This affordable bread maker is backed by a single paddle that needs dough on its non stick pan.
With its 14 pre-set programmes, you can bake bread, cakes, cooking jam or even prepare dough for pizzas, casseroles and cookies. You will find yourself using the Artisan dough feature that slowly kneads while letting the dough rise in about five hours.
By the end of this hamilton beach bread maker review it will be clear why we vouch for it.
Hamilton beach bread maker review: Using the control panel
This is a budget bread maker and it’s evident on its control panel. There are no flashy features but it does have an LCD display where you can choose through the pre-set programmes it comes with. It has a programable delay timer that extends up to 15 hours. You can get creative with this feature and prepare ingredients before going to bed and wake up to freshly baked bread.
Through the menu, you get to select a loaf size and what color want the crust to be. One clever thing about the delay timer is that it only works with basic bread recipes like French Bread, Sweet Bread and whole grain breads that don’t make use of perishable ingredients. It wouldn’t be a great idea preparing cheese, milk or eggs 15 hours in advance as they’ll definitely go bad.
The Hamilton beach bread maker will automatically switch to keep warm mode at the end of the baking cycle. It will by default switch to the keep warm cycle for one hour but you can change this behaviour. Disable this mode by pressing and holding the Stop button for about three seconds. It will make a beep sound.
Hot bread cannot be sliced and you should let it cool for about 30 minutes. We noticed that the bread’s crust darkens if left to sit for long in the keep warm cycle. Power outages are a bread makers nightmare and this is a challenge with the Hamilton beach bread maker too. If the power is restored within 7 minutes, then the unit will resume cooking. Unfortunately, the dough has to be discarded whenever a power outage occurs while the dough is rising.
Advantages of the Hamilton Beach bread maker
- The pan is non stick for easy cleaning.
- Both the paddle and the pan are dishwasher safe too
- Can be used to make gluten free bread too
- Fairly priced in comparison to other bread makers
- It can be used to prepare dough for other recipes too
Cons
- Bakes vertical bread machine loaves and nit the horizontal bakery loves we’re used too
- Even though it has a viewing window at the top, it gets fogged up and you don’t get to see inside.
Hamilton Beach Bread makers have always charmed me with their vast multipurpose capabilities, and so I’ve been striving to use them for cooking something more than mere bread! Their latest versions come with numerous programs and functions from the basics like BASIC, SWEET, DOUGH, and BAKING, to the individual modes for cupcakes, French bread, jam, and unleavened and gluten-free breads. There really are few limits for these excellent devices!
My Hamilton Beach bread machine definitely takes pride of place in the kitchen, as I often use it, and not only for the intended purpose but also as a dough kneading machine and an electric oven of a kind. I love cooking experiments and adore the fragrance of fresh baked goods, which inspires me to unleash creativity in the unlimited creativity of new recipes.
Hamilton Beach Bread maker review: Getting creative?
Hot golden crescent rolls, freshly baked breakfast buns, fragrant cake for teatime, and delicious pie to go with your morning coffee ⸺ all of that can be cooked with a bread machine in mere minutes and with little effort on your part. Moreover, these tasty and healthy baked goods can be made with the most simple and common ingredients. The only special thing you’ll need to add is your love and creativity!
- As for the routine and boring jobs like mixing, stirring, and baking the bread machine will take care of them, leaving you the best and the most pleasant part, i.e., choosing the recipe and selecting the ingredients. Isn’t that a great way to enjoy the unique smell and incredible taste of precisely the kind of baked goods that you want?
Even if you are not good at using modern appliances, leave your worries behind, because bread machines have straightforward and user-friendly controls; using them is fun and easy! Along with making fresh bread, they can also make and knead any kind of dough, bake the ready-to-use dough, and even make some jam to go with the pastry! When you get to know this easy-to-use device, it will become a truly essential and irreplaceable help in your kitchen.
It’s That Simple
- Set the baking bucket into the machine.
- Fasten the dough blades.
- Add the ingredients, as shown in the manual for your machine.
- Close the lid.
- Turn on the machine.
- Select the required mode.
- Press START.
- When the program ends, take the dough or baked goods from the machine.
- Enjoy!
What Ingredients Can You Use with the Hamilton Beach Bread Maker?
Even the most refined baked goods require only a few essential ingredients. However, you need to follow some basic advice: when you put ingredients into a bread machine, all the ingredients must be at room temperature. And, be sure to measure all the components (even liquids!) very carefully.
Flour
Finer flours are used for fluffier and softer pastries, but the coarse flour types with higher kernel weight percent contain more vitamins, minerals, and bulk substances.
Wheat is rich in gluten and thus suits bread baking best, but people also make flour from cereal and leguminous crops: rye, barley, oats, millet, rice, buckwheat, corn, peas, etc. Those flours contain very little gluten (which makes dough elastic and helps it keep its shape), and thus are rarely used on their own but often added to mixes with wheat flour.
Whole Grain
Whole grain flour contains all the valuable components of the groats, but unless freshly ground, it can lose its useful qualities.
Bake Mixes
Along with specific flours, you can also use ready-to-use bake mixes: pale bread, baguettes, potato bread, ciabatta, etc. Each combination contains all the necessary ingredients, and all you must do is follow the instructions to put them into your bread machine and start the corresponding program.
Yeast
When making the dough, you can use fresh or dry yeast. The fresh one has a more pronounced yeast flavor and should be crumbled or dissolved into the water before adding to the bread machine. Dry yeast can be mixed merely with the flour.
- 10 grams of dry yeast = 10.5 grams of fresh yeast (and this amount is usually used for ½ kg of flour).
