The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker's 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread-From Every Kind of Machine

This is an excellent value for the price and I can't recommend it highly enough. With around 300 recipes for bread ranging from white to wheat, sourdough to rye, egg to dessert breads, and with recipes from all over Europe, the United States, and different periods of history (the Indian Graham Bread is a treat, even for those who aren't Colonial America lovers) you get a lot of recipes with very little space wasted by unnecessary color photos. Many of her breads can be made entirely in the breadmaker and consist of only two steps (put ingredients in and turn on machine, and then take out when done). For those who want more of a challenge, there are also a number of recipes that require being shaped and finished in the oven. In short the recipes range from very easy to those with more steps after making the dough in the breadmaker (baking in oven, making a biga ahead of time, shaping dough, etc). I have found that many of her recipes work very well without any adjustments, but keep in mind that all machines are different and you will probably need to experiment a little. I will admit that I had some trouble at first with the recipes here. And there are some like the sourdough recipes that I just can't get to work. Don't be discouraged. You should realize three things. First, all bread machines are different and the author right from the beginning tells you that you may need to adjust certain amounts of liquid or flour depending on your machine's manufacturer. Second, and related to that, you need to carefully measure out your ingredients, especially the water and flour. I am pretty impatient with recipes and not a careful measurer. Slow down and make sure you carefully measure out your ingredients and, as she tells you at the beginnig, adjust flour or water as necessary during the kneading cycles. And this leads to my third point, you should read the beginning of the book, or at least glance at it. The author provides tips about individual machines that will save you much heartache, and, should something go wrong like your loaf collapsing she gives you a detailed analysis of what probably went wrong and how to fix it. She then goes into seven different types of bread that you will cook throughout the book in a very detailed way that will help you later with her other recipes, many of which have many fewer steps. Additionally, don't be alarmed if you see some of her recipes require many steps, "esoteric" flours or ingredients you've never used before (barley or semolina flour), or require you to finish baking in the oven. Never fear! Most of her recipes require only the most basic ingredients that you'll already have if you bake often already (well besides bread flour and bread machine yeast perhaps). I have slowly acquired such things as wheat germ, gluten, barley flour, rye flour, semolina flour, etc. as I have worked my way through the book. Don't get stuck on just the white breads (which are great), but keep going into the wheats, ryes, and multi-grains. You won't regret it. I use a Sunbeam (entry level) machine and I've discovered a few things about it: (1) Always check the dough during knead cycles to see if it needs more moisture (recipes with fatty milks often seem to need a bit more). The author recommends that some machines regularly need a tablespoon more of water (or less of flour) and my machine seems to need more water about 1/3 of the time I use it. (2) Carefully measure ingredients. (3) The "dark crust" cycle is jut way too hot and should never be used. (4) The 1 1/2 lb recipes work well, but the 2 lb recipes would overflow the machine. As you can see, none of the errors that resulted from these problems were the author's fault, it was either me or the machine. I attribute my inability to make some of her recipes, such as the sourdoughs to Central Virginia apparently not being a great place to buy sourdough starter yeast (the homemade ones just don't work for me) and my inexperience with making sourdough starters. As mentioned above, my machine runs rather hot so making some of the smaller 1 lb breads or trying to use the dark cycle called for in her recipes is difficult because the machine overbakes them. My major criticism is that, while pictures are unnecessary for the most part, I would like to have them for the breads that need to be folded/rolled into shapes because I have a hard time visualizing what she wants me to do. I have bought many quality cookbooks from Amazon, from a variety of publishers including America's Test Kitchen and Williams-Sonoma. In terms of the most recipes for your money, you really can't beat this book. The directions are very clear and she provides helpful hints about cooking bread, different kinds of flours/ingredients, and how to store left over bread throughout. You'll learn something new and useful every few pages as you work your way through the book.

