The Bread Baker Commeth (Part V)

In this episode: More!

"To infinity... and beyond!" - Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story

 I still wanted to branch out and eventually buy some of these "exotic" flours from the baking aisle.

This quest drove me off/on for months.  Eventually, my family and I went into a local used book store. (Strange to find a used book store in a small city like ours.)

When I asked about bread recipes, I was lead to a section that contained various books on baking.

My eyes spied a book labeled "The Breadman's Healthy Bread Book".  On the cover of this book was the Breadman himself.  He wore a smile and had a 70's early 80's fro hairdo with stereo-typical thick dark mustache.

Inside of his appeared a large collection of bread recipes, so I bought it!  Since it was used, it cost me $7.50.  Brand new, Amazon has it listed for ~$12+, while the original cover price was $15.

When I got home, Ellie read the cover and told me it was meant for bread machines, specifically the Breadman's! ("The Breadman Automatic Bread Machine".  It actually sounds pretty. It has timer/schedule features so that you can schedule when your bread will be ready.)

"Oh no!" I originally thought.  Then I said, all I needed were the recipes, since I figured I could adapt them for mixing with the Kitchen Aid and baking in the oven.

Instead of jumping right to the recipes, I thought I'd read the beginning chapters of the book.  Most of the first few chapters were on stuff like "why was whole grains foods good for you" and "our processed food diets today were not good".

After those boring chapters, which I just skimmed, I found that he went into great detail about the various types of flours and grains that are in the recipes!  Not only that, he included settings for the various types of bread makers.

But wait!
There's more!

Also included were the various settings and times for just kneading and letting the dough rise.  Just what I needed to continue on my quest!

What I also found, was that every recipe was basically duplicated for 1-1/2 lb & 1 lb loaves.  Each also included the exact same phrase:

"Put all the ingredients in the inner pan in the order listed, or in the reverse order if the manual for your machine specifies dry ingredients first and liquids last."

I found the redundancy really irritating...  However, I know this was done to make the recipes appeal to a broader audience to sell more books!


Read on for the next episode of adventures with The Bread Baker!