Customer Reviews

Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have other bread machine books but this is the one I always come back to. His descriptions are easy to follow and, best of all, the recipes actually WORK! Astounding how many cookery books don'e appear to have been tested. This one has been.

With the growing popularity of the bread machine, it is no wonder there are so many books and recipes designed for them. Tom Lacalamita wrote one such book, The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook published by Simon & Schuster. The bread machine has come a long way in 10 years since it was first introduced in Japan in 1987 and then in the United States the following year. The original $400 model has since been perfected even more and the price has come down to a more reasonable price. For the skeptics that still have not tried a machine, there are some very good reasons and recipes that will surprise and delight you. Tom Lacalamita has brought together over 100 recipes into this publication. With 32 full color photographs, this book whets the appetite. Since not all machines were created equally - mine requires the liquids first then the dry ingredients followed by the yeast, other machines do the reverse with a few machines separating the yeast - The Ultimate Bread Machine breaks the ingredients down into the three parts so each reader may follow their own machine's recommended procedures. One item to remember when using a bread machine and related cookbooks is that not all recipes and machines are designed to make a finished product in the machine. Most machines have a manual or dough only selection to help the cook make a variety of yeast products that make the tedious parts easily. Complete breads include: White, Rye, Olive Oil Garlic, Pesto, Apple Wheat, Honey Graham Granola, Sweet Potato Pecan, Lemon Poppy Seed, Roasted Jalapeno Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Herb. Other hand-shaped products include: Bread Sticks, Pretzels, Gugelhopf, Lavash, Pita Bread, Focaccia, Bagels, Cinnamon Buns, Danish, Petite Pain au Chocolat, and Roll-Ups. All of the complete bread recipes include both a 2-cup and 3-cup capacity directions. The book is broken down into two major parts, the automatic bread section that recommends all ingredients being at room temperature and breaks all the ingredients into the three parts for placement into the machine. Nutritional information per ½-inch slice is included. The second part is the hand-shaped section essentially offering the same information, however instead of having it finished in the machine, the dough is hand formed into the required sheets, and the proper techniques are supplied. The book supplies a backbone for creative people to create wondrous breads, breakfast foods or other meals. Simon & Schuster publish the Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook written by Tom Lacalamita This publication offers over 100 recipes for completely automated breads and hand-shaped masterpieces. The photographs over a variety of menu possibilities for each item used. The recipes have all been tested using all of the most popular models of bread machines

I had limited success with my bread machine until I found this book. The recipes seem to have the exact proportions and mix of ingredients to do the job perfectly. Now I don't just use the bread machine for convenience when time is tight, I use it for almost all of the bread I bake.

I have a brand new (this is 2010, mind you) Zojirushi Mini Home Bakery (1 lb. loaf bread machine), and I was advised to purchase this book, since it gives 1 lb. loaf versions of all its recipes, in a review for that machine. At first I was concerned about the oddly higher (by 1/2 tsp.) amount of yeast called for in all these recipes, along with most all older bread machine recipes, than in the wonderful recipes in the Zojirushi manual that came with my machine, but there's no reason to worry. I tried one to the letter (the cheese and jalapeno bread) last night, and it came out fabulous - possibly one of the best loaves I've ever made. I'm excited to try the other recipes, and, based on some of the other reviews for this book, I'm expecting them to be similarly excellent. I have a feeling I won't be disappointed!

This book is wonderful for all you bread machine fanatics - the photographs are stunning, the directions are simple and complete and the cinnamon coffee bread is to die for - and if that's all the book had, that would be good.
But there's a lot more - there's the rye bread recipe and pf course, the famous "Anadama Bread" recipe, chocolate chip bread, and challah as well as pretzel and pizza recipes.
There's also a lot of technical information, telling you what the ingredients do in the process of making the bread, gluten levels of various flours and what you can expect when you substitute one for another - or even if you can substitute. There are directions given for different capacity machines, which makes it very helpful to use this book.
I recommend this book very highly for those who wish to find out more and bake more with their bread machines.

I would have given the book 5 stars if it contained recipes for plain white dinner rolls, or potato rolls, etc. Perhaps these are in his 2nd book with a similar title? I looked on the pages for regular bread, about shaping the dough differently or having to make adjustments for dough cycle to make rolls, crecents, etc. but found nothing. This is my main complaint about the book. My only other complaint is that the ingredients go in the reverse order that my machine requires by the manufacturer, but it is only a slight drawback.

The information given on history of some breads or a short intro before each recipe is excellent. I like the insight each short paragraph contains with each recipe. Overall, there are many delicious recipes and haven't had a bad loaf yet.

I have several bread machine cookbooks, and this is one of the better ones. The recipe content is excellent, and the book itself arrived in excellent condition. The book itself is a little dated (I believe it was written about a decade ago), but the content is still perfectly appropriate.

If you own a smaller, vertical loaf style machine, the book is spot on. A great book. If you own a larger machine (like a Zojirushi), you'll need to adapt the recipies to fit its larger loaf sizes... or use it to produce smaller loaves per the reduced ingredients listed in the book.

With my first bread machine I had ultimate frustration while trying to bake even a *decent* loaf of bread. My mother gave me this book for Christmas after seeing Tom Lacalamita on a home shopping show. Suddenly I was able to turn out the loaves of bread I had dreamed of. Several of the recipes in this book have become family staples (such as the Carolina Rice Bread recipe) and I am now purchasing the All New Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook to go along with my daughter's first bread machine. The Tom Lacalamita tradition lives strong in this family! :)

I have purchased 2 of these books: the 1st when it was first published, the 2nd a couple of years ago to replace my original worn-out copy. I love the recipes in this book! I had used it so much that the pages were falling out of my first copy, hence, why I got a newer copy. But just a couple of weeks after using this second NEW copy, the pages started falling out of the book's binding too! This is truly my only complain on this great bread-machine reference cookbook.

Bought this book several years ago and used it in winters to make bread. Somewhere my book got lost and so was I. Ordered another one cause all the other bread books I have cannot compair with this one!