battle of the breads ~

I made 2 loaves of bread today, one in the oven, mixed by my faithful KitchenAid mixer, and one in the bread machine. I used the same ingredients in each. My purpose was to see if I could make a bread machine recipe in the old fashion way and which loaf was better.

Dang it - that means I had to taste a piece of each loaf. Sigh...it's a hard job, but somebody has to do it...lol.

Here's the recipe, straight from the Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook.


Honey Corn Bread

(for a 1 1/2 pound loaf)
1 egg plus enough water to equal 1 cup
1/3 cup honey
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons dry milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons bread machine or quick active dry yeast

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Basic/White cycle. Use Medium or Light crust color. Do not use delay cycles. Remove baked bread from pan and cool on wire rack.

12 slices


Here's a photodocumentary of part of it - I forgot about taking pics until right when I put the loaf in the oven. BTW - I let it rise for about an hour, and I warmed the stoneware loaf pan before I put the dough in; I baked it at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or was supposed to - see below.

The verdict: I think the oven baked loaf was denser, and more crispy. I suspect that I should have kneaded it longer in the machine; and I know that I left it in the oven for about 8 minutes or more longer than I should have. So the bread machine loaf was a little lighter and not as crispy. Both tasted good, and both had the pleasant texture from the corn meal.

So - I suppose that, if you like baking bread yourself, kneading and such, you can take bread machine recipes and use those - but for convenience, machine loaves are tasty as well. I call this one a tie.