Bread Machine Mania

So last week I realized my husband and I spent close to $15 on bread products. Yes, we're carb addicts. But that's actually rather expensive. We're talking about $60 a month. Because we don't want to cut back on our lovely breads, I decided to come up with a way to make it cheaper. And that's when I decided I'd start to make my own. Now I am able to make it completely from scratch, but that's really time consuming. That's when I remembered my trusty breadmaker.

So I dusted it off (literally) and decided to try some new recipes. Now a bread maker does require some trial and error and I've had some really bad errors. But if you start by searching for a few basics, Italian and wheat for example and get those down, then you can start experimenting with more specialty breads.

Here are a few tips:

• be sure to follow the ingredient order in your bread machine
• make sure your ingredients are fresh and not outdated
• use bread specialized for bread machines (yes it really does make a difference)
• start using recipes that came with your breadmaker. These are most likely to be successful as they are optimized for your machine
• when you do branch out to other recipes use Web sites where they have ratings and using feedback. I've found that using the feedback has led to a higher success rate

Also if you don't have a breadmaker, you can get some great refurbished ones at Amazon for around $70. If you're dedicated to using it, it can be a real money saver. Expect each homemade loaf to cost between 50 cents and a dollar, a bit more if you are using specialty ingredients.