Bread fro bread maker

Do you have a bread machine hidden somewhere in the deepest corner of your kitchen or basement?

It’s time to take it out, dust it off, and put it to good use.

If you thought bread makers were just for making bread, we’d like you to reconsider that.

Think of it like this: bread machines are basically little ovens with built-in mixers which makes them perhaps the most versatile kitchen appliance. These miracles machines can serve many purposes and you’d be surprised to know what are some of the things you can make in your bread maker.

Actually, you’re about to be surprised in a few moments so keep reading.

From bread machine recipe books to recommendations found elsewhere, we’ve tried (and gathered a list of) all the things you can make using this handy kitchen appliance. 

Making Jam in Your Bread Maker

We’re starting with the obvious since most bread machines have a setting labeled “jam”. Imagine eating healthy, homemade jam on your toast every morning instead of the overly processed store-bought varieties!

The Jam setting is quite an amazing feature as it can be used to prepare a multitude of dishes, not just jam.

Making jam in your bread machine could not have been made any simpler, really. And, you can use whichever fruit you like to make delicious jam. Here is a basic recipe for making jam which you can customize as you like depending on the fruit you use.

What You’ll Need:

  • Fruit of your choice (rinsed and mashed)
  • Sugar
  • pectin or another thickening agent such as gelatin
  • Food processor or masher to mash the fruit

Instructions

Pick a fruit you like the most or whichever is in season and available to you. You can use fresh or frozen fruit, whatever you like. Wash the fruit and then mix it a bit in a food processor or using a masher.

You can use strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, oranges, kiwis, and pretty much any kind of fruit. Just note that some fruit requires a bit more prep time such as peaches and apples. These need to be pitted, halved, and cubed before they are mashed.

Next, you add granulated sugar (about 2 tablespoons should be enough). If you like your jams to be sweeter, then feel free to add a bit more. Jams typically call for pectin (fiber found in plants) or another thickening agent but you can skip this part if you don’t want to use it.

Pour the mashed fruit into the bread machine pan and select the Jam setting. That’s it!

When the cycle is complete, open the bread machine and let the jam cool a bit before you transfer it to jars (it can be dangerously hot!). After about half an hour, transfer the jam to jars and leave them on the kitchen counter to cool completely before you refrigerate them.

Enjoy your homemade jam for up to a month!

Tip: Make sure to use ripe fruit (but not too ripe) as this is crucial for the quality of your jam.

Homemade Tomate Soup

Believe it or not, you can enjoy warm homemade soups every day thanks to your bread machine.

There are no limitations as to which types of soups you can make. You just pretty much chop the vegetables of your choosing and toss them into the bread machine along with the rest of the ingredients.

Since tomato soups are almost everyone’s favorite, we’ll give you a recipe for making a creamy tomato soup.

What You’ll Need:

  • Tomato puree
  • Butter (melted)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 chopped onions
  • Seasoning (salt, pepper, thyme, basil)
  • 1-3 teaspoons sugar (optional; it helps reduce the acidity from the tomatoes)
  • Chicken broth
  • Cream

Instructions

Add the melted butter, oil, flour, and chopped onions to the pan. Start the cycle and wait 15 minutes before adding the tomato puree, the seasoning, sugar, and chicken broth. Cook for about 45 minutes (you can open the lid to check on your soup).

After about 45 minutes, add a tablespoon of heated cream (using the microwave or the stovetop). Puree the soup using a stick blender to get the smooth creamy consistency. Add the heated cream to the soup and let the bread machine complete the cycle.

Tip: Some older bread machines tend to let some of the liquid leak to the bottom of the appliance. To be on the safe side, test your bread maker by pouring some water into it and leaving it on the counter for a while. Then lift the pan from the bread machine and check whether there’s any water beneath it. If your bread machine leaks, under no circumstance should you use it to make soup as it can ruin your appliance.

Tomato Sauce Using Jam setting

Store-bought products are often not fresh and contain a number of rather suspicious additives and preservatives to make them last longer on the shelf. If you have a bread machine in the house, you can make healthy tomato sauce from scratch every time you need it.

It’s not even that complicated. Tomato sauces are also made using the Jam setting.

What You’ll Need:

  • Tomatoes
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Onions (chopped)
  • Garlic (minced)
  • Olive oil

Instructions

Pick several ripe tomatoes and crush them. Add all the above-mentioned ingredients and mix them together in a bowl. Pour the mixture into the bread machine pan and select the Jam setting.

Same as with jams, when the cycle is complete, remove the lid from the bread machine and leave the sauce to cool for a bit. If it came out too thin, consider adding some tomato paste the next time.

Sweet Loaves

A slice of a tender, fruity, sweet loaf with a cup of coffee in the morning? Priceless!

This is one of the bread machine features that we like the most since you can be creative with the ingredients. Making sweet loaves in a bread machine is truly so simple that no one, not even baking amateurs, can get it wrong.

Specialty bread usually calls for bread flour precisely due to its high protein level but all-purpose will do just fine. It features a moderate protein level and as the name suggests, it can be used for most recipes. (ovde mozemo linkovati ka onom “Can you use regular flour in a bread machine” clanku)

Here are two recipes for some of the most popular sweet loaves.

Banana Bread

What You’ll Need:

  • Ripe, black-spotted bananas (peeled and halved)
  • All-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • Sugar (about 3/4 cup)

Instructions

Place all the ingredients in the bread machine pan. For this recipe, you actually need to use two settings. First, select the Dough cycle to combine all the ingredients. After about 5 minutes, press Stop.

