After several months of playing with a couple of rapid bread machines the
Oster and the Breadman Pro, I have discovered that they can be coaxed into
making a pretty good loaf of bread by making some adjustments to the
ingredients.
I like a denser loaf for some uses - particularly when I want to make melba
toast and need a denser, very fine crumb so the bread can be sliced very,
very thin.
As some of you have mentioned the loaves are small, rise unevenly, etc.
I did my experiments with box mixes - Krusteaz, Eagle Mills, etc.
For the longer "Rapid" cycle, 80 minutes - I used 1 +1/2 boxes of the mix
for the loaves and with the Krusteaz only 1 packet of yeast -The Eagle
Mills has the yeast mixed into the dry ingredients. I used the exact
amount of water indicated for the 1 1/2 portions. I set the crust at
dark. The loaves crowned just to the top of the pan were evenly risen and
nicely browned, were fully baked throughout and had a fine crumb and was
just fine for very thin slicing.
For the shortest "Rapid" cycle (58 minutes in the Oster) I used 2 packages
of mix with the exact amount of water but with only one package of yeast
with the Krusteaz mix. Again with the "dark" crust setting. The loaf rose
evenly, was just short of the top window . The bottoms and sides were well
browned but the top was somewhat light. The loaf was quite dense, but had
a very fine crumb and was perfect for making the super thin slices I need
for making melba toast.
So my conclusions are that if you want to try the rapid bake options on
these machines, use a recipe 1 1/2 times the usual size because it does not
have time enough for a full dough rise - use a rapid rise yeast because
this will give it enough of a boost for the oven rise.
--
Andie Paysinger & the PENDRAGON
Basenjis,Teafer,Cheesy,Singer & Player
asenji@earthlink.net So. Calif. USA "In the face of
adversity, be patient, in the face of a basenji, be prudent,
be canny, be on your guard!"
http://home.earthlink.net/~asenji/