I have ordered several bread machine cookbooks on Amazon since we are baking more bread than I've ever eaten in my life lately. Dr. Atkins would hate my family right now with all the carbs we are enjoying. That said, some are great, some fall flat...then some you go to almost every time you make a loaf. This is the one I enjoy the most. I was shocked when the book arrived because it's huge...full of recipes! Because of that, regarless of your taste, you should expect to have more than enough choices...even if you wanted to cook a loaf a day. And quite frankly, we kinda love making a different kind every day.Especially if you have a special diet and want to alter bread recipes in your own machine...now you can. Here are some examples: Butter Bread and loads of other white breads Sour Cream Bread Whole Wheat Cuban Bread Coconut Milk White Bread Honey White Bread Honey Wheat Bread and loads of other whole grain breads Jewish Egg Bread Swiss Egg Bread Tomato Bread Sweet Potato Bread Zucchini Bread Applesauce Bread Cottage Cheese Breads Ricotta and Chive Bread Green Chile Bread Black Olive Bread Balsamic Caramelized Onion Bread Sunflower Oatmeal Bread Toasted Walnut Bread Pecan Raisin Bread OLive Oil Pine Nut Bread Beer Bread California Nut Bread Cinnamon Swirl Bread Hot Jalapeno Bread with Longhorn Cheese Beer Bread with Cheddar Roquefort Cheese Bread with Walnuts or get creative with your flours for a chance of pace like chickpea flour, graham flour (OMG! I love this loaf! It's like the taste of wheat with a lighter texture and creaminess...I LOVE that one.) recipes for great pizzas making dough such as cheese pizza, caramelized onion and gorgonzola pizza,, mediterranean pizza, etc and all kinds of pizza doughs from white to wheat to cornmeal, etc. there is a whole chapter on gluten-free breads Did you know you can make pasta dough in your bread machine? Neither did I. There is a whole chapter on it. You'll never go back. Out of yeast? There is a chapter on no-yeast quick breads. Like your bread with jelly or jam? A chapter on how to make them IN your bread machine. and all kinds of rolls, shaped breads, cinnamon rolls cakes, stuffings, foccacias, pita bread, pretzels... I wanted to give a clear picture by listing some ideas but let's face it, there are almost 700 pages of recipes for which you can use your bread maker. That may seem like a longish list but it's small in comparison! I have yet to have any loaf not work. (Incidentally if you ever continue to have bad loaves check the freshness of your ingredients. I had a friend complain about her bread maker and she had old yeast, old baking soda, old baking powder. Bought new and all loaves were perfect! They do matter.) Know going in: These recipes typically call for wheat gluten. Although my regular grocery doesn't carry it, I order mine dirt cheap on Amazon and it's worth it. We now use it in ALL recipes regardless of cookbook...it really improves the taste and texture even if you thought nothing was missing before. Most recipes have the ingredients for a 1.5 pound and a 2 pound loaf. A few are just for a 1.5 pound loaf but work just fine in my 2 pound loaf machine. Negatives: Maybe it would be too time consuming to do for such a huge book, but I really appreciate that one of my other favorite bread machine cookbooks includes the nutritionals for each loaf/slice including the calorie count. That may not matter to everyone but I do like an overview of what I'm taking in. For those who need photos, there aren't any here, although there are drawings. That doesn't matter to me so much especially since all breads are so similar but I know many like cookbooks with photos. Conclusion: I think it's a must have to add variety to your sandwiches and bread routine. You could get by with just this one cookbook for your bread maker and be happy with the endless recipes I think. Wish they had nutritionals but I forgive them that due to the long length of the book already...but maybe in a revised edition at the bottom of each page??

