A Broken Bread Machine And A Bad Recipe Day

I really, really don’t like my bread machine. It does a wonderful job of kneading, but it bakes a terrible loaf of bread. That’s partly why for the last two or three months I have been making three loaves of oatmeal bread every other day, kneading the dough by hand because the volume is way too much for the bread machine, and baking the three loaves in the oven. I freeze the extra two loaves. I really prefer to make bread by hand, and the bread is better too, but this past Saturday was especially busy and we had a lot going on, so I decided to save a few minutes by letting the bread machine knead one loaf of whole wheat bread. I loaded up the machine with the ingredients, turned it on, and more or less forgot about it… until a few minutes later when I noticed that the bread machine was making peculiar noises and that none of the ingredients had been mixed. When I dumped the flour mixture into a bowl, I could see that the metal mixing paddle had snapped into two pieces. I finished up the bread by hand.

Yesterday morning I called the customer support line for the company that makes this machine and told them how the metal paddle had broken. They agreed that the paddle had to have been defective. I had kept my receipt, so I was able to tell them that I have had this machine only for one year and nineteen days… and they were able to tell me that because the one-year warranty had expired nineteen days ago, they would do nothing to help me. Eventually they did offer to replace the paddle for twenty-five dollars plus shipping charges. I said no thanks. It just seemed stupid to me to pay twenty-five dollars to fix a machine that has never done a good job. I would much prefer to put the money towards a new bread machine. Unfortunately, all the stores around here only sell that one model, so for the immediate future I am without a bread machine.

Because of the soy allergy, we can’t buy bread, so what do I do about bread on those days when time seems to be going faster than I am? Yesterday I found a recipe for an oatmeal batter bread in a well-known cookbook that was described as “quick and easy” because the ingredients were mixed with a mixer, poured into the pan to rise, and then baked. It sounded almost as effortless as using the bread machine, and perhaps a perfect solution to an extra busy day. I measured ingredients precisely, followed the instructions exactly, and found myself with an overheated mixer and a bowl of dough that was already too thick and couldn’t possibly be poured into a pan… and I still had half the measured flour left over! At this point I gave up on the recipe and kneaded the dough by hand, but I still didn’t begin to use all the flour. The bread tasted pretty good after it was baked, but we all agreed that it was way too salty. Obviously there were some serious problems with that recipe and its ingredient amounts.

Today I’m thinking it would be easier (and quicker) just to make my usual three loaves of oatmeal bread and knead the dough by hand. That’s really the way I prefer to make bread, but every once in a while there is a day where having a bread machine again would be nice, too… so I’ll keep looking for a good batter bread recipe or another brand of bread machine! Any suggestions?

Written by Shirley | Filed Under Bread Making, Personal

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