Bread Machine Breads

Life is busy, let's face it. Finding the time to make bread on a busy day is not always possible. The cost of store bought, or if you are lucky enough to live near a gluten-free bakery, bread can add up quite quickly. Can your budget handle that all the time? Mine can't.

Do you have a bread machine? I have had many over the years, but just recently my husband bought one for me to try making gluten-free breads with. I was worried that it wouldn't work well, not having a gluten-free setting, but gave it a go anyway. So far, so good!

It takes just a few minutes to get the ingredients together and put into the machine, push a button or two and I'm done until it beeps at me telling me it's finished the job. I have found, however, that the bread comes out best if I check on it during the initial mixing time to make sure it's getting the flour, that manages to work it's way down into the corners, thoroughly incorporated.

Since I got my bread machine, I've had fun trying different recipes. Some have worked beautifully, some have failed miserably. Even with the failures, I feel it was a wise investment for us. It has saved me a lot of time in my kitchen,or freed me up to do other things in the kitchen while my bread is baking.

One of my kids favorite breads for me to make is cinnamon raisin bread. When they smell that baking, they know that French toast is on the menu for the following morning. There is never any left to have just toast from it. One loaf of bread from my machine will feed all 5 of us for breakfast. I've tried a couple of different recipes and both have been good. It is much more "filling" than traditional cinnamon raisin bread, but is always delicious!

Another favorite is potato bread! So good, so moist and has not even the slightest hint of "gluten-free" flavor at all. My gluten-eating husband loves it. This bread is a bit more labor intensive, due to grating a potato, but trust me it is well worth the effort. If you have a food processor, this helps to cut your prep time down considerably!

Buttermilk bread is super yummy. A touch of lemon flavor and so moist. Perfect for that peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or cinnamon sugar toast that your kids (or you) have been missing. This bread is super moist, even after it has sat for a day. Not easy to find in a gluten-free bread.

When we ate gluten-rich breads years ago and I baked them in the bread machine, our biggest complaint was the thickness of the crust. Maybe bread machines have come a long way since then, I don't know. The gluten-free bread that I've been making has the perfect crust! It is not overly thick or hard. It's perfect, just like store bought bread crust. No killing your mouth when eating this bread, it's soft and easy to bite into. Huge bonus for me!

So many options out there for gluten-free breads made in a bread maker. The instruction booklet that came with my machine says that any bread recipe can be used as long as it doesn't contain over a certain amount of flour. I have yet to try this, but intend to very soon!