Now you select the Bake setting and that’s it. The duration of the Bake setting varies slightly depending on the bread machine but it should be about 50 minutes.

To check whether your banana bread is done, insert a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If the toothpick is sticky, you should bake the bread for another 10 minutes or so.

Chocolate Chip Bread

What You’ll Need:

Instructions

Add all the ingredients to the bread machine pan following the order indicated by the manufacturer (this is important!). Select the kneading cycle for mixing the ingredients and press Start.

After about 5 minutes, the dough is kneaded so you can add the chocolate chips. Most bread machines will alert you with a signal when it’s time to add ingredients such as fruits and nuts. Others have a dispenser that adds the fruits and nuts when it’s time so you don’t need to worry about timing.

 Select the Bake setting. When the chocolate chip bread is done, remove it from the pan and leave it to cool.

Vanilla Cake for Dessert Lovers

Dessert lovers can enjoy cakes as often as they like thanks to this versatile appliance. There is an abundance of cake recipes for bread machines on the internet so you really won’t have a hard time finding the one you like.

But here is a recipe for vanilla cake that we often make using a bread machine.

What You’ll Need:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup of warm water
  • ½ cup oil (you can use butter if you prefer)
  • 1 -2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
  • Baking soda and baking powder (a teaspoon each)
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • Vinegar
  • A bit of salt
  • About 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Add all the ingredients to the bread pan following the order recommended by the manufacturer. Most bread machines have the Cake cycle so select it and press Start. Make sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined (use a rubber spatula to push any flour from the sides of the pan).

Once the cycle is completed, check whether your cake is done by inserting a knife into the cake (make sure you aim for the center as this is often the part where cake is undercooked). If it comes out clean, it’s done.

Rice Meals best cooked in a Bread Maker

It might sound odd a bit but many people will claim that rice is best cooked in a bread maker. If you are intrigued, then it’s time you give it a go.

There are several rice dishes you can make in your bread machine from cooking plain rice to a few more elegant twists. Here are some rice recipes you can try out. 

Mushroom Risotto

When making risotto, there’s a lot of standing in the kitchen and mixing involved. Many of us enjoy the tenderness and creaminess of a tasty risotto but we can’t find the time to prepare it. This is why a bread machine is your best friend in the kitchen. It does all the mixing for you and takes the stress away.

What You’ll Need

  • 1 cup of rice
  • 1 can of sliced mushrooms
  • Garlic (minced)
  • 1 stock cube (dissolved in hot water)
  • 1 teaspoon rosemary

Instructions

Unlike the sweet loaves, this recipe does require a bit of preparation. Fry the mushrooms and the garlic in a pan over the stovetop for a few minutes. Set aside. Dissolve the stock cube in hot water.

Add the rice, stock, and the mushrooms to the bread machine pan and select the Jam setting. After about 50 minutes, check on the risotto and add a bit of water if it’s too dry. 

Rice Pudding

What You’ll Need:

  • 1l milk
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • A pinch of salt
  • About 50 g of butter
  • 150g rice
  • Vanilla extract
  • Cinnamon stick (optional)
  • Lemon peel (optional)

Instructions

Pour the milk into a pan and add the lemon peel and the cinnamon stick. Heat until it starts to boil. Pour the rice in the bread machine pan. Pour the milk over the rice but remove the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel.

Select the Jam setting and press Start. About 30 minutes before the cycle is completed, add sugar and butter to the rice pudding. You can also add ground cinnamon at this point if you enjoy the aroma.

Serve in small bowls and enjoy it warm or cold. 

Traditional Meatloaf

There is more than one way to make a traditional meatloaf which is on every family’s menu on a regular basis. Here is a recipe for making meatloaf in your bread maker.

What You’ll Need:

  • 2 lbs./about 900g ground sirloin
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 1 cup mushrooms (sliced)
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • Black pepper
  • Garlic powder
  • Salt

For the glaze: ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar (ketchup can be substituted with barbecue sauce).

Instructions

Use a large bowl to combine all the ingredients. Make sure to beat the egg before adding it to the mixture. Mix the ingredients for the glaze separately in a small bowl. Remove the kneading paddles from the bread machine and add the first mixture to the pan.

Select the Homemade course on your bread machine to make this dish. You can program the homemade course and customize the bake time for your meals. For the meatloaf, you need to turn some of the features off including Preheat, Knead, and Rise.

Select Bake. About half an hour before the cycle is completed, open the bread machine and pour the glaze over the meatloaf. Put the lid back on and let it cook.

Once it’s cooked, leave the meatloaf to cool a bit then slice it and serve.

Scrambled Eggs for Breakfast

More specifically, scrambled eggs. Yes, that’s right, you can make a delicious breakfast in your bread maker. Of course, it would be silly to assume that you would use the bread maker to make scrambled eggs for yourself since it’s simpler to use a pan.

However, if you’re making scrambled eggs for several people then this is a very convenient way to go. It takes just a bit of preparation before you pour the eggs into the bread machine pan.

What You’ll Need:

  • Eggs
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Vegetable oil

Instructions

Mix the eggs and add salt and pepper. Add a bit of milk if you like. The mixing part is necessary because your bread maker needs a little help stirring the eggs.

Grease the bread machine pan using vegetable oil so as to prevent sticking. Pour the eggs to the pan and select the Jam setting.

Once the cycle is completed, take the eggs out of the pan and serve immediately.