Honey Molasses Bread Recipe {Bread machine or by hand} (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to make bread by hand or machine? ›

Handmade bread also tends to be more dense while machine bread is usually a bit more fluffy and full of air. Handmade is more aromatic and flavorful with a richer, chewy crust. Machine bread is a bit more bland in flavor/scent with a thinner, crispy crust.

So yes, you should use bread flour in the recipe. It has higher protein than all-purpose flour and will help your bread rise better and hold its shape.

Expired yeast or moisture contaminated yeast will have trouble growing properly and this can lead to dense bread machine bread. Always relatively new yeast & store it in an airtight container. For longer storage, the airtight container (sealed tight) should be stored in a refrigerator or freezer, Too much flour.

You can make bread by hand of course, but these days it can be a lot more convenient and practical to let a machine do the work for you. There are really only two machines that I would consider to do the job: a bread maker and a stand mixer.

Some attribute the demise of the bread machine to the fact that cooks were just disappointed by their results. Lara Pizzorno, the author of Bread Machine Baking, chalked it up to food snobs who regarded the machine as “the electric equivalent of The Bridges of Madison County” in a 1996 article in The New York Times.

One disadvantage of using a bread maker as opposed to your hands is that the paddles are typically fixed, meaning they remain in the dough when baking, often leaving a hole in the middle of the loaf.

Too much heat or humidity might lead to a too-quick rise and a crevice near the center of your bread. Conditions that are too cold might delay proofing or rising, resulting in a super-dense loaf.

Making bread from a machine is marginally cheaper than buying it, as long as you eat bread frequently enough to offset the cost of the appliance. Specifically, I see this as an investment that's smart for households that go through bread quickly, like large families or homes with multiple roommates.

Just be sure to use a flour with a high protein content. King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, with its high gluten, is an excellent flour for bread machines. Numerous people have told us that their recipes worked in the bread machine using King Arthur, when they didn't work with other all-purpose flours.

- Use bread flour, not regular all-purpose flour for all bread machine recipes. Bread flour contains a higher percentage of gluten than regular all-purpose flour. Using bread flour will produce taller, less dense loaves.

Why does my bread go flat in my bread machine? ›

The recipe you're using may include too much yeast, or the machine may be proofing the bread at too high a temperature, causing the loaf to be over-proofed before the baking cycle begins. Try reducing the amount of yeast by half and see what happens.

Condensation can build up in a bread machine if it is not opened at the end of the baking program. If a loaf is left in the machine after baking it can absorb the moisture from the condensation and become soggy. For future bakes, remove the loaf at the end of the baking cycle.

Time saved: Baking bread can be an enjoyable experience, but if you can't spare the hours to manually knead, prove and mix your dough each time, a breadmaker can significantly speed up the process.

Yes, you certainly can. I've used a pre-mixed bread mix exactly one time in my bread maker. While it turned out fine, I have found just following the recipes that came in the manual for my bread maker give me larger loaves, and it's less expensive.

Making bread from a machine is marginally cheaper than buying it, as long as you eat bread frequently enough to offset the cost of the appliance. Specifically, I see this as an investment that's smart for households that go through bread quickly, like large families or homes with multiple roommates.

If you enjoy making bread at home and want to have more control over the ingredients and customization of your bread, a bread maker can be a good investment. Additionally, it can save you money in the long run compared to buying store-bought bread.

In a nutshell, if you're buying basic, cheap sandwich bread, it's probably cheaper than you can make it at home. But if you compare two loaves similar to what you could make at home — one made with high-quality ingredients as opposed to one made with lesser quality ingredients — home baking becomes much cheaper.

It'll save time and give reliable consistent results every time - perfect if you're not much of a baker. But if you enjoy the process of making dough and creating rustic artisan loaves, you'll be better off baking them in your oven. A bread machine will feel too restrictive for you and won't be worth the counter space.