The Prepared Pantry's
Helpful Baking Tips

In This Issue:
• Troubleshooting Machine Bread
• Favorite Machine (or Other) Breads
• Build a Ring with Your Machine
• Side Notes
• Freshness Counts
• All Those Used Bags
• Refer a Friend
• Missed Newsletters

Troubleshooting Machine Bread

Bread machines—wonderful inventions that they are—don’t think very well.  You and I, when we have a loaf of bread percolating on the counter, can look and say, “My bread is rising a little slowly today.  I think I will let it be for another fifteen minutes.”   Our bread machines go ahead and start the bake cycle anyway.  The result is a dense loaf of bread that didn’t rise enough. 

The only way that we know to compensate for those loaves that aren’t quite right is human intervention.  Most loaves and most recipes that aren’t acting right can be fixed to make perfect bread.  Many recipes take a little tweaking to come out just right in the individual environments of our own kitchens. 

We had a call from the Denver area this week, “My bread machine worked just fine in Australia.  Now it bakes hard, dense loaves.”   (He hadn’t tried our mixes yet.)   Denver is a much different environment than Australia.  Dough will act differently there.  But then, dough may act differently in your kitchen than it does in the kitchen down the street. 

Most days, in most kitchens, the bread turns out just fine (which is a compliment to modern machines).  When bread doesn’t come out just right, it’s usually because the machine starts baking too soon or too late for a particular recipe in a particular environment.  If it starts before the bread has completely risen, the loaf comes out dense.  If it rises too much, the top starts to cave. 

So, what to do?  Most bread machine faults can be corrected if you apply a little human intervention. 

   • Keep conditions consistent.  If you pull the machine and/or ingredients out of the cold garage this week but the warm pantry next week, you will have two different loaves.  If you use more or less water or warmer or cooler water, you will have different loaves.  Measure carefully and use a thermometer. 
   • Watch the dough ball.  During the second mix cycle, check the dough ball to see if it is too wet or two dry.  (Wet dough rises faster than dry dough.)  If the dough ball appears too sticky and wet or doesn’t hold its shape, add flour a tablespoon at a time.  If it is too firm, flakey, or your bread machine begins to “knock”, dribble in water a teaspoon at a time. 
   • Adjust the recipe.  Even if your bread is not perfect, it is probably still good.  Some recipes are going to take a little adjustment to work just right in your machine, in your kitchen, the way you bake bread.  If your bread is not as light as you like, add another tablespoon or so of water next time.  If the top has started to cave, add another tablespoon or so of flour next time.  Even if your bread is not perfect the first time, it can be the second or third time.   Similar mixes from the same manufacturer are likely to act the same in your kitchen. 
   • Use the oven.  When you hear that little beep that most machines make to tell you that baking is about to begin, check your loaf.  If your loaf hasn’t risen enough or if it has risen too much—it looks too poofy or has started to blister—you have a choice: go ahead and let bake good but not perfect bread or rescue it.  To rescue it, pull it out of the machine, form a loaf, place it in a bread pan or on a sheet pan, and let it rise on its own.  When it has risen until it is light and soft (probably in 45 to 60 minutes), stick it in a 350 degree oven and bake it until is done—usually 30 to 40 minutes.  The top should turn a nice deep brown and the interior of the loaf should reach 190 degrees.   (Many bread machine owners use their machines this way and bake with their ovens most of the time.)

Once you have tweaked a recipe (or a mix) for your machine in your kitchen, keep conditions consistent and you should have picture perfect machine bread every time. 

Favorite Machine (or Other) Breads

We’re sometimes asked what our favorite bread machine mixes are.  That’s hard to say—it depends on the mood and the meal.  Two of our favorites are the Sour Cream Onion Bread and the New England Herb Bread.  With the former, we like the sweet onions contrasted against the sour cream.  (We’ve never talked to anyone who has tried this bread that didn’t think it was very good.)  With the latter, we like the complex and intriguing mixture of herbs and spices.  (Who would have thought of a combination that matches celery seed and sage with nutmeg but it works?)  (Click here to see the Sour Cream Onion Bread and click here to see the New England Herb.)

This week, we made baked some Country Farm White Bread.  If you want a fluffy white bread, almost like it came from the store but better, try this.  Our kids love this bread.  They even like the crust (which is strange).  The secrets of this bread are a very good flour and lots of milk.  (Click here to see Country Farm White Bread.)

Click here to see a complete listing of our machine breads including Sampler Paks.  If you would like to try these breads and don’t use a bread machine, please do so.  Use the water amount and butter amount indicated on the package and build the bread on the counter or in your kitchen mixer. 

