l) HELP! NEW BREAD MACHINE WOES! NEED YOUR EXPERT ADVICE! 2) BBQ CHICKEN POT PIE!

[joanieb]

Frigid Post-holiday greetings to all!

l. Got a new White-Westinghouse bread machine, and made 2 loaves today using their recipes EXACTLY--a light whole wheat (ww & bread flour + gluten used), and a white (all-purp. flour used). Both loves turned out great--on the inside. But the crusts are VERY--crusty--and hard! Is this normal for bread baked in machines? I dunno! The ww was programmed for ww, the white I did for a medium white crust. Should I try the light white crust setting for both maybe? Does ww absolutely have to be progorammed for a ww setting? Thanks for ANY advice for this bread machine newby!

2. If there's anyone who HASN'T made CL's BBQ Chicken Pot Pie from J/F '98, get thee to the market for chicken, chili sauce, & cornbread twists! This dish is SO-O-O good, I've made it every week for the past month or 2! College sophomore nephew ate l/2 of one this week and begged for the recipe for home! DEFINITELY OUR FAVORITE NEWLY TRIED CL RECIPE!

3. STILL NO JANUARY/FEB 2001 ISSUE IN CENTRAL NC!

Hugs!
Joanie

[sneezles]

joanie
While I don't have a White-Westinhouse bread machine (mine is WellBuilt), I only use the light crust for bread I bake in the machine. Mostly I just use it for dough so that I can shape it and bake in the oven. I think experimenting is the best route, so you can find the right method for your own tastes.
Will have to investigate the chicken recipe that you suggested.

Happy New Year and happy bread making!

[MrsReber]

Joanie, my bread comes out rather crusty in the bread machine, too. I mostly use it as sneezles does- just for dough which I shape and bake in the oven. To me, it's worth having a bread machine just for making dough. I've made about three loaves of white bread in the machine. The recipe that came out the best seemed to be one for an egg bread. I have two bread machine cookbooks by Marjorie Lambert (I think that's her first name, maybe Margie?). I really like those books and they have a great variety of recipes, too.

[debg]

Joanie, my hubby LOVES pot pies and I can take them or leave them due to the lack of flavor. I'd love it if you could post the recipe. It sounds like there is much more flavor than a regular pot pie! I'm a "newbie" and don't have issues that far back! TIA

[This message has been edited by debg (edited 12-30-2000).]

[SHERRY]

I found this recipe after doing a search on the BB. I think it is the same one referred to above. I will have to give it a try. It has had some great reviews in the past! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Barbecued-Chicken Potpie

1 teaspoon margarine or butter
Cooking spray
2 cups chopped onion
½ cup chopped green bell pepper
1/3 cup diced, seeded poblano chile or 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles, drained
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 ½ teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground coriander
¼ cup cider vinegar
4 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 ½ lbs)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, grated
1 (12 oz) bottle chili sauce
1 (10 ½ oz) can low-salt chicken broth
1 (11.5 oz) can refrigerated corn bread twists

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skilled coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion, peppers and garlic and saute 5 minutes. Stir in cumin and coriander, and cook 2 minutes. Stir in vinegar, scraping skillet to loosen browned bits. Add the chicken and the next 4 ingredients (chicken through broth) and cook 15 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon chicken mixture into 11 x 7 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3. Unroll corn bread dough, separating into strips. Place strips in a lattice fashion over chicken mixture. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until golden brown; let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: 8 servings.

Calories: 394 (27% from fat); Fat 12 g (sat 3.7g, mono 2 g, poly 1 g), Protein 33.1 g; Carb 40 g, Fiber 1.7 g, Cholesterol 78 mg; iron 3.5 mg, Sodium 972 mg; Calcium 49 mg. (Weight Watchers 9 pts).

[kwormann]

I would like to chime in with notliking the crust in the bread maker. I either just make dough or I take it out of the machine before the cooking time is done! Unless it is supposed to be a crusty bread, I like a soft crust.

Kim

[joanieb]

Hey, folks--thanks for all the input on the crusty crusts on my new toy! At least I know it's a pretty common thing from machine baked bread, and I like crusts much softer, too! Just wanted to see what the darn thing would come out with, and now I'll take all your sage advice and use the dough cycle mostly or cut back to the light white crust program!

RE: BBQ CHICKEN POT PIE ADVICE!! Sherry, thanks for inputting this recipe, this is the right one! Had a basketball game to watch last nite (woo-hoo, go Tar Heels!) and didn't get back to the board to copy it in. I've been cutting the cider vinegar back to l Tbs. (thought l/4 c. a BIT strong the lst time made) and cut the brown sugar back to l Tbs. as well. Put a whole (l5 oz) can of chicken broth in the last one, and we liked it just as well a bit soupier--you can always simmer some of the liquid out if it seems too liquidy. We like this so well, we were actually arguing over the skimpy leftovers Nephew-dearest DIDN'T devour--lentil soup WASN'T what I had in mind that night, but my unexpected leather jacket Christmas present swayed my vote to hubby (ain't love grand!)!

Thanks again to all! STAY WARM!

joanie

[that_las_girl]

My bread machine always gave me really hard crusts too..mine is rather old and an Oster though. Usually for white bread I put it on the lightest crust setting..but I'd say you'll get better bread making the dough in there and then baking it, like the others suggested.

RE: the BBQ Chicken Pot Pie..YUM. My family LOVES this recipe. My sister in law was the first one to find it and we made it together at her house..and I've been HOOKED on cooking light ever since!

