Bread Machine Hearty Rolls

December 5, 2024 Sarah

I took the dough for my recent water bagels and decided to see how it would work as a simple roll, not a light dinner roll, but rather a hearty one for lunches to make a sandwich with.

The boys were quite happy with them, though I found them heavier than I like – but since I am not eating sandwiches, I was happy with the results if they liked them.

Bread Machine Hearty Rolls

Ingredients:

1½ cups water
2 tsp fine sea salt
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
510 grams of all-purpose flour*
1 Tbsp dry active yeast

Directions:

Add to a Zojirushi bread machine in the order listed, starting with water and ending with flour. Sprinkle the yeast on top, ensuring it doesn’t touch the liquid. Set the machine for the “Dough” setting. It will take 1 hour and 50 minutes in this machine.

If using other brands, follow the directions as called for and the temperature of water needed.

See the notes section below and watch if the dough needs more flour during the first kneading cycle.

Set the dough on a lightly floured work area and divide it into eight sections.

Roll each section gently into a ball.

Set the rolls on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap lightly misted with oil.

Let rise for 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Bake for about 14 minutes and check. The rolls will be nicely browned on top.

Transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes:

*The flour you need depends on the type of flour used and the humidity. The brand can even play into it. This is why I weigh out, rather than scoop flour.

Start with 510 grams and add a bit more if needed. You want the dough not to be wet or sticky but tacky when pressing a finger against it. Bagel dough is denser than regular bread dough.

Makes 8 rolls.

Store in a plastic bag to keep it fresh once cooled.

~Sarah

Recipes

Bread Machine Soft Dinner Rolls

November 29, 2024 Sarah

Our 14-year-old and I made these rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Using our bread machine, it was so easy to make the dough. Let it do the heating, the kneading, and the first rising. Hands-on time was less than 15 minutes, meaning I wasn’t bogged down with even more labor-intensive work in the kitchen, especially on a day when I was cooking all day long.

Soft Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
¼ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, whisked
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
360 grams of all-purpose flour + up to 60 grams additional
2¼ tsp instant yeast

Directions:

Add ingredients in the order listed, nestling the yeast in the flour in a bread machine. If using a non-Zojirushi bread machine, follow your machine’s directions. The Zoji heats the liquids before it kneads; one that doesn’t you will want to heat the milk and butter to about 110°

Set the dough setting. (On our machine it takes 1 hour 50 minutes.)

Once it starts kneading, add flour as needed until it produces a tacky dough (not wet) and forms into a single ball.

Near the end of the cycle, plug in a heating pad to medium and take out a 9×13″ glass baking dish—oil lightly with olive or avocado oil.

Take the dough out and cut into 16 even portions.

Gently form each section into a round ball. Place into the dish.

Cover the dish with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Place on the heating pad for 60 minutes to rise.

In the last 15 minutes, preheat the oven to 350°.

Bake for 25 minutes or golden on top.

Let it cool on a rack before using a thin spatula to break it apart.

Store any uneaten rolls in a plastic bag or airtight container for up to another day.

Makes 16 rolls.

Note:

Instant yeast, also sold as “bread machine” yeast, is different from standard dry active yeast.

~Sarah

Recipes

Bread Making: Bread Machine Fat Free White Bread

November 24, 2024 Sarah

I found a vintage late 80s bread machine recipe for “lean” white bread. That means no oil or fat was added. If we remember anything about dieting in the 80s-90s, it was all about being fat-free. It was/is a toxic lifestyle, for sure. My Aunt counted fat grams every day obsessively for years. It was not healthy for her at all.

However, even though I like a drizzle of fat in my bread recipes, I decided to try it out to see the texture. Fat is essential in bread, especially sandwich bread, because it helps keep it fresher for longer, and gives better texture – unless you are looking for a dryer, crusty bread.

And I was right for sure – this, while passable for bread, wasn’t one to celebrate. It has a bit of a gummy texture, though it slices well. But it is airy and dry all at once. Even a Tablespoon of oil makes a huge difference when baking in a bread machine.

It had the oddest crack in the center as if you could tear it into two loaves.

Fat-Free White Bread

Ingredients:

1¼ cups water
1½ Tbap granulated sugar
1½ tsp fine sea salt
360 + 120 grams all-purpose flour*
1½ tsp dry active yeast

Directions:

If using a Zojirushi bread machine, add the listed ingredients, ensuring the yeast is nestled into the flour. Only add the first 270 grams of flour.

Set the machine for a basic loaf.

When the kneading cycle starts, check on the dough and add in enough extra flour* so the dough isn’t sticky, and it clears the bread pan while kneading. I used about 120 grams of extra flour.

Once baked, remove it promptly and knock it out. Let it cool on a wire rack before enjoying it.

Store in a plastic bread bag, and eat within 24 hours for the best taste. It will get stale faster than most bread recipes but would also work well cut into cubes for stuffing. Cut it up and let it stale on the counter first.

If using a regular bread machine, follow the method for adding the ingredients (including using warm water).

Makes a 1½ pound loaf.

Note:

I found this loaf particularly hard to remove from the bread pan. It fused onto the kneading paddles. I used a plastic spatula to work the loaf out. That tiny bit of fat I add to bread makes a difference.

~Sarah

Bioengineered Foods · Recipes

Bread Machine Recipes To Get You Going

November 20, 2024 Sarah

Do you own a bread machine that sits hidden, sadly unused, because you don’t have easy-to-pull-together recipes to use?

