We just got another bread machine and have been waking up to the utterly heavenly aroma of fresh bread and coffee, set to finish just as our first alarm rings. We quickly got too used to just plain bread, and I began adding different dried fruit to the bread pan.
I know that you are supposed to wait until the proper time to add such things, but I am usually sound asleep then, lol! So I just put it in the bottom of the pan and follow the white bread recipe the machine recommends. Here are the dried fruits that we have tried thus far, and we love each one:
Dark raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried blueberries (for the 4th, we had blueberries and cherries so we could have red, white, and blue), golden raisins and a teaspoon of cinnamon, and tomorrow, we are trying dried apricots, cut in quarters. I have some dried apple rings that will be next.
I don't measure the fruit, I just sprinkle it in the bottom of the bread pan in a scant single layer. The fruit is moist and the bread itself looks almost like whole wheat. I think that if we had to choose, the cherries are just about our favorite.
By Margie from Mount Vernon, OH
