ISO: re: How to Convert a Bread Machine Recipe to Hand Made

Hi Thomas!

The author of that posting suggests 350 degrees, but by all means feel free to experiment with the temperature for different breads - 375 is often used for crusty French or Italian breads. One way to select a temp. is to find a similar standard bread recipe and use that temperature. You can start testing your loaf for doneness when it starts to turn color - tap the bottom with your finger and it should have a hollow sound.

You'll find many dough cycle recipes that have been previously posted by clicking the search button at the bottom of this message and in the search box that appears on the right enter (with the quotes and plus sign):
"bread machine" +oven

Also, if you stay within the limits of your bread machine pan size with the amount of recipe ingredients, you can use your bread machine dough cycle as a kneading machine for 'normal' bread recipes (bread machine capacity chart) and then follow the recipe instructions for shaping and baking.

Regarding a baking stone, using one can result in a crustier loaf and helps with more even baking and browning but you can still bake a delicious loaf without out.

I hope that's a help and we welcome anyone else's comments regarding these questions.

Happy Baking!

Betsy

In reply to:

Hi Betsy ~ Thanks for your post. I have recently got into bread making and own a Breadman Ultimate. It makes nice "pan" breads but I'd like to make italian or rustic style breads, long and thin. I watch how the bread machine works but I can't tell the temp. Your post says oven temp should be 350 degrees but is that for all breads? And for how long? Could I just tell by crust color? I read and heard that oven baking should be done on a "stone". Is this true, and will it make much of a difference? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for your help!