[.ca] Breadman's Healthy Bread (ISBN 0688120253)

Great recipes but 100 unneeded pages:
Pro's: * The recipes work and are delicious. I especially recommend the Italian herb bread. * There's an emphasis on whole grains with about 70% of the recipes containing no white flour, white sugar, eggs, or animal fats. * Contains a lot of information a bread machine owner might want, such as how to care for the machine, how the machine works, how to mill and store grains, nutritional information about the various grains, all about yeast (buying, storing, measuring, etc.). Most of the bread machine info is generic and applies to other machines as well as the Breadman. * Detailed glossary of ingredients. * Bonus recipes for spreads, such as salsa, hummus, and jam. * Although recipes are only for 1- or 1 1/2 pound loaves, you can double the 1 pound recipe if your machine has a 2 pound capacity. Cons: * My biggest pet peeve: for each bread recipe, the 1 pound and 1 1/2 pound variations are listed on separate pages, unlike other bread machine books which list several size variations on the same page. So if you want orange walnut bread, for example, the 11/2 pound recipe is on page 230, and the 1 pound variation is on page 231. I counted 97 extra pages that didn't need to be in the book, had both sets of measurements been on the same page. This amounts to purchasing 34% extra pages, inflating the price and wasting trees. * Although the book emphasizes how healthy it is to eat whole grain breads, there is no nutritional information for any of the recipes-not even fat grams or calories per serving. * Every bread recipe contains powdered milk or whey powder. Many people don't consume dairy products, yet there's no mention of how to substitute for it or if it's okay to leave it out entirely. (It is.) You can also leave out the liquid lecithin, a sticky ingredient that's hard to get off your hands, without adversely affecting the results. * Setting and cycle information is provided for over a dozen models of bread machines-all state of the art in 1992 when the book was written. The bread machine operator with a more recent machine should easily be able to figure out the appropriate machine setting for any given bread. But the tally of unneeded pages is now 100, (or 104 if like many bread machine operators you never intend on making bread by hand, so will not need chapter 7). Despite the cons, I still recommend the book for the great recipes and the comprehensive bread machine and ingredient education.

Great Recipes - But Beware Banana Chips:
I found this book (on Amazon) shortly after I bought my Breadman Ultimate (my first encounter with bread making) and have been enjoying healthful bread for several months now. The recipes are delicious--my diet has been much the better for substituting some of the whole-grain breakfast and tea breads for cookies with my coffee in the morning. My favorites so far are raisin bread and apricot nut bread, while my wife loves the dill rye. A few caveats. I found myself having to watch the machine and add a lot of extra flour until I bought a scale and started weighing the flour (the book includes cup and weight measures), which works much better. But my Breadman labors with the heavy whole-grain doughs. Also, the banana chips in the sweet banana raisin loaf recipe scraped the non-stick coating off my bread pan so that I'm having to replace it. Beware of hard ingredients! But in general, I've really enjoyed the recipes and the educational information!

Wonderful, healthy recipes!:
Books with healthy bread machine recipes can be hard to find. . . this is one of the best! There are two "categories" of recipes: the "transitional" recipes still contain some ingredients best avoided; the other recipes are the best nutritionally. The recipes are listed for both 1 and 1 1/2 lb loaves, and are easy to make. The onion-thyme bread is one of my favorites! There is also a recipe for hand-twisted, whole wheat pretzels that is really good too. If you're concerned about the types of foods you put in your body, and love warm, fresh breads of all types, get this book!

Nothing Says Loving Like Bread from the Oven:
There is not better smell in a house on a cold winter's day than baking bread. Nothing better to serve with a meal than hot, fresh baked bread. We back a lot of bread at our house during the colder months and I've been going back to this very good bread book for over five years now and I'm sure I'll be using it for five more. Yesterday I did up the raisen bread on page 109, very tasty as are many of the bread receipes in this book. You know, I used to bake bread the old fashioned way before my hubby got me the bread machine for Christmas a couple years before the turn of the millinum, but I have to confess I didn't do it anywhere near as often as I do now. The machine was a gift I didn't know I wanted, or needed. But it's a gift I use often and if you're a lover of hot bread, it's a nice little machine you'll use often too and if you do, this book will go with it like a hand to a glove, a duck to water, and any other nice cliché you can think of. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Excellent for First Time Bread Machine Users:
I bought this book when I bought my bread machine - it has been great. I really enjoy making the bread because it is healthy. The recipes are simple. I love the English Muffin bread and the Raisin Bread. The recipes always come out right and the bread tastes great.