I am a relative newbie to the whole bread machine thing, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. The recipes I have tried have all turned out perfectly, first time, with no fiddling, repeated tries. The processes and equipment are explained in detail and in such a way that I can study what I need, when I need it. This book made me NOT regret my machine purchase. Prior to buying this book, I was beginning to. If there is one con in my opinion, it is the print font of the recipes. The fractions are really hard to read, as well as being very important to the recipe in progress. I have to make sure I have the book in a very well lit area, and get really close to it to be sure. I have been making a lot of hand-written notes in the book concerning these fractions. I've learned to do this beforehand so I minimize flour-hand handling of my book. I sometimes go to my printer and copy the recipe section on 200% instead of all that. It makes the book thicker and prone to page-fallout, but.... Depends on my mood. I hate making a mistake just because of a mis-read. I may eventually cut out those big prints and tape them down on one side. But the recipes are fantastic, so they are worth the effort. I have several cookbooks that are supposedly just for bread machines. I did NOT buy a cheap machine, and it works fine, so all the recipes, correct ingredients, measured correctly and settings correct, should turn out well - that's the whole point of the machine right? This is the only book I've used so far, of the several I've tried, that has recipes that work perfectly every time. To be honest, I'm still in the "basic" section of the book. I haven't tried all the -dough-prep and then remove for baking- kind of things. Yet. Maybe never. Depends on my mood, again. The main reason I bought a machine was mostly to AVOID the bread prep kitchen mess. It's just me here now, so I don't need a whole lot of bread. The bread machine loaves are the perfect size, and I only make one at a time with minimal mess. The retiree's POV... Every hand-knead recipe I have ever used made at least two loaves. Not all bread freezes well, and besides - I like fresh better! Bottom line - if I was allowed to keep only one bread book out of my massive cookbook library, it would be this one. And to those who object to the additional gluten in the recipes, I have a statement and a question. First, gluten is not poison. It has been in our diet for centuries, we've just recently narrowed it from a general wheat allergy to gluten. That's the statement. Now the question: Do you so vociferously omit nuts, dairy, and/or strawberries, etc. from your diet because a small percentage of humanity is allergic to them? That seems to be the general trend. Just because a very small percentage has a problem, we ALL have to adjust? That's like saying my neighbor's kid has asthma, so I need a steroid inhaler. Anyway, I was impressed enough with this book and the way it is constructed, that I went and bought some slightly used copies of her rice cooker and pressure cooker cookbooks, too.

This book has been great and has taught me a great deal but if I had to do it again, I am not sure I would have bought it. The recipes are great and so is her advice but I feel like the book is poorly laid out and I resent that she only gives you measurements in volume when weight is universally recognized as a superior way to measure for baking. I find the book hard to use too. Her dinner roll recipe (which is awesome) and alternative directions to rolling out the dough are in two different places in the book but she doesn't give a page number to finding the rolling directions. Finally I wrote the page to the alternate rolling directions on the recipe page. She should have done that for me. I find it difficult to find a recipe even the ones I know are in the book. Nothing is given its rightful name. Pulla is called Cardamon Easter Braid. Why couldn't she just call it Pulla like everyone else so I could look it up in the index? With the measurement issue, I am new to baking and I can't tell yet if a loaf needs more water or more flour just by looking at it. It is better for me to have exact measurements as I learn and develop an eye. When I started out on this hobby I bought a scale to insure that I would have my measurements exact but with Hensperger's recipes I have to convert the measurements myself. It can be confusing too. Some bread flour conversion charts differ from others too. She does give conversion advice (not per a recipe but in a separate section) but it is cumbersome to stop and do the math. My ADD kicks in and it is so easy for me to make a mistake. Weighing is so much easier too and so much less messy. She has a great chapter on dough enhancers and she does give directions to use commercially bought "dough enhancer" on a few recipes but I wish she had given advice for which dough enhancer one could use on each of her recipes as an option and how it would change the results. I have used that new Red Star yeast with dough enhancers and was impressed but it is way too expensive. I bought some of the dough enhancer ingredient listed (lecithin, barley malt, ascorbic acid) in Hensperger's book but I wish I knew exactly which ones should (or even could be) used in each recipe. Again that information would have been so easy to give. According to her most loaves can use at least one of the big three of lecithin, malt or ascorbic acid. They make the dough more forgiving. If she had tied her advice to each recipe it would have been more relevant and easier to absorb completely. For all I know this is the best book out there. I only own a few and this one is the most comprehensive. At least she talked about the enhancers. None of her recipes have failed (which is huge) but I wish this book contained more information. If anyone knows a bread cook book that give weight as well as volume and with recommendations of dough enhancers to use with each recipe, I would love to know so I could buy it.