Build a Ring with Your Machine (or Not) 

We have to admit, we like the convenience of a bread machine.  So we took the monkey bread mix that we introduced a few weeks ago and added a bread machine mix.  Now you can make monkey bread from a traditional mix or a bread machine mix. 

To use your bread machine, follow the package directions and set your machine to the dough setting.  Take the dough from the machine, form little round balls, and then dip them in the butter and cinnamon mixture.  The result is the intriguing cinnamon tea ring pictured above.  (Click here to see Cinnamon Monkey Bread in a mix for bread machines and click here to see the traditional mix.) 

Refer a Friend

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There is no cost and your friends can unsubscribe at any time with the click of a button.  We do not share email addresses.

A Side Note

We’re always intrigued by how people find us.  This one was worth noting: “Internet search for meatloaf.”   Is there a new marketing opportunity here?

Another Side Note

She has to rate as this week’s favorite customer.  (Although it seems that all our customers are “favorites”.)   This Minnesota mother has a son in Iraq.   She recently sent him a bread machine and now bread machine mixes.  He bakes the bread right in his barracks and reports that the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the air makes barracks seem more like home.  Way to go, Mom.

Freshness Counts

A major university study found that often people felt that many foods would last indefinitely.  Not so.  All foods deteriorate over time.   As soon as food is harvested, the cells begin to break down and the food begins to lose nutritional content, fats begin to oxidize, and food structure changes.  Fresher is better--and healthier.  Even with dried or canned goods, always feed your family the freshest, best packaged food possible.   That can be a challenge—we never know how long the food may have been in the distribution chain or on the grocer’s shelves.

We recently purchased some dried fruit from our grocer.  We suspected that it had sat on the shelf for a long time so we called the producer.   Sure enough, it was well past its prime.  (The producer was good enough to send us a replacement.)  Was it safe?  Yes--but much of its nutritional value and palatability was gone.   

By the way, “Best by . . .” dates are misleading and highly unreliable.  It is “best” the day it comes off the assembly line.  And there is no standardization—one manufacturer may quote a date that is twice as along as another.  Finally, those dates do not reflect storage conditions, especially temperatures.  Foods last much longer in cooler environments.

We typically process our flour within 30 days of the milling date stamped on the package (and that includes transit time and the time our distributor has the flour in his possession).  Because we are selling direct and avoiding all the warehouses in the normal distribution chain, the mixes that you receive are much fresher.  We store all of our materials in a cool facility.  (We air-condition the facility in the summer.)   And Mylar is a much better oxygen and light barrier than plastic or paper. 

All Those Used Bags

We hope that you are buying so much stuff from us that you are awash in used Mylar bags.  Waste not; want not.  Here are some of the things that you can do with the leftover bags. 

Mylar bags are mostly nylon so they are (1) practically indestructible, (2) resealable with heat, and (3) an effective barrier to light, moisture, and oxygen—unlike paper or plastic.  (All plastic has an oxygen transfer rate.  Our Mylar bags are 400 times more effective as an oxygen barrier.)   Use them to protect food or anything else from moisture, critters (bears excluded--they can find their way into anything), leakage, or spoilage due to oxygen or light.  They make the ultimate in freezer bags.  Do you need long-term storage for electronic parts or keepsakes?  Mylar will protect them from rust or dust.   

How do you reseal them?  You can fuse the top edges together with an ordinary iron set on high heat.   For temporary storage to protect items such as cornmeal from turning rancid, just tape the top edges together.

Missed Newsletters: Retrieve them here.

If you missed a newsletter in the past few weeks and would like to see them, you can do so by clicking below.

December 22  (There was no newsletter.  Debbie, our newsletter guru, was on vacation with her husband and daughter in Minnesota.)

December 15 (click here)

• New Products
• What to Do with Leftover Bread
• To Egg or Not
• Emergency Bread: A Usable Recipe

December 8 (click here)

• The Primer for the Perfect Cookie
• New Improved Yoyos
• Gifts for Under $6
• A Baker’s Gift Suggestion

December 1 (click here)

• Troubleshooting Cookies
• A Holiday Special: The Heritage Collection
• What to do with Leftover Cranberry Sauce
• Finding a Substitute for Rum
• Can I Substitute Butter for Shortening?

November 21 (click here)

• Keeping Holiday Food Safe
• Building Better Burgers
• Gift Giving with a Personal Message
• Picture Perfect Bread

Your friends at,

The Prepared Pantry
www.preparedpantry.com