Saturday, October 22, 2011

Bread Machine: White Bread

 My bread machine and I have been separated for about a year and half.  I had forgotten how much I missed her.  Even though I have a mixer, I still use my bread machine enough that I miss her when she's gone.  I love the convenience of it.  The other day I wanted to have soup and bread for dinner, but also had to take Hadlee to a dentist appointment and wouldn't be home to complete all the steps of making bread.  I almost picked up a loaf of french bread when I went to the store that morning, but then realized, I can just use my bread machine.  It is so nice to be able to put the ingredients in, press start and know that when I get back from wherever, we can walk in to the smell of fresh bread.
This is the best result I have had so far with bread in my bread maker.  I make a lot of dough in her and love that, but sometimes the bread is a little denser than I would like.  When we are eating it with soup I really don't mind.  However, this bread wasn't dense at all.  It was so light it almost melted in our mouths but also had a flaky crust that I really like when we are having soup.  When the bread machine was finished, I opened the top and was a little worried because the middle had sunk slightly.  I only used the amount of ingredients for a 1.5 lb loaf (and my bread machine capacity is 2 lbs) but the bread was to the top of the machine.  I was worried what that sunken middle meant and planned on looking through my instruction manual later to find out.  After I cut into the bread, I didn't care what the top looked like.  And after we tasted it, I cared even less.  I still don't know and it doesn't bother me.  I later realized that I didn't follow the recipe exactly, so maybe that had something to do with it, but I hope it turns out just like this next time too!  You may be able to make this bread by hand or in the mixer, but since I haven't done it yet, I can't say for sure how it would turn out.  This bread alone is worth getting a bread maker!

Bread Machine White Bread
Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 T water
1  1/2 T oil
2 T sugar
1  1/2 tsp salt
3  1/4 cups bread flour
1  3/4 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:
Check the instruction manual of your bread maker to see how it recommends adding ingredients.  For mine, you add all the we ingredients, add flour and salt, make a week in the middle and add yeast and sugar.  Turn onto setting appropriate for white bread and a 1.5 lb loaf.  When loaf is finished, remove from machine and let cool 5-10 minutes before slicing to prevent smashing the loaf.
Have a great weekend!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I ♥ your comments!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Pin It button on image hover
Pin It button on image hover