1 cup (100 grams) of dry TVP into a bowl.
I added 1 cup of boiling beef broth (1 cup water and two teaspoons of “Better than Bouillon”), mixed, and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Here is a classic meatloaf recipe. The hydrated TVP is on the right at the 3 o’clock position. The recipe that I used had 1 pound of not too lean hamburger (don’t forget that TVP is very low in fat so you need the extra fat in the hamburger). One cup dry TVP hydrated to about 2 cups. One chopped up onion, 1 egg, 3/4 cup oatmeal, 8oz tomato sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon garlic powder. Mix it up (I use clean hands). Place in a 5″ x 9″ pan and top with catsup mixed with a little brown sugar. Bake at 350F (175C) for around 1 hour or until the internal temperature is at least 160F (71C).
Here it is out of the oven.
Served up with some mashed potatoes and vegetables.
I didn’t tell my family that I was using TVP. After they had a few bites I asked them how the meatloaf was. They all said, “Good.” I then told them that I added a special ingredient and asked them if they could guess what it was. They replied, “No, it just tastes like meatloaf.” They were surprised when I told them that 50 percent of the “meat” was TVP.
Granular/crumbled TVP can be used for many dishes beyond meatloaf. Spaghetti sauce, on top of a pizza, Sloppy Joes, chili —the list goes on. TVP chunks and strips can add variety when making TVP-containing dishes. Consider experimenting with this inexpensive, protein-rich, low-fat, high-fiber meat substitute.
Peace
Mike
Images are my own or from various websites and are used for educational purposes only.
I was heavily into the bread maker culture in the 1990s and early 2000s, and experimented with a number of different bread makers. Around a year ago, I rediscovered several of the machines that I had stored in my basement, this rekindled my interest in the topic. Since that time, I have had the opportunity to work with other machines, including what is considered the top-of-the-line machine, a Zojirushi Virtuoso.
I have read blog posts and watched numerous videos where individuals rate various bread makers. Typically, they use a single simple recipe and then compare which machine produced the best bread. This methodology has flaws. Additionally, I watched videos where influencers do an unboxing and make a simple loaf, often gushing about the wonderful nature of the bread that they made. Sadly, I would consider some of those loaves dismal failures with poor rising or collapsed tops. These videos seem like ads to me. Lastly, there are a number of videos of bakers making wonderful loaves using a variety of machines from ancient 30 year old thrift store relics, to low cost machines, to top-of-the-line Zojirushi bread makers. This last group have unlocked the “code” of using their particular bread maker and illustrate that just about any working breadmaker can make a decent loaf of bread if the end users applies a bit of skill and knowedge.
Top-level bread machines offer durability, excellent construction, and flexibility, making them good choices for bread-making enthusiasts. However, those who just want homemade breads and yeasted products can produce wonderful loaves in most any machine if they use their critical thinking skills.
I have had failures with most of the machines that I have used, but I have also had successes. In this post, I want to share with you solutions to common bread maker failures and explore some options that go beyond those ideas that you may find elsewhere.
A nice loaf of bread that I made with the top-of-the-line Zojirushi Virtuoso.
This loaf was made in a Zojirushi Supreme model. Both the Virtuoso and the Supreme modes make similar loaves, but the Virtuoso offers a bit more flexibility if you are a bread-making enthusiast.
This is a loaf from a Breadman Ultimate purchased in the late 1990s. Looks good!
Another wonderful loaf, this one from a reconditioned $59 Cuisinart.
The beautiful loaves continue; this one was made in a sub-$100 KBS machine.
I placed the above photos to illustrate a point, and no, it is not to demonstrate my compulsive love of comparing things, although I suppose that trait is revealed. Be grateful that you are not my wife, as you don’t have to put up with my comparison hobby! I posted the photos to show that you can make a decent loaf of bread with just about any working bread machine. You just need to figure out its “secret” code. Why do I say this? Because bread machines are fairly simple devices that work very similarly. With that said, you may prefer one machine over another based on features, controls, or aesthetics. Whether you have a $10 thrifter or an uber-expensive top-of-the-line machine you should be able to get a decent loaf of bread out of it. Let’s take a look at their components.
Computer/Control System
All bread machines have a control panel that allows you to select a course or program for different types of bread, such as white bread or whole wheat. Some appear more complicated than others, but they all serve the same purpose and are generally easy to use once you become familiar with your particular gadget.
Motor/Kneading System
All bread makers have a motor that turns one or two paddles in the bread pan. This action kneads the dough.
