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Today we want to take a look at the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook with you.

It’s one of the books we’ve included in our list of best bread machine cookbooks and in fact, it’s the one we think bread machine owners should have – if any – on their bookshelf. Having said that it would only make sense to show you what makes this cookbook so great and what you can expect from it.

If you’re new to bread machine baking, please note that your bread machine should come with basic recipes to get you started. Cookbooks are more for those who are ready to move from basic breads to new and oftentimes exciting – not to mention delicious! – recipes.

Our Review

It’s the bible for bread machine bakers – that’s the simplest way to describe this cookbook.

At over 600 pages (it is thick), the cookbook mainly features recipes, but there is a lot of information scattered throughout the book about bread machines and baking in general. Every time we pick up the book we learn something new: something about high-altitude baking, or making a sourdough starter, or how to shape different kinds of breads.

Even though it was published in 2000, we think it’s still the most relevant bread machine cookbook today – twenty years later. The author even compares the digital commands of a bread machine to a VCR (certainly groundbreaking technology back in the day), which reminds us how old this book actually is. 🙂

The book begins with a very comprehensive introduction to bread machines, so if you’re completely new to bread machines and/or baking, then we think you’ll find it very useful.

It then moves on to recipes and as we mentioned, there is a lot of extra information and tips scattered throughout the book, which makes it anything but a dull cookbook.

There are 300 recipes in this cookbook. There are more than enough for you to try out – in fact it may take a while to even scratch the surface – and we guarantee you’ll be able to find recipes that you’ll make more than once. You’ll go back to it time and time again. Just like other cookbooks, there are recipes other than bread. In fact, this cookbook gave us the most delicious ketchup recipe ever, made with the “jam” cycle.

It’s hard to narrow down the list of 300 recipes, but here are a few of the standouts for us: Greek bread, beer bread, Scandinavian light rye, gluten-free ricotta potato bread, olive oil bread, two-week biga (classic Italian starter), sourdough cottage cheese bread with fresh herbs, balsamic-caramelized onion bread, carrot bread with crystallized ginger, Roquefort cheese bread with walnuts, grape schiacciata coffee cake, Middle Eastern lavash, spicy pear bread, hot cross buns, apple butter, quick and easy tomato ketchup.

We know that some people like to be really precise and bake by weight. Unfortunately, the recipes are not labeled by weight but by US volume units only: teaspoon, tablespoon, cup.

There are illustrations, color-coded recipes, and charts that make the book easy to read. We know that recipe books with all text and poor formatting can be hard to follow, but that’s not the case with this cookbook, as you can see below.

Concluding Thoughts

The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook

$3.59

Buy on Amazon Last updated 2024-12-01.

To sum up in one sentence: this is the only bread machine cookbook you will need. After you get this one, you could probably do without the rest. The main appeal for this cookbook and why it’s been a bestseller for twenty years is its comprehensiveness. It covers literally everything about bread machines and baking. Besides, it features many recipes that will keep you inspired and busy for years. Basically, if you’re looking for the one bread machine cookbook to add to your bookshelf this would be the one.