I am still the biggest fan of my bread machine. I do realize that they aren’t for everyone. Some people love to knead dough and use their stand mixer to do the heavy duty mixing or even to do the process by hand. Not me! The bread machine is the way to go at this stage in my life and it is worth every inch of space that it takes up, residing on the top of the refrigerator.
We haven’t given up buying sandwich bread, but the bread machine is essential to me for easy entertaining and for our weekly pizza night traditions. It has saved me many a trip to the store for hamburger buns. For the holidays, I love to crank out a batch of fancy rolls with a little spread or dip. For the ultimate in special Saturday morning traditions, a little indulgence in monkey bread or fancy cinnamon rolls is a special family treat. Making these treats myself, I am assured that I am giving my kids those fun food memories, but am controlling the quality of the ingredients that are going into them.
This bread recipe is a no-fail bread machine recipe that I have used for years. The ingredients are so simple and it makes the perfect loaf of bread every single time.
Portuguese White Bread
1 cup water
3 tablespoons margarine
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
Add all ingredients in order listed into your bread machine. Choose the”basic” cycle and wait for the perfect loaf of white bread to appear! Yes, it is that simple!
Do you have a bread machine? What is your favorite recipe to make with this appliance?
Hi, Amy! I'm still learning how to use my bread machine and I have a question – what temperature is your water for this recipe? It looks yummy and my son keeps asking when I'm going to make more bread so I think I'll try this one out!
Thanks!
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Kathy M Reply:
August 11th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
If you go to Breadmaster.com, you can down load a large cookbook just for the bread machine. I have made alot of different breads from the book and they are great! Easy step by step to follow and gives temp for water etc.
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Kathy M Reply:
August 11th, 2011 at 5:47 pm
The web site is http://www.Breadman.com. Sorry
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I've been experimenting with using a breadmaker (my sister-in-law gave me hers), but I haven't used it for a while. Right now it's in my laundry room, but I love the idea of putting it on top of the fridge. How easy! Why didn't I think of that–it's its new home. I love to use it for pizza crust. I'm still struggling to use it with the whole wheat flours–I'll keep trying. I think I stopped using because too much bread in our house is not a good thing–my kids would eat nothing else. But for the occasional treat, it's great. Thanks for all of your posts–loving them.
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Dawn- If you are still learning, be sure to click on the words "bread machine" that are highlighted. I think that is the best tutorial I can offer on the subject and how to use your machine.
As for the water, you want it warm, but not hot. If it is too hot it will kill the yeast and your bread won't rise. I just run my tap until it gets to warm and add that into the bread machine. I keep my yeast in the fridge for storage so I sometimes get it warmer than I would if my yeast was at room temperature and that seems to work perfectly. I hope that helps.
Also, I found they have whole wheat white flour in the baking supplies. I started substituting my white flour with this and it works great in bread and for waffles too. It is a great way to warm up to the wheat texture and still get in some whole grains. I will share some wheat bread recipes too in the future.
Jen- I am so glad you found a storage solution that will work. We don't do a lot of bread, like you it is reserved for special occasions, but I do use the bread machine weekly for our pizza night. Having it on the fridge is a lot easier than trying to lug it in from another room.
Thanks so much for your comments!
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I love these buttery dinner rolls, they are so tender and buttery. I've adapted lots of recipes for use in the bread machine, but I found that I liked the stand mixer better because I don't ever actually bake the bread in the machine. I still use it for certain recipes though.
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I have renamed my bread machine to the "Dough Machine" because while I don't bake bread in it, I use it to make lots of dough…pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, hamburger buns, and sometimes bread dough to bake on my pizza stone. *Long live the Dough Machine!*
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I do not own a bread machine unfortunatley, but when I visit my parent's home…we always use their's, and make a different bread everytime for sure !! I love modern technology !!
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I bought a jar of bread machine yeast last wk for the first time instead of the little packets. It was much cheaper that way. Looking forward to trying this recipe.
Thanks for sharing!
~Liz
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It sounds great. I don't have a bread machine! Wish I did.
dancealert at aol dot com
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This is the best bread recipe i have found, my dad got me A george forman bread machine for christmas and i was having a nightmare of a time getting it to work, i use this recipe so much now that i have started tweaking it to make my own wheat breads and also olive and sundried tomatoes breads, thanks so much for this great site
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I have a yeast allergy and therefore can’t eat traditional bread. Do bread machines work if you can’t use yeast in them?
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Amy Reply:
September 21st, 2010 at 12:50 pm
I don’t think it would work
The bread would be very dense since the yeast helps it rise!
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Thank you Amy I was afraid you’d say that
all the breads I’ve made so far tastes more like biscuits than bread. 
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I noticed a few people mentioned the use of “bread machine yeast”. Does the yeast have to be specifically for bread machines or can you use “quick rise” ?
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Amy Reply:
January 14th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
I just use quick rise yeast from Sam’s Club. I hope that helps!
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After the machine stops because you can add some ingredients, add sundried tomatoes (without fluid). and sesame seed. Delicious!!!
(Apologizes for my bad English.. it is not my native language).
Let me know how you did like it.
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I just made the Portuguese White Bread, and I have to say it is the best bread I have ever eaten. I have not bought store bread for over 2 years and I am always looking for new recipes. This one is definately a winner and I will be making it ofter. Thank you very much!!!
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Wow..this recipe is amazing!! My only concern is the amount of weight I am going to gain. It is so good, I just can’t seem to stop eating it. Thank you for a great bread machine recipe.
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HELP, I bought a machine a few days ago and have tried to make whole wheat bread 3 times, the first 2 times I followed the recipe the bread rose great but then fell when it started to cook. The second time I cut the loaf open and saw very large air holes in the loaf, so I cut the yeast by a half a teaspoon and still the same results. What am I doing wrong??
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What size loaf would this make? 1.5 or 2 pounds?
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Amy Reply:
December 29th, 2011 at 9:52 am
This is for a 1.5 pound loaf!
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