Baking/Heating System
All bread makers have some type of heating element (s) that bakes the bread. Some may also be used to pre-warm the ingredients and/or keep the bread warm after baking.
As you can see, this is not a very complicated system, and after Panasonic released the first bread maker in 1986, many other manufacturers copied the design and added their own twists.
So far, I have told you that all bread makers can make a nice loaf, and that they are more similar than different. So, why is your loaf not picture-perfect? Dear reader, I can relate as I have had my share of disasters too. Despite being similar, every machine has its own quirks that need to be addressed. What works with one machine, or one recipe, may not work with another machine, or another recipe. Think of each machine as having its own personality. Once you figure it out your ability to communicate with the machine is dramatically improved.
The first discovery step is to make a standard loaf using the machine’s supplied recipe for white bread. Do your best, and then check the results. If you baked an excellent loaf, great! You are doing everything right. If not, let’s delve into a bit of chemistry.
A bit of chemistry
Breads are made with flour that has a high gluten content. Gluten is a protein that is created from other proteins when water is combined with the mechanical action of kneading the flour into bread. It is a stretchy, elastic compound that gives bread its chewy, yet airy quality. It allows the carbon dioxide made from yeast to remain trapped within the structure of the bread which causes the bread to rise.
Not enough gluten can be present if the flour has a low gluten content or if the bread was inadequately kneaded. This can result in a bread that is dense and flat. Conversely, over kneading can break down gluten and result in similar issues. This is one reason why bread machines have different programs for different types of bread as some flours, like whole wheat, need different kneading times.
Most bread makers suggest using bread flour, which has a higher gluten content. However, many will make an acceptable loaf with standard AP flour. If you want the best quality of bread, but you can’t get bread flour, you can use AP flour and add a couple of tablespoons of vital wheat gluten, which adds some additional gluten to the flour.
Bread flour has a higher gluten content compared to regular all-purpose (AP) flour.
Yeast is a living organism that grows and multiplies when making bread. It utilizes sugars in the mixture to produce alcohol, carbon dioxide, and other compounds, which contribute to the lift and flavor of the bread. The alcohol is burned off, and the yeast is killed in the baking process.
Yeast comes in two dried forms, active and instant. Rapid and bread machine yeast is just rebranded instant yeast. Over the years, active and instant have become more similar; however, it is recommended to use the type specified by your machine’s manufacturer until you are very familiar with the machine.
Too much yeast will result in a rapid rise followed by a collapse of the bread. Too little will result in a poor rise and dense bread. Yeast goes bad, and sometimes this can happen even before you buy it. You can test yeast by adding some to warm water and a little sugar. It should start to foam after a few minutes. No foam? Then the yeast is bad. Yeast can also be on its way out, causing an inadequate rise. I always keep my yeast in the freezer and use it right out of the freeze when making bread.
Dried yeast comes in two forms, active and instant. Rapid and bread machine designations are just rebranded instant yeast. Although active and instant yeast have become similar over the years, you may find that a recipe works best with the type of yeast that your machine recommends.
Sugar is added for flavor and to provide food for the yeast. Not all bread recipes add extra sugar, as the yeast in the bread dough can break down the starch in the flour into simple sugars. Too much sugar leads to overproduction of yeast, while too little results in the opposite effect. Refer to the section above for the impact of over- and underproduction of yeast.
Salt is typically included in most bread recipes, as it adds flavor and helps control the yeast. Too little, and the yeast overgrows; too much, and it kills the yeast. All cooking salt is sodium chloride. However, salt substitutes are different and should not be substituted for traditional salt in a recipe.
Water is needed to obtain the right consistency of the bread dough and to help form the bread’s gluten. Too much, and the dough becomes slack, unable to contain the carbon dioxide bubbles, causing the bread to expand but then collapse during baking. Too little and the dough will be too solid and won’t expand adequately.
Other ingredients are often added to impact the flavor or texture of a loaf of bread. However, these can have a negative impact if used improperly. The bottom line is to follow an established recipe and only alter that recipe when you are wholly familiar with it. For instance, a recipe may use roasted garlic, but you might add fresh garlic instead and get a poor result. That is because fresh garlic can inhibit yeast growth, while roasted garlic won’t.
I like using recipes from proven and established sources, like the recipes that came with the bread maker, or well researched cookbooks from sources like Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens. Once you are having success using these recipes you can venture out to other sources as you will have the skills to decipher bread problems. Remember, a random internet recipe may work well with one machine but not another. However, standardized recipes from known cookbook creators, like Betty Crocker, have been tested on a variety of machines.
