containers you baked them in—muffins in muffin pans, breads in bread pans.

TASTINGS Can you freeze dough?

You can freeze dough at any stage—either right after kneading, or after the first,

or even the second rise. When you want fresh bread, defrost the dough slowly in

the refrigerator. This takes half a day to a day depending on the size (you may

think of dividing the dough into two or three before freezing for quicker

defrosting). Don’t even think of using your microwave. The yeast cells get

nauseated under radiation therapy and heat may be too concentrated in parts of the

loaf. Then let the dough warm up for a few more hours in a warm place. Shape

your loaf, let it rise one more time and bake as usual. Using this method, you can

prepare several dough at one time and freeze all but one for later use, if you have

the freezer space. It guarantees each loaf to be as fresh as possible. Be aware

though that after freezing yeast activity may slow, particularly if the dough had

been in the freezer for several months. You need a little longer rising time than

with freshly-made dough, or, even better, mix into the dough a small amount of

freshly-mixed yeast you prepare as a sponge.

Bread Machines

That ingenious invention, the bread machine came on the market in the late 1980s.

(Originally they called it bread making machine.) It makes bread with almost no effort on your part,

systematically going through all the steps of yeast bread baking with the electronic computer brain

of a robotic baker.

The way it works is amazing, though seemingly simple. You add the ingredients into a bowl

in the innards of the machine and turn it on. The machine mixes them with a powerful dough-

mixing blade, then kneads the dough thoroughly, lets it rest and kneads it again. A control heats the

machine so the temperature is correct for proofing.

After the first rise, it kneads the dough again for just a few seconds, then lets it rise a second

time. The computer brain tells the machine to heat to baking temperature, and bakes the dough in

the same bowl, followed by a cooling-down stage. Then the computer turns on a fan to get rid of the

built-up moisture and keep the crust crispy. The entire process takes between 3 and 4 hours.

The major advantage of the machine is the ease with which you arrive at a home-baked

bread with so little effort. You can even buy a bread machine mix containing flour, salt and yeast in

the correct proportions. All you have to do is add water. It ups the cost of each loaf substantially, of

course, because somebody else had to do your work of measuring out ingredients and then to

package the mixture.

The disadvantages of a bread machine are numerous enough to think twice before you invest

in this fairly costly appliance. First of all, the bread is not memorable. You are probably better off to

buy a loaf of good bread at a bakery (if you have one nearby) and refresh it in your oven to get the

fresh-baked flavor and smell. The crust on the bread I made with this appliance was too soft, even

when I selected the French bread cycle on the machine.

Some models produce very awkward shapes. The one I tried came out in a squat cylinder

about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter and not much taller. The soft, funny-shaped bread was clumsy to

slice even after I cut the cylinder in half lengthwise. Other models produce rectangular, square or

round loaves, but none of them can make anything resembling a freeform bread or even a French

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