RIP My Beloved Bread Maker
In December of 2010, my husband got me one of the greatest Christmas gifts ever, a bread machine. I know that some people say you should never get your wife an appliance for any holiday, but they don't know me. I love getting kitchen appliances for any occasion. My parents got me a variety of bread machine cookbooks and I was on my way.
I scoured grocery store shelves for buttermilk powder, unbleached bread flour, rye flours, oatmeal, and more. I could hardly wait for the first loaf to come out of the machine. I loved it, we all loved it. I was hooked. I made oatmeal bread, one of our favorites, sweet ricotta bread-perfect for french toast, a variety of rye breads, and more.
While I don't have an exact count of how many loaves of bread I made in that machine, I do know that from December 2010 until the summer of 2014, we didn't buy any bread from the store, I made it all. Okay, I bought crescent rolls, but I was hoping to even conquer those someday.
Over the past few years, I have still made bread in the machine, but due to various circumstances, we found ourselves buying more and more bread at the store. But I always knew that I could whip up a loaf of homemade goodness with my beloved bread machine, that is until this past week.
I put all of the ingredients in, choose my settings and pressed power. The sound that came from the machine scared me and freaked the cats out, I smelled something burning. I took everything out and tried again. I did this a few times until it was clear that the it had simply stopped working. It had made it's final loaf of bread.
As if that isn't bad enough, the machine that I loved is no longer available. I have to start all over again with a new machine, and I've heard some horror stories about bread machines. Do you have a bread machine? Do you like it, would you recommend it? I need all the help I can get.
Plus, you wouldn't believe how much buttermilk powder I have in our refrigerator that I need to use before it goes bad.