The good news is that your bread machine has been carefully programmed to knead and bake your bread. If you combine your machine’s capabilities with a suitable recipe, you should achieve success. If you don’t, the problem may lie in one of your ingredients or perhaps your methodology.
Here are some issues
Ingredient issues
You now know how different ingredients impact your bread, so let’s start here. If you measured everything correctly, consider that one of your ingredients may be bad. The most likely culprit will be the yeast. If it is too old or you used the wrong type (active or instant) for your machine, then correct it.
Water issues
We have city water, which is chlorinated. That partially inhibited my yeast. I solved the problem simply by using the filtered water from my fridge. I could have also used bottled water, or left some water out for a few days, as the chlorine would evaporate away.
Measuring issues
This is a significant issue that can be easily resolved. It is imperative to measure properly. A little too much or too little salt or yeast can have disastrous consequences. Likewise, it is very easy to mis-measure flour. Scooping can result in 25% more flour than spooning it into a measuring cup. Not leveling the cup can also be a significant issue. Even if you measure properly, your flour amounts can be off due to the humidity in the air, as this can impact flour’s volume.
I avoid the above by weighing most of my ingredients. I have tested a variety of kitchen scales and most are “good enough” accurate. In other words, they are not perfect, but they good enough for baking needs. However, many have problems when measuring tiny amounts that are less than 10 grams. Therefore, I use a standardized set of measuring spoons and level them when adding small ingredients like salt and yeast.
I have tested a variety of scales, and none are “laboratory” accurate. This Oxo scale should read 500 grams using a standard weight, but it reads 498 grams instead. This is not an problem with larger quantity items, like flour and water, as the percent error is small. However, it can be a concern with low-volume ingredients like salt and yeast which is why I use standardized measuring spoons for items under 10 grams.
Many recipes in US cookbooks use volume measurements, but it is easy to convert these measurements to a metric weight system. For instance, a cup (8 ounces) of water is equal to 236 ml, and 236 ml of water weighs 236 grams. If I need a cup of water, I just need to place my baking pan on a food scale, tare the scale to zero, and then pour in 236 grams of water. If the amount is different, I’ll do some simple math. For instance, one and one half cups of water would be 236 x 1.5 = 354 grams of water.
Many ingredient packages list a volume to weight conversion for their item. I just made a loaf of oatmeal bread that had 1/2 cup of oatmeal as an ingredient. The oatmeal box notes that 1/2 cup of oatmeal is 40 grams by weight, so it is easy to tare the scale to zero and then add 40 grams. One fourth of a cup of oatmeal would be 40/2 =20 grams, and 1 cup of oatmeal would be 40 x 2= 80 grams.
Here is the nutritional label for Amazon Basics Bread Flour. You can see that 1/4 cup weighs 30 grams, so a cup will weigh 30 x 4 = 120 grams, and four and a half cups will weigh 120 x 4.5 = 540 grams.
If you can’t find the product’s weight on a package, you can do a simple search on Google. Additionally, baking sources, such as the King Arthur Flour website, offer volume-to-weight conversion tables for most ingredients.
Understand tricky ingredients
We already talked about the difference between active and instant yeast. However, other ingredients can also be tricky. Salt is a crystal that can be chunky (some Kosher salts) or present as a fine powder (table salt). If you use a volume measurement, the actual amount of salt that you add can vary greatly based on the size of the salt crystal, as finer salt packs denser than chunky salt.
Salt is inexpensive and the easiest solution is to buy and use the type of salt that the recipe recommends. If it says “Kosher” use that type, if the recipe just says “salt” the recipe is likely referring to table salt. As I stated above, many scales can be a bit iffy when weighing very small quantities so I prefer using measuring spoons for items like yeast and salt. If you have to substitute one type of salt for another you can google how to do this.
Here is a part of a salt conversion table from the Morton Salt website. You can see that one teaspoon of table salt is equivalent to 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of coarse Kosher salt, as table salt packs denser.
Salt can be hidden in other ingredients, which is why most recipes advise using unsalted butter. However, if you are only adding a couple of tablespoons of salted butter to a recipe, the amount of salt is fairly negligible.
