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I have a bread machine and make bread using margarine (I need to avoid all dairy). The problem is the margarine doesn't always mix properly and sometimes ends up on the outside of the dough, leaving shiny dark crunchy spots. The recipe I am following is

  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 3 tbs margarine
  • 1/2 tbs salt
  • 1/2 tbs + 1 tsp sugar
  • 4 1/8 cups A/P flour (Canadian A/P flour)
  • 1 tsp bread machine yeast

Can I substitute some kind of oil instead of margarine? I suspect this will mix better but I'm not sure about how the chemistry works.

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  • Have you tried making the bread without the margarine?
    – Mien
    Oct 17, 2011 at 15:44
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    Ya, you don't need the fat in all bread (or the sugar). Most of my breads (and breads around the world) are just flour, salt, water, yeast. Whether that recipe for that machine does...eh?
    – rfusca
    Oct 17, 2011 at 15:53
  • @Mr.Shiny, sugar in bread? You must be Asian - from which part of Asia you are? I had a big trouble in Asia, couldn't buy bread without sugar. At least it was without a margarine! :-)
    – Tomas
    Oct 18, 2011 at 10:15

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Well, it sounds like the answer should just be to soften your margarine first. Either your margarine is ice cold or your machine doesn't need very long if you're ending up with little studded bits of margarine in your crust - that's very unusual.

Can you add oil? Sure. Try adding some olive oil instead or just vegetable shortening . There's a little water in margarine and butter, its an emulsion - about 16% of it - so if you're going to add pure fat then technically you'd need to add about 1 tsp of water as well. Will 1 tsp of water matter overall? Probably not...but its there.

(Overall that recipes looks a bit low on water to me also - I'm not sure how that would effect the margarine mixing though.)

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  • The margarine is very soft already coming out of the fridge. You could easily spread it on bread without tearing the bread even if the bread was very soft. I think what happens is a bit of margarine gets stuck to the side of the machine and clings there without getting incorporated by the paddles, which are on the bottom of the machine. It doesn't happen every time but it does happen often.
    – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
    Oct 17, 2011 at 19:41
  • Try premixing it a bit first then.
    – rfusca
    Oct 17, 2011 at 19:44

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