Five reasons you need a breadmaker (that have NOTHING to do with loaves of bread)
We have a breadmaker and we NEVER use it to make bread. Ever. We tried it once or twice, and the loaves are funny-shaped and too tall for the toaster and it’s a pain to cut. Delicious with butter, yes, but not worth it.
But we use our breadmaker every single week, at least once — sometimes twice — for making dough. Delicious fluffy, perfectly-risen dough for lots of different things.
Breadmakers are soooo easy that even I never screw up a recipe (and I am really terrible cook). You dump in the ingredients, turn it on, and walk away from it. When it beeps, your dough is ready. Sometimes you plop it on the counter to rise a little more, and sometimes it’s already perfect (depends on what you’re making).
(Stuff never rises “naturally” in our house because it’s, um, chilly. The breadmaker is nice and warm, and dough likes that.) We have an older version of this one and we love it.
So if you’re looking for a Christmas gift or you’ve been toying with the idea of getting a breadmaker, here are five reasons you’re gonna want to get one. Really.
1. Cinnamon buns.
These are delicious and the most “work” of any breadmaker recipe because you have to roll the dough into a rectangle, brush the dough with melted butter, cover it with cinnamon and sugar, roll it up, and use thread to cut it into little buns before baking them. Not a lot of work, and really worth it.
2. Fluffy warm rolls.
I make these for holidays and everybody dies over them (mostly me). They are fluffy and buttery and freaking amazing. (I use this Betty Crocker recipe.)
(Sometimes I’ll also make hamburger buns, but they’re so good that I hate to sully them with a hamburger patty and condiments.)
3. Tea biscuits.
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I love a good tea biscuit. These actually do NOT require the breadmaker, but I couldn’t leave them out of this carb-y lineup. They’re everything.
4. Garlic fingers.
We started making these recently on Pizza Friday because our son loves ordering “garlic pizza” at school. (I have no idea what that really is, except that it’s probably garlic fingers cut into pizza slices … possibly sprinkled with gross jarred bacon bits?) They are AMAZING and just as easy as making the next item …
5. Pizza.
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It seems like my whole Insta feed is nothing but photos and videos of our weekly Friday Night Pizza, and I don’t even care because it’s THAT GOOD.
Take dough from breadmaker. Break it into three chunks. Spread each chunk of dough on a pizza pan and “decorate” with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, etc. DONE. And basically the same amount of work as buying pre-made dough? (We used to use a mix where you add water and stir it up with a fork and it was pretty awful, now that I think about it.)
I apologize now for the extra lbs. you may gain from your new breadmaker. But it’s worth it. OMG IS IT WORTH IT.
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Heather's Handmade Life 