Despite the name, bread machines can be used to make a whole lot more than just a variety of breads. In fact, that bread machine in your kitchen can typically make anything from jam and jelly to meat loaf and rice, and most even have settings specifically made to enhance the cooking process when it comes to these other, non-bread items. So let’s take a look at some of the most popular things people make with their bread machines, other than bread of course. The possibilities might surprise you!
Jam/Jelly
Nearly all of the higher quality bread machines on the market, and most of the lesser quality ones as well, now come with a “jam” setting pre-programmed, enabling users not only to create delicious homemade bread to also make their own spreads to put on it. So, how exactly does your bread maker do it? Well, the jam making process is actually simple than you might think!
Typically, all you need in order to make a great jelly or jam are three key ingredients: fruit, sugar, and pectin, which helps the jam find the right consistency. Once you assemble those in the desired quantities, then just dump them right on into your bread machine, hit that jam setting, and watch your machine get to work! Since the only things that you need to make a great jelly or jam is just a heat source and a mixer, the bread maker makes the perfect tool for the task and takes over from the traditional, old fashioned role of stirring away for long periods of time over a boiling hot pot.
Making jellies and jam is usually a pretty fast process too. For most machines, you can get at least two bottles of delicious fruit spreads after only an hour, and without any more effort on your part than putting the ingredients together and pressing a button!
Pizza dough
Homemade pizza dough is not only delicious, but it can be great fun for the family when everyone gathers together to make their own pizzas. And, if you didn’t know it yet, most bread makers are now able to make their own pizza dough too!
Just like with the jam/jelly making process, your bread maker can save you all of the difficult work that is traditionally associated with making pizza dough. Home chefs no longer need to waste their time kneading away at the dough by hand or mixing the ingredients together.
Instead, simply gather whatever you would like to have in your dough (usually just water, flour, yeast, and a pinch of salt), put it all into your bread machine, and let it do the work. To make it even easier, many bread machines even have a pizza dough option built in, so you can always be assured that your dough will have pizzeria level consistency every time.
Meatloaf
Meatloaf is certainly not the first thing that would come to mind when we ask you to name a few items you think you bread machine can create, but believe it or not many machines on the market today also have a function that allows them to make delicious meatloaf with almost no effort from the owner at all.
To make a bread machine meatloaf, first mix all of the ingredients (aside from the glaze, that comes at the end) in a bowl, and remove the paddles from the machine. Then, put that newly mixed up meatloaf right into the machine, and presto, you now have a miniature over perfectly sized for making meatloaf! And if you don’t have a specific meatloaf setting, you can turn your machine to the quick bread cycle, and then sit back and relax as your dinner is baked to perfection.
And these aren’t the only things that your bread maker can create either! You can make tomato sauce, cakes, soups, and even scrambled eggs right there in that versatile little machine in the kitchen! The opportunities seem almost endless, so next time you get a craving for something special, you might wanna consider tossing it into the bread machine instead of the oven. You might just be surprised at how it turns out.