Understand temperature
For yeast to thrive, the temperature has to be warm, but not too hot. Try to use room-temperature ingredients and warm liquids to “baby bottle” temperatures. Some bread machines have an ingredient warming feature, but many don’t. If your ingredients are too cold, the yeast won’t grow fast enough, and you will have a dense loaf. If it’s too warm, your yeast may over-grown, which can result in a collapsed loaf. If your ingredients are very hot, you will kill the yeast and bake a dense rock.
Check on your machine’s progress
Check your dough ball after 5-10 minutes of kneading for the best results. If needed, scrape down any unincorporated flour using a soft spatula (to avoid damaging the non-stick coating on the pan). Even if you measured properly, you may need to make minor adjustments to your dough ball. Add small amounts (one tablespoon at a time) of flour or water to correct dough ball issues. If the ball looks dry and ragged add a little water. If it is too slack, add a little flour. Wait at least 30 seconds before adding more of either to allow the dough to absorb the addition. The goal is to have a fairly smooth and slightly tacky ball that completely incorporates all of the dough.
It is OK to open the lid and check on the formation of the dough ball during most of the bread-making process. However, once baking has started, don’t open the lid, as doing so will alter your bake due to the temperature drop.
This dough looks slightly slack, as there is residual dough on the bottom of the pan. Add one tablespoon of flour and wait at least 30 seconds for the flour to incorporate. Repeat until you get a nice, smooth dough ball. If you measured everything correctly, the dough will need no correction or only minor adjustments to the flour or water.
This dough looks right. The dough ball is smooth, and it has cleared all the flour from the pan.
Room issues
If your room is very hot, very cold, or very humid your results may be poor. As much as possible, try to use your bread machine in a controlled environment. This isn’t a big issue in the US where many homes have sophisticated environmental controls, but it could be a problem if your baking environment doesn’t have these capabilities or if you are using your bread maker next to something like a HVAC vent that can make the micro-environment too hot or cold.
Once you are confident in your bread-making, try adjusting a recipe to suit your conditions. For instance, in a hot environment, you could consider using slightly less yeast, or in a very dry environment, you may want to slightly increase the amount of liquids.
Elevation issues
If you live in a high-elevation location, such as Denver, you may need to adjust your ingredients, as the lower air pressure can cause over-rising and a resultant collapse of your bread. Your bread machine manual will help you, but the typical suggestion is to make a slight reduction in the amount of yeast.
Magical additions
If you have done all of the above and are still experiencing problems, try some of these additional steps.
Please try using only one agent at a time; use multiple agents only when you have experience, as combining many additions can have a negative, rather than a positive, impact on your loaves.
Diastatic Malt
This name sounds a bit scary, but it isn’t. Diastatic malt is barley that has been sprouted, then slowly dried and ground into a flour. It is high in enzymes that break down the starch in flour into simple sugars that the yeast can use. This can result in a better rise, nicer crumb, and better flavor. Just use a little, less than 1 teaspoon, as too much can lead to gummy bread. I use around 1/2 teaspoon for a single loaf recipe when I use it.
Ascorbic Acid
Another scary-sounding “chemical?” Nah, this is just Vitamin C powder. You only need a tiny pinch of this stuff. Too much is not good. Vitamin C can help with gluten development, loaf volume, loaf color, speed up fermentation, and improve shelf life. You can also use a little lemon juice (one to two tablespoons), as part of your liquid volume, to accomplish a similar result. I only add the tip of a 1/8 teaspoon measure when I use this stuff.
Sodium Alginate
Derived from algae, a tiny amount of this ingredient can help gluten development, improve crumb, and extend the freshness of your bread. The amount to add is only one to two grams, which is around 1/2 teaspoon per loaf.
Dough Conditioners
These are combination products that combine some of the above agents with other ingredients to improve gluten, rise, color, and freshness. Their actual ingredients vary from brand to brand. I have been using a product called “Scratch,” which I picked randomly. However, it does a great job. I use around one teaspoon per loaf. I use this stuff fairly regularly.
Vital Wheat Gluten
This is a concentrated form of gluten that can be added to increase the gluten content of flours. Adding a couple of tablespoons can turn AP flour into bread flour or make whole wheat flour rise better.
If you follow the above suggestions, you will produce beautiful loaves of bread in the bread maker of your choice. As we face inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, we all need to be more aware of the cost of living. Making simple bread is cheap. Making a more elaborate bread is more cost-effective than buying a comparable store-bought bread. By the way, what could be better than adding a few ingredients into a pan, pressing a button, and being rewarded with delicious homemade bread?
Happy Baking!
Mike
Images are my own or downloaded from Amazon product pages for educational purposes only.
