When I was younger, I used to bake bread all the time - by hand, from scratch.  I turned up my nose at those who had mixers with bread hooks.  After all, kneading the dough was the best part of it, after the smell of bread baking, of course!

Well, now I work long hours, and commute for several hours a day, and I can't remember when the last time was that I baked bread. 

So, last weekend I scored at a garage sale - I found a bread machine, new in its box, for $30.  And all my self-righteousness about making bread by hand went out the window :)

So now I appeal to those of you who use a bread machine - can you recommend a book of bread recipes specific to baking by machine?  There are tons of them out there.  Please share your favorites and why.

I have my favorite old-fashioned bread books (Garden Way Bread Book, and Sunset Breads) but I suspect I'll do better with recipes adapted to the technology. 

Thanks!

I've gathered a few bread machine recipes that I like. But, I haven't found a complete book as of yet.

I can tell you my least favorite though. It's a book called Bread Machine Baking (ISBN 0688118437) by Lora Brody & Millie Apter. I still have it. I'd post it on here, but it's unpostable. It's been chewed. The reason I don't like the book is because of the ingredients they use.

To illustrate, I opened the book to a random page. It's a recipe called Pesto Bread. Included in the ingredients is dry vermouth (or dry white wine), garlic oil and pine nuts. The chances of my finding those unusual ingredients is non-existant. (The county that I live in is dry, so no alcohol is sold anywhere.) I can figure out garlic oil although I've never seen the stuff. But, what are pine nuts?

Admittedly, there's a nice cornmeal bread recipe in the book as well as a few others, but that hardly makes up for all the odd ingredients in the other recipes.

I realized that I have the companion book, Desserts From Your Bread Machine (ISBN 0688130712) by Lora Brody. I had forgotten abou it. I'll probably post it. The recipes are much too complex for me. They sound real good, but my idea of a bread type dessert is a chocolate covered donut. Not a Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Bread with Kahlua Butter (an actual recipe from the book).

TIm, pine nuts are one of the core ingredients (along with basil and heavy cream) to make pesto.  They're an Italian nut also called pignolis.  They used to be very hard to source 10-15 years ago (Italian or gourmet shops only), but now most grocery stores carry them. 

I just had a co-worker give me a breakmaker this week, so if Sari Lynn's not interested in your bread books, I just might! 

I'm a simple guy. My cooking generally consists of the same dozen or so ingredients used in different ways. Pine nuts is not one of those ingredients. (I don't think I've ever eaten pesto.)

The first book, Bread Machine Baking, is unpostable. The second one, Desserts From Your Bread Machine, is postable. In fact, I posted it. It had a wishlist and has already been requested.

Nah, I wouldn't know what to do with them. Or the sundried tomatoes.

I've been to San Francisco once. I was on an expense account (with several other people from the place where I worked), so I ate at all the high priced, fancy smancy places. I don't even remember all the things I ate while I was there. Heck, I don't remember most of them. The only thing that I can remember clearly is that there's one restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf that sells seafood spaghetti and leaves the seafood inside the shells on purpose.

Oh, and despite the fact that I was there for a week, I couldn't find any restaurant that served Dr. Pepper.

On another note, because of this thread, I've started getting back to using my bread machine. I think I'll make Russian Black Bread tomorrow. I picked up the ingredients today, so I should be good to go. Had a little problem with the rye flour, but nothing that I couldn't work out. It has to be the fanciest bread that I make.

Have you found any good books for this? I have a bread machine, and a saavy cookbook might be just the thing to get me to use it. :-)