I love my bread machine

Jocelyn asked: ...will you post some of your more common bread machine recipes? I'm considering using our machine more and buying less bread. Thanks!

Jocelyn - I couldn't post on your blog - but I wanted to tell you that your son is gorgeous!

Now for the bread machine. I love, love, love my bread machine. My mother bought it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It sat in its box for a year before we ever tried it. Now I use it 2-3 times a week.

If you've never used a bread machine before, here's how it works: You put the ingredients in the machine - wet ingredients first, dry ingredients second, yeast last. You turn it on. You enjoy hot, fresh bread. Seriously, it's that easy.

I have two recipes that I use frequently. Both are from the recipe book that came with the machine. One is a quick loaf that is ready in an hour, from start to finish. It takes quite a bit of yeast and so far, I've only been successful using white flour for it. The other takes 3 hours and I usually make it with a mix of white and wheat flour.

ExpressBake Traditional-Style White Bread
(makes a 1.5 lb loaf)

1 cup + 2 Tbsp hot water
2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
3 cups of bread flour (I just use unbleached all-purpose flour.)
5 tsp bread machine yeast (I use 2 packets of Fleishmann's Active Dry Yeast.)

Place the ingredients in the pan in the order listed. Make a little well in the flour and pour the yeast into it - making sure that the yeast doesn't touch any of the wet ingredients.

Select expressbake and press start.

I've only used this machine, but I'm sure others have an "expressbake" type option.


Homestyle White Bread (My version is more like Homestyle Kind-of Wheat Bread)
(makes a 1.5 lb loaf)

1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp butter or margarine, softened (I've used spreadable butter and it works fine.)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp milk (I warm it up a little before putting it in.)
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 cups of flour (I use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. I mix them together before putting them in the pan.)
2 1/2 tsp of bread machine yeast (I use one packet of Flieschmann's Active Dry Yeast.)

Add the ingredients to the pan in the order that they're listed above. Make a little well in the flour and pour the yeast into it - making sure that the yeast doesn't touch any of the wet ingredients.

Select 1 1/2 lb loaf. Select crust color. Use the Basic program. Press Start.

I've tried some other recipes as well. I usually just google whatever ingredients I have + bread machine (Like "sweet potato bread machine" or "vanilla yogurt raisin bread machine"). Be sure that the recipe is for a size of loaf that your machine can handle. I made a sweet potato bread the other day. The recipe was for a 2 lb loaf - I was thinking my machine could do that, but it's largest size is 1.5 lb. Luckily I used wheat flour in place of some of the white flour, so it didn't rise nearly as high as it could have. Crisis averted and the bread was delicious! Could have ended up really nasty and messy, though.

Here are some sources for recipes:

http://www.qis.net/~champion/bread/main.html
http://fp.enter.net/~rburk/breads/breadmachine/breadmachine.htm
http://busycooks.about.com/od/breadmachinerecipes/Bread_Machine_Recipes.htm


And some useful info:
http://www.breadmachinedigest.com/beginners/the-basic-bread-machine-ingredients.php


Saving $$$ with your bread machine
If you buy your various ingredients at regular price, the cost of making bread is around the same cost as store bought. However, you know that you aren't using HFCS or trans fats, or anything else funky in your bread.

I watched and waited for baking season sales to start up this year - usually happens in early November. I traded for yeast coupons and ended up getting paid to buy the yeast I'll use until next year. I stocked up on unbleached, all-purpose flour during the same sale. I buy whole wheat flour from Whole Foods as I need it. I'm planning on watching for it to go on sale next year during baking season and I'll buy whatever amount makes a case to save an additional 10%.

I have no idea what my cost per loaf is now. I have the money-maker yeast, the cheap flour. Sometimes I use free-after-coupon butter, sometimes I use marked-down milk. Sometimes I use marked-down yogurt. The sweet potato bread was made with canned organic sweet potatoes that I found for .33 a can. So, obviously, there's no way for me to say how much each loaf costs. I'm sure it's way less than what I would be paying in the store and I know it's healthier.

A word of warning: be prepared to gain a little weight when you start using your machine. It's hard to resist fresh bread. And it just smells so good.