You might be shocked (or not) that for many bread machine owners, this is their reality. You might be lucky with most brands to get a couple of “starter” recipes with your machine in a tiny booklet. In the 90s, my mom was gifted a tiny bread machine, and bread mixes were all the rage. They are still sold in stores, near the cake mixes, and online, and the price for a single loaf is ridiculous! It’s often $10 a loaf or more. You might as well go to a fancy bakery and buy an artisan loaf at those prices.

Unlike most machine owners, I use our Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme Breadmaker multiple times weekly.

If I buy commercially made bread from the grocery store, it often sits until it’s hard and stale, and then the chickens enjoy pecking at it. I do not like buying commercially made bread due to the ingredient list as well. A simple white bread is nothing more than water, a bit of olive oil, avocado oil or butter, salt, yeast, and flour, maybe a bit of sugar or honey.

You don’t need bread, which uses cheap oil (soybean oil is from GMO/BE soybeans), vinegar for long life, dough conditioners, or mold inhibitors. And far too many brands use worse options.

This is a “simple homestyle” bread sold commercially by Franz Bread in the PNW of the US.

ENRICHED UNBLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR), WATER, SUGAR, YEAST, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN, SALTED BUTTER (MILK), HONEY, SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, DISTILLED VINEGAR, DOUGH CONDITIONERS (SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, ASCORBIC ACID), CALCIUM PROPIONATE (MOLD INHIBITOR), ENZYMES.

There are many “extras” we just don’t need, especially if we have a machine to help us. The beauty of bread machines is that they do the hard work, and it is nearly hands-off. I spend about 5 minutes getting the ingredients and a couple of minutes watching the first knead. And then magically have fresh bread in a couple of hours.

The Recipes:

Water Bagels Version 1

Bagels Version 2

No Sugar Added Sandwich White Bread

Honey White Bread

American-Style Pumpernickel Bread

Mozzarella Herb Bread

Bread Machine Slider Buns

Chocolate Bread

Bread Machine Dinner Rolls

Spiced Molasses Bread

Rosemary Potato Bread

Cornmeal Cranberry Bread

Parmesan Olive Bread

Tomato Basil Bread

Sandwich Bread

Brown Sugar Rosemary Bread

Sour Cream and Vanilla Bread

Basic 1.5 Pound White Bread

Basil Sandwich Bread

Molasses Bread

Herb and Parmesan Bread

Potato Bread

Herb Bread

Country Bread

Potato and Rosemary Bread

Milk and Honey Bread

Pumpkin Sandwich Bread

Parmesan Sandwich Bread

Bread Machine Bread Mix

Light Sourdough Bread

Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Tp happy – and easy – bread making.

~Sarah

Recipes

Breadmaking: Water Bagels Version 2

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 Sarah

While I liked my first take on the recently posted water bagel recipe, I felt it could be so much better. I didn’t change the dough itself, but I changed how I boiled it, and we went higher for the baking temperature. Comparing recipes, 375° seemed low. But that is the beauty of baking bread. The ingredients are not expensive, and trying is half the fun. It’s a science experiment,

I also added an egg wash for that shiny coat that bagels need. The recipe I used these two times was from a vintage breadmaking cookbook for bread machines. However, being an older book, it reflects the time when artesian bread making was far away.

It did call for barley malt syrup for the water bath, but after much research, I found that honey also works. And considering I have so much honey from our bee-keeping years, I’d rather use that than buy something new. In my research, I also found that I should add baking soda and salt to the boiling water.

The end result?

This version is so much better tasting. And deeper in color. Worth the extra steps.

Bagels are shaped and rested for 15 minutes before boiling. The bottom ones were shaped the traditional way, the upper row I made donut style, with punching a circle in the middle.

Water Bagels Version 2

Ingredients:

1½ cups water
2 tsp fine sea salt
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
510 grams of all-purpose flour*
1 Tbsp dry active yeast

Water Bath:

2½ tsp (15 grams) fine sea salt
2½ tsp (15 grams) baking soda
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp (30 grams) honey

Egg Wash:

1 large egg
1 Tbsp water

Directions:

If using other brands, follow the directions as called for and the temperature of water needed.

See the notes section below and watch if the dough needs more flour during the first kneading cycle.

Fill a large pot halfway with water and boil near the end of the dough cycle. You want a wider pot rather than a tall one.

Preheat the oven to 425° and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Take the dough and divide it into eight sections.

Roll each section gently into a ball.

If you want rolled ones, shape into a log about 8″ long. Turn into a circle and pinch the ends together.

Otherwise, punch your finger through the center of the ball and form a hole, gently widening the hole by gently stretching.

Let bagels sit for 15 minutes.

Add to the water the salt, baking soda, and honey. Return to a full boil.

Add half the bagels to the boiling water, let simmer for a minute on each side, then remove and drain carefully (use a large slotted spoon). Transfer to the baking sheet. Repeat with the other half.

Whisk the egg and water together with a fork, then brush it on the top of the bagels.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on the top.

Take out and lift off the pan with a thin spatula, and let cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled, store the bagels bagged up or wrapped and freeze for later.

It’s best if eaten in a day or two, at most.

The traditional method, pr rolling the dough into a log, then forming. They make a smaller bagel, but it’s properly shaped and dense, at least to me.

The donut-style ones were bigger in size; I think they rose more due to being handled less before the boil. They are softer than the traditional ones.

But both are equally tasty. So, really, it comes down to preference.

Notes:

*The flour you need depends on the type of flour used and the humidity.The brand can even play into it. This is why I weigh out, rather than scoop flour.

Start with 510 grams and add a bit more as needed. You want the dough not to be wet or sticky but tacky when pressing a finger against it. Bagel dough is denser than regular bread dough.

Makes 8 bagels.

~Sarah