Cleaning and Care, Amounts/Sizes/Ingredients

Add ingredients to the pan in this order – liquids, melted or softened butter, salt and sugars (including honey, molasses, syrup), herbs, flours, dried milk, vital wheat gluten (if using), yeast. Do not allow the yeast to touch the wet ingredients. See detailed instructions on page 7.

Temperature of ingredients is important in bread machine baking. Ideal temperature is room temperature, between 75°–90°F. Use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperatures. Cold ingredients should be allowed to come to room temperature. Liquids and butter may be combined and placed in a microwave on the defrost setting to warm without heating too hot. Gently and safely warm cold eggs by placing whole eggs in a bowl and covering with moderately hot tap water for 10 minutes.

When adapting a recipe, do not omit the little amounts of 1⁄2 teaspoon or less – they are essential to the chemical composition of the bread.

Vital wheat gluten can be added to recipes to improve loaf height, texture and structure – particularly with whole grain flours, or breads using whole wheat, oat flour or rye flours.

Nuts and seeds, raisins and dried fruits, shredded cheeses, chocolate mor- sels, and any other additions to the dough should be added when the Mix-in signal sounds for the appropriate programs.

For a more uniform loaf of bread, remove the dough when you hear the remove-paddle signal, then remove the kneading paddle and reshape the dough into a neat loaf. This will ensure a more uniformly shaped loaf of bread, particularly with the smaller 1- and 11⁄2-pound loaves.

Use the Whole Wheat program when baking breads containing not only whole wheat flour, but other heavy flours that will require a longer knead and rise – for example, pumpernickel bread.

All breads slice best when allowed to cool for a minimum of 30 minutes (preferably longer) before slicing. If you wish to serve bread warm, wrap in foil and heat in oven.

For quick breads/batter breads, spray the bottom and halfway up the sides of the bread pan with cooking spray before adding ingredients, to assist in release. Loosen the loaf with a plastic spatula before turning out.

Amounts/Sizes/Ingredients

For white breads and any recipe calling for a white flour (unless it is a quick/ batter bread requiring cake flour), the best flour to use is bread flour, which has a higher protein content.

A general formula for a 11⁄2-pound bread machine loaf is: 3 cups bread flour, 11⁄8 to 11⁄4 cups liquid, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 13⁄4 to 2 teaspoons yeast. Use this as your basic formula and make adjustments from there.

In general, a 2-cup flour recipe will produce a loaf that is about 1 pound, a

3-cup flour recipe will produce a loaf that is about 11⁄2 pounds, and a 4-cup flour recipe will produce a loaf that is about 2 pounds. Some recipes will have slightly larger or smaller amounts of flour for each size, and with Mix-ins, they may weigh more than 1 pound, 11⁄2 pounds or 2 pounds.

You should not use more than 5 cups flour total in the bread machine.

If you are adapting a recipe, and your mathematical measurements become something odd such as half of an egg, use a small egg as a replacement for half. A large egg is generally equal to about 1⁄4 cup.

CLEANING AND CARE

Always turn the bread maker off, remove the plug from the electrical outlet and allow the unit to cool before cleaning. Never immerse the unit in water or other liquid. To clean the housing and control panel, simply wipe with a clean damp cloth and dry before storing.

Never use rough, abrasive materials or cleansers to clean any part of the unit.