Take any negative reviews on this book "with a grain of salt" - a little bread making pun. People say all kinds of things in the negative reviews that just aren't true. One person said there was no recipes for Pizza Dough. See, now that is someone who either does not want to read or cannot read. This is a fantastic book. I do not believe that bread making - even with a machine - is easy. There are a lot of factors that go into making a good loaf of bread. People who want this to be easy right off the bat will be disappointed. But, if you read the book and follow directions and listen to wisdom - you will be successful. If you want to look at a recipe and dump the ingredients in without thinking and have a successful result - you will never make good bread. All machines are different. I first bought a cheap machine - $79. I followed the recipe booklet that came with it to a T - but not a single loaf I tried in that machine came out right. I decided to buy a Zojirushi Maestro from a business in Vermont that has the word king in the title. It is an excellent machine and I have had great results using it. If you're going to use this bread book for your machine, you have to be mindful of some things. 1. You need to follow your bread machine's order of doing things - and she tells you this over and over. 2. You need to weigh your ingredients on a kitchen scale in grams. While it is true that there are no measurements in grams in this book, you can very likely refer to the recipes that come with your machine to see how many grams are in 2 cups of bread flour, for example. And water and, well, everything. You can also google: "How many grams in 8 ounces of water?" My machine came with a liquid measuring cup and a Tb. and tsp. measure. I always use this cup that came with my machine for the liquid measure. I make sure it is right on the line. Because the success of your bread depends upon a certain ratio of flour to liquid. Weigh and measure very carefully. Also, when you have gathered all of your ingredients, line them up in the order they are supposed to be added according to your machine and then start putting them in the pan. You don't want salt to touch your yeast before starting the machine because it can inactivate your yeast. My machine instructions put the salt on top of the flour, so before I put it on, I make a hole in the top of the flour for the yeast and sprinkle the salt around the hole, making sure none gets inside. Yeast is added last. Being careful with this is especially important if you are using a delay timer, I would think. Unless you are allergic to gluten, I recommend adding it to the recipes. In this book, almost all the recipes have the addition of Vital Wheat Gluten - referred to as "gluten". It helps the bread rise better - even the high protein bread flour. Lots of bakers claim that it doesn't need the gluten but my breads look better and are airier with it. Beth Hensperger is right again! There is something for everyone in this book - unless you are impatient, don't like information and don't want to think or learn. If this is you, don't despair - you can buy bread. I highly recommend using high quality everything - especially the flour. I tried a grocery store brand of organic white flour and it was terrible compared to a high quality brand. Bob's Red Mill has high quality flours although they do not make an organic white bread flour and I'm guessing that the reason is because their all purpose flour is already high in protein. King Arthur Flour also makes high quality flour and they do make a white organic bread flour which is what I'm using. My favorites from this book (I am a beginner and have only tried a few): Orange-Cinnamon Bread; Fresh Dill Bread. Ohmigosh - the Fresh Dill Bread is absolutely mouth-watering. It has a small amount of finely diced onion - just enough to make the bread smell good. There is some cream cheese in the recipe and the dill . . . well, it's just heavenly bread with lots of flavor. Oh - and another negative review that tickled me was a woman who said that the book was too much because she just wanted a few basic bread recipes. Really?! It says "300 Favorite Recipes" right on the front of the book!

I am a new bread machine owner. So I have not hurried to rate this book , because I had much to learn about how this stuff all worked and more importantly, what did not work. I found out bread machines are very selective machines in that changing an ingredient by a pinch to a Tbsp. to a substitute can produce a loaf that is less than desirable. That being said , after my machine and the Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook helped me along with do's and don'ts and a lot of trial and error, some of which is still going on, I have begun to have some really good luck with good bread. The first thing I learned is that not all bread machines are created equal, and thus the recipes in this book may require some tinkering, for instance a tablespoon more or less of flour. The book prepares you for this possibility, it just takes a bit of practice to find what works best in your machine. I have used some recipes where I have had to add a Tablespoon of flour and some I have to back off as much as 2 Tablespoons of flour. So why love a book that you may have to tinker with the recipes? For the sheer quantity of truly wonderful recipes that are in this volume. Brioche, which we love and cannot buy where we live, so thankful for that recipe. My daughter has a different machine than I do and did a happy dance when she was looking through my book and found a whole section on how to make sour dough bread in your machine. She borrowed my cookbook over the weekend to write down all the variances' and how to make the starter then on to whole grain sour dough. If my book is not back home within a week , I will go retrieve it. The very best thing I have learned so far is to have ALL my ingredients at room temperature, when I finally figured that out my bread improved vastly. This book is all the bread machine recipe book you will need . It has different sections that tell how to take out the dough at a certain time to good ahead and finish by hand. For instance flatbreads, pretzels, cinnamon rolls. All very easy to finish because your dough is all mixed and has risen once in the machine. I would not trade this book for any other book out there because of the tons of different recipes' and the basic tips that helped me achieve wonderful bread

