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relishmama, I've made the french bread you have mentioned. It's superb. Have you tried the fruit bread yet? Another great recipe.

Yes Mary it still uses strong bread flour sorry and I no nothing about gluton free food.

Does your potato bread have any gluten in it Martino?

the foccacia and potato bread and polenta sound fab will give them a go. thanks Martino

I often use the machine to do the dough in. If Im making other stuff at the same time so an onion focaccia is good. Aslo working form home and cooking I do have to fit somethings around my paid day! Otherwise I prefer doing it all by hand. Anyway I make rice bread potato bread polenta bread milk bread and an ordinary loaf with egg in it gives good colouring! I think I must have written up now some 30 recipes!

So a milk loaf is softer and lasts longer and is usually browner:

The recipe is quite easy just replace the water to 1 part water to 3 part milk so one cup equals 3/4 cup milk 1/4 cup of water. remember that if the liquids are cold the yeast will retard so you should always use liquids at room temperature. I use bottled water by the way!

You can with ordinary bread replace the butter with oil I use olive oil a lot or a mixture of the two. for bread making a tip my children use to make bread is this:

Measure everything by weight where liquid ml is the same as dry g. Use a set of scales that are fairly acurate. put on the bread bucket and switch on your scales or set to zero do this only in metric.

Pour liquid until scale agrees ie 210 ml/7.5fl oz is one American cup size equals on scales 210g

Zero out the scales and add next ingredient say flour.

Zero out the scale and then make little pockets in each of the corners and the centre add the dried milk and zero to one corner add the sugar and zero to the next add the salt to the third zero the scales and add the butter (by the way try precutting this to correct weight and freezing in say ice trays) and in the centre add the yeast careful for non of it to touch.

Sometimes I use measuring spoons for the last 5 ingredients cos it is easier and scales dont always measure that well with small amounts.

Play with the flour as well my lot like white bread but with brown colour! to do this add a small bit of brown flour instead of all white flour.

OK I will stop!

ok the milk is to help with the browning and is not needed. As Livewire said you can use fresh milk stick it in with the wets thhough and if it is on a timer not too long eh? skimmed is just easier and it is not a taste thing.

When I first got my machine I stuck with the enclosed booklet and later went to the library borrowed various different bread machine books till I had a favorite to buy. With each book as bedtime reading I did end up writing recipes down from every book and still haven't tried all! A favourite is a malt loaf. Sorry can't tell you book title offhand I'm at work and memory isn't!
Happy Baking though - you can't beat the smell of a fresh loaf as you go down the stairs in the morning to bread put on timer ready for breakfast - so do get some dried milk for a sunday am treat!

I don't bother with either the fresh or dried milk stuff. Its certainly not affected the taste or aroma of the bread. And it gets eaten within a day so it must be OK. Let your imagination run rampant and try all different ingredients but stay away from chick pea flour. Using this has given me my only failure, it came out like a brick and is not helping in holding up my house!

Glad your bread turned out well.
I just love nice bread but I don't have a machine. I would eat too much, especially with fresh butter.
I have a nice Deli nearby and they sell lots of lovely Italian bread so that keeps me happy.
Bye for now.

thanks livewire, you wernt butting in glad to hear from you. well the french bread was yummy, hisnibs loved it. I dont use the timer as will make it fresh and straightaway mid afternoon for tea time and still fresh for brekky. So i'll use fresh milk which must be better for you yeh? have you got a favourite recipe livewire that i might try? cheers.

sorry don't know what happened. but after you click on RESTART YOUR BREAD MACHINE
you will find lots of tips.
Happy baking.

I hope you don't mind me butting in, but I have read that if you are mixing your dough straight away you can certainly use fresh milk in your bread machine recipes.
However, if you are using the timer on your machine you should use dry milk powder as you would not want fresh milk lying in your machine overnight.
If you go to [link]
and click on RESTART YOUR BREAD MACHINE

Yes, I usually use Safeway's Dried Skimmed Milk & have excellent results. For a milkloaf, follow your breadmaker recipe for a basic white, but split the amount of water equally between water & milk (I use whole milk). It's lovely & light & transports me back to my childhood. Aaah!

dont have a recipe for milk loaf is it good? great for the kids to eat too i would have thought. so do you use the powder then?

Congrats on now being a bread maker owner! It's just about the best piece of kitchen equipment I've ever bought. Now, I've only used 'real' milk when making a milk loaf, so I'll leave the answering of your question to the more seasoned & adventurous bread makers among us!! Enjoy your new toy relishmama! :-)