Customer Reviews

Breadman's Healthy Bread

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pro's:
* The recipes work and are delicious. I especially recommend the Italian herb bread.
* There's an emphasis on whole grains with about 70% of the recipes containing no white flour, white sugar, eggs, or animal fats.
* Contains a lot of information a bread machine owner might want, such as how to care for the machine, how the machine works, how to mill and store grains, nutritional information about the various grains, all about yeast (buying, storing, measuring, etc.). Most of the bread machine info is generic and applies to other machines as well as the Breadman.
* Detailed glossary of ingredients.
* Bonus recipes for spreads, such as salsa, hummus, and jam.
* Although recipes are only for 1- or 1 ½ pound loaves, you can double the 1 pound recipe if your machine has a 2 pound capacity.

Cons:
* My biggest pet peeve: for each bread recipe, the 1 pound and 1 ½ pound variations are listed on separate pages, unlike other bread machine books which list several size variations on the same page. So if you want orange walnut bread, for example, the 1½ pound recipe is on page 230, and the 1 pound variation is on page 231. I counted 97 extra pages that didn't need to be in the book, had both sets of measurements been on the same page. This amounts to purchasing 34% extra pages, inflating the price and wasting trees.
* Although the book emphasizes how healthy it is to eat whole grain breads, there is no nutritional information for any of the recipes-not even fat grams or calories per serving.
* Every bread recipe contains powdered milk or whey powder. Many people don't consume dairy products, yet there's no mention of how to substitute for it or if it's okay to leave it out entirely. (It is.) You can also leave out the liquid lecithin, a sticky ingredient that's hard to get off your hands, without adversely affecting the results.
* Setting and cycle information is provided for over a dozen models of bread machines-all state of the art in 1992 when the book was written. The bread machine operator with a more recent machine should easily be able to figure out the appropriate machine setting for any given bread. But the tally of unneeded pages is now 100, (or 104 if like many bread machine operators you never intend on making bread by hand, so will not need chapter 7).

Despite the cons, I still recommend the book for the great recipes and the comprehensive bread machine and ingredient education.

After getting a new bread machine, I looked and looked for bread machine recipe books that had a decent number of whole-grain flour recipes (we grind our own flour) - and my search was disappointing until I came across this book. Lots of whole-grain bread recipes (plus "transition" recipes for those just learning to like the heartier, healthier flavor of whole grain bread). If you can find a bread machine recipe book with more whole-grain bread recipes (either numerically or proportionately) than this one, then let me know. From my search, this is the one to get. And ... if you haven't made the switch from "white" bread to whole grain, then you really, really need this book. Even my wife now prefers WW bread to white, and that is a change for her.

This is a fabulous book, especially for those are tired of the white flour, white sugar bread machine recipes that are so ubiquitous. I have always wanted to use my bread machine to make healthy, whole grain breads, but such recipes have always been few and far between in my experience. Not so with this book! George provides more than 100 recipes for wholesome breads, each given separately in 1-1/2 pound and 1-pound loaf versions. A full 70 percent of these recipes use absolutely no white flour, while the other 30 percent use a combination of whole grain and white flours for those readers not accustomed to the denser, full-bodied flavor of whole grain breads. All of the recipes use only the minimum amount of sweetener (honey and molasses -- no refined sugar at all!) and no shortening or hydrogenated oils. The breads are all developed to work with Breadman-brand bread machines, but there is a table at the beginning of the book listing all the other different types of bread machines along with any modifications you would need to accomodate these recipes. I've made two different recipes from the book already, and the results were wonderful!

My favorite part of the book, though, is all the great information before and after the recipes section. George describes his philosophy for a healthful lifestyle, as well as background information on topics such as the different parts of a wheat kernel and other types of grains and legumes that can be used in breads. The back of the book has a complete glossary of ingredients that are used in the book, in case you don't know what liquid lecithin is or where to find powdered whey (questions that I had initially). I had fun and learned a lot just reading the glossary! Overall, this is an excellent book that will get much use in our house.

I bought this book about twelve years ago, the day I bought my bread machine. (It's a Breadman, gets used twice a week and still runs great!) I've bought several bread books over the years, but this book is the one I keep coming back to again and again for easy to follow recipes that consistantly yield great results. I love that you are given a full range of choices when it comes to using whole grain or more traditional recipes. Some of our favorites include the Limpa Bread, Challah, and whole wheat pizza dough. There is also a GREAT recipe for special occasions for sticky buns which use honey and very little fat. I noticed one reviewer disliked the fact that recipes for different sized loaves appear on subsequent pages. I actually LOVE this...it greatly reduces the chance I'm going to slip up and cross two recipes and ruin my bread. Another reviewer had an issue with the use of dry milk. I actually leave the dry milk out in most cases (you can't with the sticky buns) and it doesn't seem to adversely affect the bread at all.

Books with healthy bread machine recipes can be hard to find. . . this is one of the best! There are two "categories" of recipes: the "transitional" recipes still contain some ingredients best avoided; the other recipes are the best nutritionally.

The recipes are listed for both 1 and 1 1/2 lb loaves, and are easy to make. The onion-thyme bread is one of my favorites! There is also a recipe for hand-twisted, whole wheat pretzels that is really good too.

If you're concerned about the types of foods you put in your body, and love warm, fresh breads of all types, get this book!

My loaves baked from the "elite" recipes were large and of a good texture. The ingredients were not that hard to find (Wal-mart) or super expensive and the difference they made was hard to believe. Anyone wanting wholesome, healthy bread for their family will benefit from this book. Check your library for a practice run.

I found this book (on Amazon) shortly after I bought my Breadman Ultimate (my first encounter with bread making) and have been enjoying healthful bread for several months now. The recipes are delicious--my diet has been much the better for substituting some of the whole-grain breakfast and tea breads for cookies with my coffee in the morning. My favorites so far are raisin bread and apricot nut bread, while my wife loves the dill rye.

A few caveats. I found myself having to watch the machine and add a lot of extra flour until I bought a scale and started weighing the flour (the book includes cup and weight measures), which works much better. But my Breadman labors with the heavy whole-grain doughs. Also, the banana chips in the sweet banana raisin loaf recipe scraped the non-stick coating off my bread pan so that I'm having to replace it. Beware of hard ingredients!

But in general, I've really enjoyed the recipes and the educational information!

My wife and I enjoy making fresh bread, and we have gone through two bread machines in the last 6 years. This is by and far the book we most use to make our bread, the binding is broken and we have a dozen scraps of paper in it holding the places of our favorite recipes. Often times we will use a recipe from this book, make the dough in our bread machine and then bake it in our conventional oven, because you bake much better bread this way. One thing that I like about this book, is that the recipes we most like have additional instructions regarding baking your bread in an oven. Some thing that I differ in opinion over with the author is that he usually calls for honey in his recipes, I like to use plain white sugar instead and the bread comes out better, I think. Lots of good recipes, and they are easy to follow.

George does an excellent job of giving factual information, and great recipes. I have never felt better, after following his suggestions and recipes. He's interesting , factual, and provides delicious recipes that honestly work for anyone interested in GREAT BREAD.

This book was a disappointment. No pictures. Bad quality paper. If you know what the terms liquid lecithin and powdered whey refer to and how to obtain these items or substitute them, then this book is for you. A lot of the ingredients are Chinese to me and even though I wanted to make healthy wholesome bread, I did not anticipate spending a fortune in a health food store; that is, I assume they are the only ones to carry those items. Wrong choice for me; maybe good choice for you.