I found this to be the best written bread machine cookbook of several I have tried. Every recipe works great and all of the helpful asides on how breads work, types of flour, shaping custom loaves, storing bread, using old bread... these make it more than worth it. The author writes well, is experienced, and there are enough recipes and tips to keep you busy for years. I would avoid the digital edition though. I tried the paperback version (initially from my local library) and loved it. I thought I'd avoid the hassle of storing yet another (fairly large) cookbook by trying the digital edition. It's adequate and in some ways easier (no weighting pages open, and I know what to recipe titles I want to search for), but the formatting of the recipe ingredients is pretty poor. The publisher / editor clearly didn't proofread the converted digital version. Examples: sometimes ingredients are listed two on one line, making it easy to miss something if you're not paying attention. Sometimes fractions aren't shown properly; you'll wonder why you have to add "4 14 cups bread flour" instead of "4 1/4 cups". Lots of little things like this get annoying, and mar and otherwise excellent cookbook. All that said: I still love the recipes, and use the digital version with a bit of extra vigilance.

This is the best bread cookbook out there. Great recipes that I’ve found to be foolproof! I found myself reading it like a great novel! So much to learn! And of course using it to make beautiful breads, rolls, buns & sweet rolls! Sweet Success!!

大きさにびっくり。レシピ数３００とはありましたが、４、５センチの厚みで６００ページ以上あり、一まわり小さい図鑑のよう。日本のベーカリー本に慣れた人は本格的で驚くと思います。内容もホームベーカリーやパン作りに関する事、そのパンの由来など全てが載っています。ホワイドブレッドだけでも何種類もあり、めくるだけでわくわくします。１、５斤、２斤用のレシピが記載されています。粉は（洋書全てそうですが）カップ表示です。１カップは（約２４０ｍｌです！）はおよそ１３５グラムなので一斤用レシピ２カップの粉を使うとすると＝２７０グラムと換算できます。（オンスなどの目盛りもついている耐熱の分厚いガラスの計量カップがあれば洋書レシピも怖くありません！）日本でも充分使える良い本です！！それからもう一つ。グルテンを添加するレシピが多いです。が、なくてもおいしくできましたよ。一冊だけ買うとしたらこれなのかもしれません。どんどん読めれば、の話ですが。

This was a bit complicated purchase as I didn’t receive the original parcel. But as soon as I contacted the seller she organized the second delivery without any delays. Things happened but lady was extremely helpful. No I’m enjoying my book !!!!!

Ich backe seit ca. 10 Jahren Brote in einem Panasonic Brotbackautomaten nach Rezepten, die ich in der mitgelieferten Anleitung, in diversen Rezeptbüchern oder auch im Internet fand. Die Ergebnisse waren meist zufriedenstellend, konnten aber die Qualität eines "Bäckerbrotes" nicht ganz erreichen. Beth Henspergers Anweisungen liefern mir endlich perfekte Brote! Von meinen vielleicht 12 Versuchen war nur eines ok, die anderen ganz ausgezeichnet und konnten es mit den "Bäckerbroten" in jeder Hinsicht aufnehmen oder übertrafen sie sogar. Ein kleiner Tipp: Von Beth Hensperger gibt es noch mehr Kochbücher - für den Reiskocher, für den Slow Cooker (Niedertemperaturgaren) und für die schnelle Küche am Abend, die allesamt sehr empfehlenswert sind - und bald wird ein weiteres Buch mit Mikrowellenrezepten erscheinen.

Los amantes de fabricar pan en casa encontrarán en este voluminoso libro muchas interesantes recetas de pan de todo el mundo. Para sacarle el mayor partido convendría hacerse con un juego de medidas americanas ( Tablespoon, tespoon, Cup, etc) que yo ya tengo por haberlo comprado en EEUU, pero que se puede conseguir fácilmente también en amazon.com

Great Book for cooking bread, use it all the time and try out new recipes for and always a successful bake.