The Artisan Bread Machine: 250 Recipes for Breads, Rolls, Flatbreads and Pizzas

I have a large collection of bread machine cookbooks, many of which I no longer use, so I'm not one to run out and buy any new one that comes along. But this one caught my eye; I hoped it would have some unusual bread recipes. I've yet to be disappointed.The variety of recipes is extensive. Every one I have tried has turned out perfectly, from fairly basic recipes (Whole Wheat Cheddar Cheese, Anadama, and various ryes) to the more unusual (Chocolate Glazed Banana Coconut Swirl Loaf was delicious). Most of the recipes provide the measurements for various size loaves, from 1 to 3 pounds, which is helpful. Many, especially those using whole wheat, call for "Artisan Dough Enhancer." Ms. Fertig provides a recipe for making your own if you wish. I did that and have used it, but I honestly can't say if it's made much difference in the loaves. However, I have noticed that all the loaves I've baked from this book have been more moist than recipes from other books (the book I favored and mainly used up until this purchase is The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, and I still highly recommend it).UPDATE 8/30/12: One problem has come to my attention which isn't much of a problem if you're a seasoned bread maker, because you will catch it immediately. The problem is, the measurement amounts for yeast in the larger (2 & 3 lb) loaves are wrong. When I first started using the book I thought it was just a typo in one or two recipes but now I know that every recipe calls for exceedingly small amounts of yeast for large quantities of flour. The measurements are correct for the 1 and 1-1/2 pound breads, but if you are making the 2 or 3 pound loaves that call for 4 to 5+ cups of flour, you need to use more than 1-1/4 TEASPOONs of yeast! I do think this is a typographical error, but it is consistent throughout the book. {End of update.}The recipes includes tips on water temperature, variations on ingredients, as well as instructions for oven rather than machine baking. Buns & rolls, braids & brioches, and an assortment of dough recipes, every type of bread is represented here, along with a variety of fillings, glazes and even a few chutneys. Throughout the book are scattered a number of full color photographs, making the book a delight to browse.All in all, The Artisan Bread Machine recipe book is excellent, well worth the discounted price here on Amazon (or full price, for that matter). I'm happy I bought it.

Let me preface this review with my mantra: all bread machines are not created equal. What recipe may work in one machine may turn out to be a burnt brick in another. I know this first hand because I have owned or own 2 Zojirushis, Emeril's bread maker, 2 Panasonics, an early Williams Sonoma brand, a Welbilt, a Westbend and maybe some others I have forgotten about. That said I will review this book.What is the most amazing thing about this book that I have not seen other authors do, is to show the recipes in 1, 1.5, 2, 3 pound sizes. That covers most of the bread makers out there. I own at least a dozen bread machine cookbooks and I always have to try and adapt the recipes to fit my particular bread machine with only limited success. It is already done for you in this book. Three cheers for the author! Not all of her recipes are sized but that is because you would only use the dough mode rather than bake the bread in the machine.Now as for success: it really depends upon your machine AND you watching the dough-making process when trying a recipe for the first time. Most people assume all you have to do it toss the ingredients into the machine and walk away. WRONG! This is what the manufacturers want you to think, but it is not correct. It took me a long time to figure this out. You must watch the dough when trying a recipe for the first time. The most important thing is to make sure the dough is neither too wet nor too dry. I am afraid this only comes from experience in bread making. Yes you can just add the ingredients and walk away, I have done that and still do it, but there is a 50/50 chance you will bake a brick. As long as you understand this, then you can't blame the author for a recipe failure. Sometimes you do everything right and the bread still turns out like a brick. I think the reason so many bread machines turn up in a thrift store is because the owner simply does not understand that even with a bread machine, bread making isn't as easy as it sounds.I have only tried a few recipes so far from the book and some turned out great, and one, not so great. I did have to add more water or flour to some recipes to make the dough the right consistency. What I do like is that this book has a greater variety of bread recipes than other books. They all look very good and I can't wait to try them.

Although there are several fabulous recipes, there are also a ridiculous amount of basic mathematical mistakes…. Which in bread baking is unforgivable!For example if a 1lb loaf has 2c of flour, and a 2lb loaf has 4c of flour, then clearly 21/2 c in a 11/2 lb will result in a soupy mess. There are so many better books available that actually proof read and Test all sizes of their recipes, there is no way I could ever recommend this cookbook.

This book is truly incredible. After a lot of years of making large amounts of bread by hand, I had stopped making bread for a few years because I didn't eat that much myself. Recently I have decided to get back into making my own bread and am very happy. I used to make six loaves at a time but decided to just make two at a time and bake them in my Oster toaster oven. I also bought an excellent Sunbeam bread machine and, for convenience sake, am using that to take the bread through the first rising. I ordered this book thinking I might copy two or three recipes and then pass the book on to my daughter. When I started looking through the book I was amazed. I immediately ordered a second copy of this book for my daughter. There are huge numbers of wonderful bread recipes I would have never thought of in there. There are also some jam recipes and some instructions for making some of the toppings you might want to use on fancy breads. I plan on making some of these unusual and incredible breads for family occasions in the future so I had to hold on to this book. Anyone who either has a bread machine, makes their own bread without a machine, or is thinking of getting into bread making should grab a copy of this book right away. You will be forever grateful for this book.

This book has some very interesting recipes, beyond the usual, which is what I wanted. As it is American there is some work to be done in sorting out measurements, especially if trying to tie it in with a familiar recipe or a recipe book which came with the machine, but it's not overly demanding and, so far, all the results have been excellent. A lot of the ingredients are not available where I live so a little bit of experimentation is called for.June 2018just out of interest I thought I'd have another look at the reviews of this book. I've been using it for some time now and have made some excellent loaves. However, it has taken a great deal of adjusting of measurements, checking of conversions and generally reading and re-reading the recipes to get the results. As a few people have pointed out this book contains many errors but you can get good results by using commonsense. It's a pity the metric system wasn't used throughout the recipes.

I bought this together with a bread machine for my partner's house in the US at Christmas. I liked it so much I ordered it for my house here in the UK also. I like how every recipe gives you different charts for each size loaf. Easy to do yourself but so much nicer if you dont have to! Would have liked a few more European recipes but there is still plenty of choice even without.

This is a virtually useless book as it contains a huge quantity of basic errors on nearly every page. Using a breadmaker successfully is dependent on truly accurate weights and measures - something totally lacking in this hastily thrown together paperback. The main issue is the constant (yet inconsistent) conversion errors between lbs and grams - since when did 2lbs = 1.5kg and 3lb = 750g? The other issue is the use of the cup for measuring flour with no equivalent weights provided. A cup filled by scooping flour out of a container as opposed to filling it by pouring the flour in can produce wide variations in weights, something that guarantees failure! I cannot recommend - buyer beware!

If you use your bread machine as much as I do, you might get bored making the same tried and true recipes. I know I do and i am always searching for new recipes, particularly the ones that mimic what I would call 'real' breadmaking, which I also do. This book is a treasure and I know I will be using it again and again

A very interesting collection of recipes though many have ingredients that are not in most people's store cupboard.I was disappointed that, what on first glance appeared a lovely book, only produced a handful of recipes that I may try.