8 Bread Machine Recipes That Make Fresh-Baked Loaves a Breeze

The thrill of that humble loaf that emerges from the bread machine can’t be overstated—the aroma, the golden crust, the promise of home-baked fresh bread when you’ve barely lifted a finger. But don’t sleep on variations—the machine has too much potential for you to just settle for everyday sandwich bread! Here, we have sweet, savory and even dinner-worthy recipes that will keep your machine working overtime, and everyone will thank you for it.

Talk about the must-have for every holiday dinner from now on. These herby rolls save the day, since they are made start-to-finish in the machine, freeing up your oven for the roast, sides and dessert. The pull-apart aspect means that a loaf is already perfectly portioned, and also creates those irresistible textural variations. Be sure to let an excellent salted butter come to room temperature for slathering at the table.

Let’s call this an advanced technique, but not because it’s difficult—to the contrary! This recipe harnesses the power of the machine for perfect mixing and rising, and then you transfer the dough to a jelly roll pan for stretching, dimpling and baking. Beyond that, you’ll be rocked by what impressive, old-world flavor can be turned out from that little robotic kneading paddle.

If your machine has a “sweet bread” cycle, get ready for a treat. There’s no need for a stand mixer or multiple bowls to get these rolling—your machine will do all the work. These are everything you want in a cinnamon roll—buttery warmth with a simple icing that gives your little tower some serious appeal.

We couldn’t forget about good old white bread, could we? This is the starter loaf for anyone who needs to learn how to work their machine, and the loaf that you’ll whip together and bring to gatherings when you have little time for big kitchen projects. It’s a sandwich stalwart, and leftovers, if there are any, are ideal for homemade croutons, breadcrumbs, French toast, bread pudding, and we could go on forever.

This is a real-deal whole-wheat loaf that comes together just as easily as anything else you turn out of your machine. It has just a little bit of bread flour to give it proper lift, but the rest is whole-wheat. And this takes full advantage of the machine’s ability to operate without a babysitter—you can take 1 minute to toss in ingredients at breakfast and set it to have a fresh, hot whole-wheat loaf emerging by dinnertime.

If you’ve dabbled but haven’t found your foolproof homemade pizza dough recipe yet—one recipe is too wet, another is too elastic—this is it. Use your machine’s dough setting to mix and proof everything so that a dough that handles like a dream will come out when you’re ready to use it.

Did you know that bread machines aren’t just for yeast breads? The same easy, one-bowl quality that they bring to yeast baking is also true for quickbreads, and they also take the guesswork out of the timing (although you can still test with a toothpick if you want to be totally sure). As if we need more reasons to keep bananas on the counter just a few days longer…