This recipe came in a booklet with my original breadmaker, and it's still my favorite white bread recipe. Any recipes that I create for the breadmaker are based on this basic one. Try it today, and later this week we'll change it up a bit!
Ingredients:
1 cup water, lukewarm
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 C bread flour
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
Directions:
Place all ingredients in your breadmaker in the order recommended by the manufacturer. If no order is recommended, place ingredients in machine in the order listed above. Set machine to basic/white bread setting and push start. If your breadmaker requires that you input a loaf size, select 1 1/2 lb loaf.
Options and Tips:
- I take this loaf out 20 minutes before the cycle is complete and cool it on a wire rack. If you're not sure how it will turn out in your bread machine, leave it in for the full cycle the first time you make it. If the crust is too hard for your liking, take it out early next time.
- This bread has no preservatives (all those ingredients that you can't pronounce!), so it won't keep for a week in your cupboard like store-bought white bread. If you don't finish the loaf after two days, put it in the fridge to preserve freshness. (Or make French Toast.)
- If your breadmaker has a vertical loaf pan and you'd like a "normal" shaped loaf of bread, use the dough setting on your machine. When the cycle is complete, punch down the dough and place it in a greased loaf pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until it's almost as tall as you'd like it (about 2-4 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is). Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.
- According to my calculations, it costs 78 cents to make a 1 1/2 lb loaf of bread using regularly priced ingredients from Meijer. If I get my yeast on price drop and my bread flour from Costco, the costs drops to 48 cents per loaf. Meijer's regular price on a smaller, 20 oz (1 1/4 lb) loaf of white bread is $1.49. On sale, it's around 99 cents. Yes, it's cheaper to make your bread at home...but you'll have to decide if it's worth it or not to you, because if you don't get your ingredients on sale, it's not THAT much cheaper. It's worth it to me, because it only takes a few minutes to make something that is SO much better than the store-bought version!
- For more tips and tricks for your bread machine, check out the post on Using Your Breadmaker.
So looking forward to your bread recipes. I too LOVE my bread machine and use it at least once a week, usually at least 2-3 times! What a time saver. I never bake the bread in the machine though cause YEARS ago when I first starting using it I did not like the HARD crust, never thought to take it out early like you do! THanks for the great hint!! I will be doing that..thanks!
ReplyDeleteI tried your bread last night and it had excellent taste and texture. I will make again for sure. I have a Breadman Plus and have had it for almost 13 years - although my husband has given it some TLC a few times. The last 20 minutes I kept checking it and took mine out about 7 minutes early I think and the crust was perfect. I had never thought about taking it out early - an EXCELLENT idea! Worked great. Now about the yeast - I never realized there was bread machine yeast. So I learned something knew. So I didn't have any in my house either - I do get my yeast from Costco. I always do have problems with my bread sinking a bit in the middle when I cook it in the my bread machine - so that is probably why. But when I take my dough and rise it myself and bake it - the yeast works just fine. But anyway for this recipe I did find a conversion chart on-line and used my normal yeast. Granted we have 6 bit eaters in my family and we didn't eat dinner until 6:00 p.m. so by then we were all very very hungry - but we ate the whole loaf! :-) We ate it with Potato Soup (Ruth Ann Elzinga) Heritage Cookbook. I put in way more of the potatoes and veggies and do not blend. One of my kid's favorite dinners.
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