The greatest invention since sliced bread may be the machine that makes the loaves that you dream of slicing. The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook finally bridges the gap between great taste and convenience, with over 300 glorious recipes for bread machines. The automatic bread machine makes it possible to enjoy fresh and signature loaves of bread without the time and expense usually involved in bread baking or purchased artisanal breads. Today's bread machines are versatile, affordable, safe, and efficient, turning out perfect loaves time after time. Try Croissants or Banana Bread for breakfast, lunchtime sandwiches on Honey Whole Wheat Bread or Tomato Bread, a loaf of Garlic Focaccia or a Sage and Onion Bread-stuffed roast for dinner, or even Candied Chestnut Panettone and Pumpkin Cloverleaf Rolls for the holidays. Classic white loaves, hearty whole-wheat breads, sweet breads, swirled breads, pizza doughs, quick breads, even jams are easy to make right in the bread machine. Renowned bread baking expert Beth Hensperger's best bread recipes yield great results-- just add the ingredients, and let the machine knead, rise, and bake loaf after loaf of fragrant, delicious fresh bread.

I read all the reviews that precede 2002 and got the book right away. I love the way Hensperger explains ingredients, the science of bread and how the machine works. We use our machine at least 3-4 times a week. Some of my favorites from the book include the Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns (I will never buy storebought again!), the Garlic Foccacia, the Orange Bread with White Chocolate, Apricots and Walnuts, and for sandwiches my family loves the Instant Potato Bread and the Maple Buttermilk Bread, both of which turn out light and fluffly.

I remember reading a review that discussed the different ways to measure flour. For some reason, if I do it Hensperger's way, I always have to add more flour. So, I just scoop it without aerating the flour first.

Another review mentioned that you "have to" use SAF yeast. I haven't found this to be true. I have used the SAF, but have also used fast-acting and bread machine yeast. Both have turned out fine. All of the ingredients have been at a local supermarket (I live in a small town - 23,000, on the Central Coast of CA) except the specialty flours like barley, spelt, semolina, etc. Those I have found at a health-food store.

I can't say enough good things about this book! My copy is tattered and stained and I am enjoying working my way through all the recipes. It is a book I definitely can't live without

184 of 188 found the following review helpful:


Some fabulous, some that just don't work  Jun 24, 2005 By Louise DeSalvo
I am a fan of Beth Hensperger's, and have baked my way through others of her bread books, and so was very excited when I discovered this book. Several of the breads I have made have been fantastic -- the Whole Wheat Cuban Bread and the Spelt Bread, for example. But I've had many problems when baking from this book (I bake twice weekly, and experiment once a week), which suggests that some of the recipes weren't tested, they were just "written" or adapted from convetional recipes. I'll mention two, the Honey Wheat Berry Bread and the Sennebeck Hill Bread. If you follow the instructions for the 2-pound loaf, in both cases, you'll have a bread that will rise way beyond the capacity of the largest machine -- I have a Zo, with a huge capacity. I was lucky enough to be in the kitchen at the time, and rescued the breads by taking the pan out, putting a greased heavy duty aluminum collar around the baking pan, secured with paper clips, and baking in the oven. That's not what I expect from someone as skilled as Hensperger. And I don't want to have to be in the kitchen when using a bread machine. So be forewarned.

77 of 77 found the following review helpful:


Delicious Vienna bread  Jan 17, 2001 By dallas
I received this book for Christmas, and have been having lots of fun with it. I first made a country-style bread that combined whole wheat and bread flours with a touch of maple syrup, and it was yummy. I'll be trying one of the Italian semolina bread recipes this weekend for an Italian dinner party. But my favorite so far has been the Vienna bread. It is best while still warm from the machine (slathered with butter, if you're feeling naughty). It is fairly dense for a white bread, makes great sandwiches, and keeps well for several days. I haven't yet tried any of the biga (starter) breads, but I am looking forward to them. I wish the book contained a cinnamon-raisin bread recipe that was *not* gluten-free; I'll have to improvise.

The instructions in this book are clear and very easy to follow. I also appreciate knowing which recipes are suitable for use with the delay timer. While some ingredients are hard to find, plenty of the recipes call for readily available items. I've discovered that the vital wheat gluten required in most recipes is available at my local Safeway, as are Red Star yeast and semolina flour.

The fact that vital wheat gluten is *not* the same as wheat gluten flour is mentioned in the book, but not emphasized strongly enough. Also, I have to remember to add salt along with the liquid ingredients, although the recipes list salt with the dry ingredients, because my bread machine manual states that salt can interfere with the action of the yeast if it comes in contact with the yeast too early. Perhaps this is a possibility unique to my machine (a Breadman Ultimate). I agree with an earlier poster who complained that recipes using the Dough cycle (for breads to be baked in an oven) call for unplugging the machine at the completion of the cycle; this seems unnecessary.

Overall, I am pleased with and inspired by this book, which contains a great amount of useful information and a slew of easy and delicious-sounding recipes! Thanks, Beth!

26 of 26 found the following review helpful:


Fantastic Cookbook!  Aug 16, 2006 By Christine McGraw
I absolutely LOVE this book!! Buy-it-a-ring-march-it-down-the-aisle love it!! I'm one of those people with more cookbooks than I shake a whisk at and I go to this one over and over and over! It has everything! I've never had a loaf go wrong and every recipe I've tried is just delicious.

To start with, the Roman Bread alone (p. 409) is worth the price of the book! The granola bread, the blueberry coffee cake, Mexican chocolate bread, brioche rolls...I could go on and on!! It has everything from the simplest white and wheat to unique breads using exotic grains and interesting nuts, fruits and herbs (persimmon bread, lavender rosemary bread). It's made me a better baker because there are so many notes on the science of how bread "works". And it's not just bread - if you could make pot roast in a bread machine this book would tell you how to do it! There are jam recipes, quick bread recipes and recipes for using the leftover bits. There are pizza and calzone recipes that include the toppings, not just the dough. The Cheese Pizza Torte is amazing!

I love my bread machine but I'm not the biggest fan of the shape of the pan, so I often use the dough recipes and then proof the bread and bake it in a regular pan. Many of the recipes for country loaves have you do that anyway for a more authentic loaf.

My husband bought me the book as a Christmas present when I was 4 months pregnant. Here it is August and the bread machine hasn't gone back into the cupboard yet! It's a miracle our daughter wasn't born weighing 17 pounds! Forget whatever companion book Amazon recommends with this book - buy the latest Billy Blanks or Kathy Smith video (or both!) - you'll be eating A LOT of bread if you get this book!

24 of 24 found the following review helpful:


I use this book more than any other cookbook on my shelf  May 16, 2006 By New Jersey Mom
I am a working mom but I love to cook and I love good food. My husband is European and won't eat American store-bought bread, so I got my first bread maker shortly after we were married almost 16 years ago. I got this book quite a few years ago and I've opened it about once a week since (about how often I make bread). I've made more than half of the recipes in the book, and they are all wonderful. I really couldn't live without it.

However, as others have said, the whole wheat recipes are generally not quite that. Only one or two of the WW recipes are 100%. The others have half to 3/4 white flour. The author explains why - she doesn't feel that you get a "satisfactory" result with the whole wheat flour, and she adds a lot of extra gluten to these recipes.

However some of us really like the dense 100% whole wheat(or other grain) breads. I wish that there were a companion volume dedicated just to whole grains. I learned so much about machine bread baking from this book - now I want to learn just as much about machine bread making with 100% whole grains.

I'd really like to understand the properties of the other bread-grains better, as well.

See all 312 customer reviews on Amazon.com