Smells just like the bread Mom used to bake

I seldom bake. I buy my pies, and they are always delicious, the frozen cookie dough is a breeze for last minute desserts, and boxed brownies are sometimes tastier than scratch. To consider baking bread would be a travesty to a woman who prides herself on consistently taking the easy way out when considering desserts.

My Mother is appalled with this attitude. She is a supreme baker, warm, chewy cookies would often greet us when tromping in the house after school. She baked her pies with love and pride, and bread would rise on the heat ducts of our old farm house.

My Mother needed to take action for my family. Sure the warm, chewy cookies I provided were good when the kids tromped in from school, but they were unwrapped and broken onto a tray, not mixed with a wooden spoon, (I am obliged to mention that my sixties Mother used a wooden spoon for more sinister purposes). Being covered head to toe with flour does not appeal to me, and cookies made from scratch are messy. Pies are frustrating, and pounding bread dough does not vent my deepest frustrations.

So my Mother threw in the towel. She would never reform me. In an effort to save my family from the horror of freezer wrapped pies, and boxes of brownies, my Mother bought me a Panasonic Bread Machine.

My family thanks you Mom.

Easy to operate, easy to clean, the Panasonic is consistently in use at our home. Warm, homemade bread, rising as you work. We bake the bread for sandwiches, for French Toast, for sides for soups and stews.

I use the bread maker to mix my quick breads and my friend uses hers to mix cookie dough, then we transfer our batters to an appropriate pan and bake in the preheated oven. I bake wheat, white and sourdough bread. Raisins, Cranberries or Nuts can be added at the beep, and it is said that the cinnamon bread made with the help of the bread machine is absolutely delicious.

Drop your mix or scratch ingredients into the little basket and the yeast into the separate automatic yeast dispenser, and your bread machine is good to go. I was surprised to learn that the extra dispenser for the yeast was not a standard item in all bread machines, and I have been told that this feature is almost invaluable. This prevents the yeast from mixing with ingredients that could kill it early in the process, and guarantees your loaf will rise without incident.

If you wish, the little instruction and recipe book included with your Panasonic Bread Machine will help you with dinner rolls, sweet rolls, foccaccia, or even bagels. The shape of a bread machine loaf is a little different that Mom used to bake, giving more of an appearance of being cooked in a flower pot, but if a more standard size suits you, simply mix, then let rise, then pop your prepared dough into a bread pan and shove it into the oven.

Bread like Mom used to bake.

My Panasonic bread machine was a wonderful gift to receive. Freshly baked bread is as close as my counter, baked with ease, and convenience, and without messy clean up.

One tip I would offer, wait until the machine cools completely before attempting to bake another loaf. I admit, I was not thinking as well as a rocket scientist would have in this situation, but I killed my yeast by letting my mix sit in a warm machine after just baking a loaf. I was having a large group, and feeling very rushed and frantic. Needless to say, my loaf didn't rise.

Now if it would only bake a pie.