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Congratulations! You have just acquired a Toastmaster Bread and Butter Maker.
Toastmaster Inc. has become a household name you can count on as has RED STAR®
Yeast.The Home Economists at REDSTAR®Yeast and Toastmaster have combined their
efforts to provide the exciting recipes in this cookbook.Many hours of developing and
testing these recipes were necessary to assure yo u , the home baker, a variety of
d e l i c i o u s homemade breads.The breadmaker will bake up to a 2 lb. loaf of fresh bread
containing approximately 4 cups of flour.
While some of you have been baking breads using traditional methods for years, others
may have no experience at all. Actually,neither group has an advantage over the other
since using a bread machine is a completely new concept in bread making.To achieve
optimum results, please take a few minutes and read the following information before
you even shop for the ingredients.
YEAST: THE NUMBER ONE INGREDIENT
RED STAR®Active DryYeast was used in developing all the recipes in this book.However RED
STAR®QUICK RISE™Yeast could also be used.We found that we did not have to vary the
amount used when we substituted one for the other in this Toastmaster Bread Box.
Because yeast can grind against itself and become very fine, it is packaged by weight and not
by volume. A1⁄4oz. package of RED STAR®Yeast contains approximately 21⁄4level teaspoons
of yeast.The activity of yeast will deteriorate when it is exposed to oxygen, moisture or warmth.
Therefore, yeast needs to be stored airtight, refrigerated or frozen.Yeast is granular and comes
to room temperature very quickly.
Yeast fe rments sugar to leaven bread. White sugar, brown sugar and honey may be
i n t e r c h a n g e d equally.Since honey is a liquid, decrease the water by the same amount as the
honey added. Artificial sweeteners may not be used as the yeast cannot react with them. But
yeast does have the ability to convert the starch in flour to sugar.French bread is an example
of yeast activity in a bread dough with little or no sugar.Although sugar is the favorite food of
yeast, too much sugar will cause the yeast to dysfunction, especially within a bread machine
program.The yeast will have a feeding frenzy and then become lethargic.The loaf of bread will
be small and dense.Dried fruits also contribute sugar to the bread dough.Resist the temptation
to add more than specified for in the recipe.
FLOUR: BREAD FLOUR IS ESSENTIAL
All types of flour are affected by a variety of factors, such as milling grades, moisture content,
length of storage and manufacturing processes. Adjustments to the recipes may need to be
made to compensate for climactic changes in each region to ensure an excellent loaf every time.
Bread flour is a definite necessity. Milled from hard winter or spring wheat, it has a higher
p r o t e i n content which makes it more dura ble than all-purpose flour.The protein, when mixed with
liquid, becomes gluten. When kneaded, gluten becomes elastic and give the bread better
s t ru c t u r e. In contrast, all-purpose flour, milled from a combination of soft and hard wheat
becomes elastic too easily for use in a bread machine and quickly loses its ability to stretch we l l .
As a result, bread made from all-purpose flour will be small and dense.Several well-known mills