Baking Powder
The main component of baking powder is soda. When affected by high temperature and acid, it turns into carbon dioxide that loosens the dough. Baking powder is used for cooking short crusts, cupcakes, and cookies.
Use Correct Raising Agent
If you want your baked goods to be fluffy and puffy, it’s essential to use a correct raising agent that suits your dough type.
If you use yeast, leaven, or other baking ferments, they will act as biological raising agents.
Sometimes you mechanically make the dough rise, for example, when whipping ingredients for a sponge cake, layering puff pastry, or adding boiling water to choux pastry.
Baking powder is a chemical raising agent. It is usually used in the dough with a high content of sugar and fats, like cupcake dough or short crust pastries. (Biological raising agents would fail with these kinds of dough.)
Eggs
Eggs sold in shops and markets can differ in their weight. If a recipe just says “eggs,” it implies the medium-sized ones.
Liquid Ingredients
The baking dough is usually based on water or milk, but you can also use other liquids like soft drinks, fruit or vegetable juices, yogurts, and other dairy products, etc.
Replacing Allergenic Products
Many people have food intolerances and thus cannot consume eggs, milk, nuts, or yeast. When baking bread at home, you have the opportunity to replace such ingredients, but you need to remember that the substitutes may behave differently from the original products. Follow the instructions and give yourself some time to gain the necessary skills and experience.
Milk
Cow milk makes dough fluffier and bigger in volume. Goods baked with such a dough are usually soft, tender, with fine pore spaces, and their crust is nicely blushed because the milk contains some sugar. Milk gives baked goods a more proficient taste and keeps it fresh for a longer time.
Dairy Products
Different dairy products can be used to make dough: sour milk, kefir, cream, yogurt, buttermilk, etc. Sour milk and yogurt appear when lactic acid bacteria contained in milk ferment the milk sugar, turning the liquid into a dense, finely-poured mass. When milk is fermented with a special yeast/bacterial fermentation starter of kefir grains, you get a sour, carbonated, slightly alcoholic beverage known as kefir or bulgaros. Buttermilk was originally the name of the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream. Today the name is often used for some fermented dairy products, which are also known as “cultured buttermilk” and can also be used in baking. Milk cream contains a lot of fats, which can improve the taste but will also increase the caloric content of the pastry.
All of these dairy products can be used as a dough basis, and will add their own peculiar hint to your baked foods.
Grease
Cooking greases include vegetable oils, margarine spreads, and animal fats. The most common grease for baked foods is dairy butter: warm it so that it is soft and then add it to the dough to give your pastry a soft and dairy taste. If you are striving for lower calorie intake, you can replace butter with some vegetable oil or margarine. They both will do the job quite well, but the taste of the final product will differ slightly.
- By the way, if the recipe requires some vegetable oil, try using some walnut or pumpkin oil to get a brighter and richer flavor.
Salt
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of table salt in making the right dough. Leave it out, and delicious bread will turn plain and tasteless, and sweet pastries will lose their unique palate fullness.
The choice of salt won’t affect the baking process, so you can freely select the flavor that salt will bring to your dish: iodized or fluoridated; white, black, or pink; enriched with herbs or spices ⸺ there are plenty to choose from.
Sugar
The most popular sugar for baking is mill white crystal sugar, also called “superior sugar.” Usually, the amount of sugar in the recipe is provided precisely for this type, so if you decide to replace it with brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, malt extract, a black treacle, or diet sweeteners, modify the amount according to their sweetness.
Diet Sweeteners
Sweeteners are substances that provide for the sweet flavor but don’t contain any sucrose (the component that makes sugar sweet). They can be used for health reasons (for example, in people with diabetes), as a part of a low-carb or another diet, or just due to personal preferences. There are both natural and artificial sweeteners, and you need to remember that each sweetener has its own level of sweetness.
Honey
Honey is a natural food produced by bees and is famous for its medicinal and dietary properties, as well as the unique flavors that it can give to baked goods. Professionals usually differentiate between blossom honey (made from flower nectars) and honeydew (made from the sweet leaf juice). But most consumers instead pay attention to the thickness and color of the finished product. Buckwheat, clover, eucalyptus, wildflower, orange blossom, and many other types of honey can help to make our pastries unique. So as not to get lost in the variety of options, remember a simple rule: the darker is honey, the more proficient, bitter, and richer taste it has.
Dried and Candied Fruit, Nuts
Add some special hints to your pastries: raisins, prunes, dried apricots, figs, dates, various nuts, sesame seeds, candied fruit, citrus zest, etc. Such components are added to the dough at the end of kneading (after a special signal of the bread machine).
Spices and Herbs
Spices are seeds, fruits, roots, or bark; herbs are leaves, flowers, or stems of plants. They both are used to add a distinctive aroma and flavor to prepared foods.
The spices most commonly used in baked goods include: nutmeg, mustard, pepper, star anise, cardamom, vanilla, cloves, saffron, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and laurel leaves. Some of the favorite baking herbs are parsley, dill, celery, marjoram, rosemary, tarragon, basil, mint, lavender, and many others.
It is always up to you what to add. For example, thyme, marjoram, and garlic will give your breads a bit of Mediterranean flavor; chili, cumin, and vanilla ideally suit Turkish delights; and ginger and cardamom will add unique Oriental notes.
Baking Tips
- Do not be afraid to add new ingredients to the recipe or replace them, as you desire. Rely on your own tastes if you want to get the result that fully meets your preferences.
- Try out different freshly ground herbs and spices to acquire a unique aroma, additional flavor, and/or bright taste to your baking.
- Some recipes advise adding a smidgen of salt or a pinch of pepper. How much is that exactly? To measure one “smidgen” or one “pinch,” take an amount that you can pick up between the tip of your index finger and thumb.
