PUTTING THE BREAD MACHINE THROUGH ITS PACES

Includes recipes for bagels and Almond Poppy Seed Bread

January 7, 2010

I confess, I’m a lazy bread maker. My family loves the goodness of homemade breads, but I’m simply too lazy to knead it out by hand. So I tend to make recipes from the “Artisan Bread in Less Than Five Minutes a Day” cookbook or use my two bread machines. Yep two, one of them is part of my toaster oven, but I often have both of them going at once. This last few days I’ve been using them one at a time, but I’ve still been using that one pretty regularly.

On the fifth I made Almond Poppy Seed Bread, and boy was it good. We ate some of it hot with butter immediately, but it toasted up yummy for breakfast the next day too. The recipe will of course follow. I am also including how I create my own Master Mixes.

I didn’t bake on the sixth because it was my 60th birthday and I had mystery shops to do. Of course Murphy came to wish me a Happy Birthday and killed both of the batteries on our dually truck as a gift. There went the profits from those few shops. OH WELL, this too shall pass.

Today I had a new experience for me. I decided to make bagels. I had always shied away from doing this because they are time eaters to make. While I worked at them for a while the results were well worth the effort and now I’m anxious to come up with variations on them. The recipe for those follow as well.

I’ve got shops to do tomorrow, so there will be no baking tomorrow, but I’m thinking I may try my hand at pita bread during this next week.

Jan who is keeping this post short but sweet in OK

ALMOND POPPY SEED BREAD

(JP NOTE) The recipe I used had it broke down for various size machines in flour equivalents, meaning that if you normally use X cups of flour in your bread machine to make a normal loaf of bread this is what you would use to make the proper size loaf. The 3 sizes it used as a comparison are 2, 2 ½ and 3 cups. For this recipe I will list the ingredient and then in that order (smallest to largest) list the amount for the corresponding size. Pick the column that is right for your machine..



Buttermilk-- ¾ C, 7/8 C, 1, 1/8 C

Butter—3 TBL, 3 ½ TBL, 4 TBL

Almond Extract—1 TBL, 1 1/3 TBL, 1 ½ TBL (JP NOTE—we felt the recipe actually needs a little more of this ingredient, but adjust to your tastes)

Brown Sugar-- 1 1/3 TBL, 1 ½ TBL, 2 TBL

Salt—1/4 tsp, 1/3 tsp. ½ tsp

Poppy Seeds—1 TBL, 1 1/3 TBL, 1 ½ TBL

Baking Soda—1/4 tsp, 1/3 tsp, ½ tsp

Bread Flour—2 C, 2 ½ C, 3 C

Yeast—1 tsp, 1 ½ tsp, 2 tsp

Chopped Almonds—1/3 C, ½ C, 2/3 C

Put your ingredients in the order your manufacturer recommends. Bake on the white/sweet bread light to medium setting.



IF I were to make this into a Master Mix what I would do would pick the size bread I would be making. Then from that list of ingredients I would decide on how much mix would fit in my biggest mixing bowl (13 cups of mix for the white and green one, 16 cups for my big red one). Since my bread machine is the largest size I would then use the big red bowl and multiply all the dry ingredients (except the yeast) by 4 (which allows for stirring neatly with the wire whisk in that particular bowl). In those dry ingredients I would include using dry buttermilk. Then the proper amount of water for the recipe would be added with the almond extract, butter and yeast on the baking day.

So the ingredient list would then look like:

ALMOND POPPY SEED BREAD MACHINE MASTER MIX

1 C dry buttermilk (JP NOTE: from the package 4 TBL of the mix to make 1 cup of buttermilk 4 TBL = ¼ cup so 4 x ¼ c= 1 cup)

½ C brown sugar, packed

2 tsp. salt

6 TBL poppy seeds

2 tsp baking soda

12 C. Bread Flour

Mix all the ingredients together well. I recommend using a wire whisk to do this. Store in an airtight container, date and label. Store in a cool, dry place. Use within 6 months.

To make Almond Poppy Seed bread

Use:

2 Cups Mix

1 C warm water

4 TBL butter

1 ½ TBL Almond extract

2 tsp yeast

2/3 C chopped almonds

Place in the machine via the manufacturer’s recommendation, bake on the sweet bread setting.

Now for the bagel recipe.

BAGELS

Again this had 2 sizes 1 ½ pound (9 bagels) and 2 pound (12 bagels), I’ll put the two pound ingredient amount in ().

1 C (1 1/3 C) milk

2 tsp (1 TBL) water

3 C (4 C) bread flour

1 TBL (4 tsp) sugar

¾ tsp (1 tsp) salt

1 tsp (1 ¼ tsp) yeast

1 (1) egg white, slightly beaten

1 (1) TBL water

Poppy Seeds, or Sesame Seeds, optional

Add first 6 ingredients to bread machine per the manufacturer’s recommendation. Use the dough cycle. At the end of the dough cycle remove dough from bread machine and punch down the dough. Let dough rest for 10 minutes. (If your machine has a bagel cycle use that and you don’t need to punch down and rest because the machine will do this for you).

Working quickly divide the dough into 9 (12) equal parts. Shape each into a smooth ball. Punch a hole in the middle of each ball and pull it gently to enlarge the hole to about 2”. Place on a greased large baking sheet. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes (timing from the forming of the first bagel).

Broil, 5 inches from the heat for 3 to 4 minutes (DO NOT ALLOW TO BROWN—WATCH CLOSELY)

While they are broiling bring 4 C water and 1 TBL sugar to a boil. Reduce the heat and add bagels 4 or 5 at a time. Simmer for 7 minutes (turning over once). Drain on toweling. The bagels might fall slightly when doing this, but will rise again during the baking process. Place on a well greased large baking sheet. Mix egg white with water and brush on the top of the bagels. IF desired sprinkle with either poppy seeds or sesame seeds. Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from baking sheet, cool on racks.