re: #260 CuriousLurker

I don’t have the patience to drag out my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and go through a long process, especially since it’s just for me.

I like it with more developed gluten, not too dense, but when you bite into it there’s some resistance. Like this no-knead bread. The no-knead stuff is much less time consuming for me, but I wanted to go simpler still, thus the bread machine.

OK, does your machine have a ‘delay’ setting? In other words, can you pour the ingredients into the pan, give them a quick stir, and just have them sit in there for a while?

If so take your basic recipe and try setting a delay of an hour or two before everything starts. An alternative (though a smidge more effort) would be to put the pan with ingredients in the refrigerator overnight.

What I’m doing here is increasing the gluten development through a bit of autolysis. ummmm, here, read this for a better explanation and explanation of why no-knead breads work. But you’re not going totally no-knead so there’s no need for full self-development. Just, increasing what you’ve got by a bit.

Just as a referential addendmum: Personal experience with bread machines, and why I didn’t replace mine when it broke a decade ago, was that I didn’t think the machines developed the dough with enough kneading. It’s HARD to overknead bread even with a stand mixer.