Bread Machine Recipe

Bread 101

 

When did bread become $5.00 a loaf?  Isn't that a sign of something dire?  I'm not an economist but I know when it's time to take action. And in this situation, what would any woman would do who has a Dak Turbo IV bread making machine in her cupboard?  Buy a bag of flour and fire it up!  Actually, I couldn't find the instructions because SOMEONE had recently thrown them out in a cleaning frenzy..."Do you really need all these cooking magazines?" he asked.  "Umm...well, I supposed not." I replied weakly, knowing that I obviously DID need them because otherwise why would I have saved them?  Following some unspoken law of the Universe that says whatever you have kept but never looked at for 10 years and suddenly throw out, you will immediately need...sure enough, a couple of weeks later I discover that the Dak Turbo IV bread machine instructions were in that stack of magazines.  Luckily, someone had posted the entire set on the internet - how thoughtful!  My daughter was enthusiastic about the project - she remembers me using the bread machine in her early childhood - so she went out to buy flour and yeast.  We started with basic white bread.  The whole process is simpler than I remembered.  In fact, all you have to do is plug it in, set the clock, add the ingredients, and press START.  I will say that the finished loaf unfortunately lacks visual appeal due to the bullet shape of the baking canister (I think the newer machines have the more traditional loaf shape), but it tastes very nice, especially toasted, and probably costs less than $1.00 per loaf. Also, you can set it on the timer and wake up to a fresh loaf - or, if you suffer from insomnia, you get up and make a loaf at 3 in the morning.

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

1 package yeast

2 tblspns sugar or honey

Combine the above in the machine and let sit for 10 minutes until the yeast dissolves (looks a bit foamy). Don't be impatient. You need to wait the full 10 minutes, by the way, or the yeast magic won't work and your loaf will not rise properly.  I rushed it  in the beginning and ended up with a few disappointing loaves!

Add:

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup oil
(you can use vegetable oil, olive oil, or butter)

Optional seasonings that you can add for variety - they make the bread taste like Focaccia!

1 tblspn onion flakes

1 tblspn rosemary
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/2 tsp garlic powder

PRESS START!

The Machine at work

The finished product, toasted with delicious sweet butter melting on top - you can see the little hole in the bottom where the blade was.  That used to really upset me when I first bought the machine.

 

A delicious egg and cheese breakfast sandwich

 

 

 

  This loaf is deliicious and almost gone.

"When Rabbit said, "Honey or condensed milk with your bread?" he was so excited that he said, "Both", and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, "But don't bother about the bread, please."

Winnie the Pooh

by A.A. Milne