~las

[Lauren]

Thanks for posting the recipe, I'll have to try it. We were snowed in yesterday near Boston so I tried some recipes that were popular that I hadn't tried before ... oohey gooey brownies, creamy caesar salad and the onion sup with beef and barley. All turned out great and my DH thinks I'm wonderful. We have a great marriage, he likes to eat and I like to cook!

Now, about the bread machine. I have never just made dough and taken it out to shape and bake in the oven. Not that I don't want to, but I like starting it and letting it do it's thing. My 10 year old Hitachi doesn't adjust for light or darker crust. Almost always the crust is light and very soft, my favorite part! Joanie, you mentioned that you used a combination of WW, gluten, bread and white flours for the various breads. I always use just bread flour (I think there is also a WW bread flour?) which might contribute to some variance. Several months back I posted our favorite recipe which is a grapenut bread. Although it takes white bread flour, the cereal gives it a sort of nutty ww texture. Around that same time someone posted a great link for bread machine recipes. I'll do a search, or maybe I saved it as a favorite on my computer.

Best of luck, enjoy your new toy and Happy New Year to all of you!!! One more thing, when I got my machine 10 years ago when we had our first child, my husband said what a waste of money, we'll never use it. Well, the other day I said the prices have come way down and I think I would like to replace it. My gasket in the bottom of the pan is gone. He replied, "Great idea, you should do that."
Lauren

[Lauren]

Me again! I found the site and copy of the Grapenut Bread.
http://fp.enter.net/~rburk/breads/breadmachine/breadmachine.htm

Here is the Grape Nut bread I have been making for years. My family really likes it!
Ingredients are for a large loaf.

1-1/3 cups water
2-2/3 T veg. oil
1-1/3 T sugar
2 tsp. salt
2/3 cups Grape Nuts
2-2/3 cups bread flour
2-1/2 tsp. yeast

Lauren

[JJeannette]

One other thing you could try---when you take your bread out of the machine, either give the crust a quick, light spray of cooking spray or lightly rub it with a bit of butter(margarine, shortening of choice).

[Beth Y]

Interesting, we found the BBQ Chick PP to be just so so and it didn't enter our regular rotation. It was a lot of trouble (I hate shedding chicken, but will do it for a great dish, like the Mex. Chick. Casserole) for an okay dish.

Once again, the great minds at this BB don't always think alike!!!

[kwormann]

Well got to chime in - in defense of BB ckn Pot pie....time consuming, but we love the taste!

Kim

[cindyluwho]

I've found that if I take the bread out of the machine right when it's done, it tends to be a bit less crusty than if I leave it sitting there for awhile. However, even when I remove the bread immediately, there is still a significant crust to it.

[Laura Wick]

I received a West Bend bread machine for Christmas in 1992, and have found the crust to be fairly soft. I love hard crusts, and have been thinking about investigating how to make some artisan breads with the really thick crusts. Anyone want to trade bread machines?

[KimKelly]

I've been using the grape Nut Bread recipe that Lauren posted since the original post. My whole family - even my "white breat only" husband - loves it. Thanks for posting it Lauren!

Kim

[Lauren]

You're welcome Kim! Hey, if any of you have a favorite bread recipe go ahead and post it.

[A R Price]

Lauren,

I tried the Grapenut bread recipe (found it on that same www site) and it came out of the machine about 3 inches tall...a dense lump. I added a little flour because it wasn't forming a dry enough ball in the beginning but was afraid to add too much. I set the machine on regular size white bread setting. I thought perhaps it was a misprint in the recipe on the amount of water because I have no other bread machine recipes that call for that much. Apparently not though since your version here has that same amount. Would you have a clue as to where I went wrong?

Anne

P.S. It didn't go to waste...the sea gulls loved it!

[Lauren]

Anne,

I have no idea why it didn't work for you. Do you use the white flour intended for bread machines? Maybe you could try it again and make as specified, without adding extra flour. Where do you live? could the climate have something to do with it? This recipe makes a large loaf, if that has something to do with it. Strange!

[Anne]

Hi breadmakers. Remember those crusty french breads that have no milk orf sugar in the recipe? Some of the basic ingredients in bread like oil, sugar, and milk can affect the hardness of the crust. You might try playing around with them if taking the bread out of the machine early or using a lighter crust setting doesn't help. There are a couple sites including Breadmachine digest and King Arthur Flour mentioned in other threads that might be of help.

[A R Price]

Lauren,

I live at sea level in Oregon...used unbleached, enriched flour..."best for bread machines". I'll try again, but not for company this week!

Thanks for the troubleshooting,

Anne

[Curleytop]

Ok, got to chime in. I now have an Oster.
Wore out my old breadmaker. It does a great job using the Dough method. I bake my bread in Clay pots. Soak the bottom 15 minutes,place dough in bottom, let the bread rise ½ hour. TO BAKE: soak the top 15 minutes,dry the cover on the outside. Place cover on the bread. Place in cold oven, bake at 425° for ½ hour. Then remove cover, use your instant read thermometer and see if bread is about 200° inside. Lower the heat to 350° and brown the bread for about 10 minutes. Works great for my sourdough.
Before eating, place in oven @325 for about 10 minutes to recrisp. When only part of the loaf is left, cover the cut part with foil, and then reheat. It keeps the inside from drying.
As far a completely baking bread in the
Breadmaker, I like the 100% Crunch from Electric Bread. If you need the recipe, I will download it.

[Lauren]

Curleytop,

Will you post the recipe? I like the recipes from the Electric Bread cookbook.
Thanks! BTW, which Oster do you have? I went to their website and they have several models. I saw the sort of rounded looking one at BJ's today for a very resonable price.