Skip to main content

Easy Bread Machine White Bread


About 6 months ago, I made the very difficult decision to leave my long-time job at Lower Columbia College for the opportunity to work at University of Portland, which had been a dream of mine for quite a while. During my last few days at LCC, one of my co-workers and friends asked me if I would finally be able to resume my blog and share recipes since I was going from a 40 hour work-week to a 35 hour work-week. At the time, I told him I wasn’t sure but that I would certainly try! Well, it has been 6 months...and all that extra time ended up consumed with a new obsession - gardening! (I’m sure there will be more about that new adventure in the future.) Anyway, I still haven’t been all that active with baking lately but I think this is the perfect opportunity to change that, if for no other reason, than it has  been almost impossible to even buy bread in the town of Woodland right now! Lol

Which leads me to my post today - we’re making bread! And though I will end up making many loaves from scratch over the coming months, I’m sure, it is time consuming and I’m out of bread right now. I’m sure many of us have seen the meme on Facebook regarding car napkins and how it is their time to shine...well you know what else is having a time to shine right now? Bread makers! I happen to have one that has been sitting on my kitchen counter mostly unused for the last 2+ years. I bought it when I moved into my tiny apartment a few years ago and used it from time to time but never really gave it the second life I promised it when I rescued it from the shelves of Goodwill for $15. Now that I’m working from home...looks like full-time for the foreseeable future...I will have plenty of time to forget to start the thing before work and go push the button when I walk to the kitchen to refill my coffee cup! 

For today, I’m just going to make a quick white bread. I’d like to make some multi-grain but first I’ll have to find the ingredients I don’t already have...yeah...anywho, enjoy! And if anyone has some bread machine recipes they’d like to share or have me guinea pig first, let me know!











Bread Machine White Bread

Recipe from King Arthur Flour found here

Ingredients

For large (1 1/2 to 2-pound) machine (check link above if you have a smaller 1-pound machine)
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1/3 cup warm milk
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 3/4 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • 3 tablespoons  sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant yeast

Directions

Warm milk carefully in the microwave for 30 seconds. For warm water, I've found that running the tap for a bit it sufficient for warm water in this case; just be sure to test it with you hand, you don't want it so hot that it burns you or it will kill your yeast too. Add all ingredients to the bread pan. (That's the best part of bread machines, you just dump everything in and ta-da!) Insert pan into bread machine, if it isn't in there already, and program for a basic loaf. I prefer mine a little darker so I usually select medium or dark for the bread color. Press start on the bread machine and let it do it's thing! 

When the cycle is complete, I remove the pan from the machine and let rest a room temperature for 30-45 minutes before turning the loaf out. This should allow it to still be warm enough that it should be easy to remove the paddle if it is still in the bottom of the loaf, but not so warm that the loaf tears when you turn it out of the loaf pan. You can eat it right away (I mean what's better than warm fresh bread?) but be careful when slicing as it is very fragile still. To use as sandwich bread, I would recommend allowing to cool completely before slicing and then only cutting pieces as you need them to keep them from drying out too quickly.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

S'mores with a Twist!

Now that it is finally summer and the weather is beautiful here in Southwest Washington, that means it is time for camping and cookouts to begin.  The most important food item at these events of course, being s'mores.  Who needs the hot dogs, burgers and steaks...I'll take s'mores please!  : D For our family camping trip I decided to mix it up a bit and feature some new candy bars besides the Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars.  I hit the candy aisle at the grocery store and looked for every flat-ish candy bar available.  I ended up with a Hershey's Symphony bar, a Hershey's Cookies n' Cream bar, a Mr. Goodbar (my family's personal fav) and a Reese's Peanut Butter bar.  Time for the fun to begin!   We all had a blast trying the different bars and although they were all delicious, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law liked the Mr. Goodbar best, where as I LOVED the Reese's Peanut Butter bar.  I ate way too many after white water rafting...but I figure...
3 comments
Read more

Graduation cupcakes!

A few weeks ago now, our family had two graduations on the same day...my little one graduated from preschool (I feel so OLD) and my brother-in-law graduated from high school.  In honor of such wonderful occasions I decided to make some cupcakes.   For my daughter's, I made mini cupcakes with blue and pink graduation hats since those are the colors she and her classmates wore from graduation.  Then for our little BBQ at home, I made big cupcakes with green hats (that was my brother-in-law's school color) and pink ones for the graduation girl.   Now, I must confess, that with all the things going on that week and the fact that I had to bake goodies for the end of the quarter parties at the college I work at, I cheated on these cupcakes.  Yup, that's right, I used box mixes.  See, I do it sometimes...not often but every once in a while you just don't have the time or energy to bake from scratch.  I do it, you guys do it...we all do.  So do y...
1 comment
Read more

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls...from scratch!

Tuesdays are our lazy days around our house.  I don't work until the afternoon and my daughter doesn't have school, so it is kind of the day that we sleep in, have a yummy breakfast and get a few things done around the house.  This Tuesday, I decided to make it extra special and make homemade cinnamon rolls...from scratch!  I don't think there is any better breakfast than a delicious hot from the oven cinnamon roll that you made with your very own hands.  Plus, I had some leftover cream cheese frosting that tasted just like Cinnabon's frosting...so yeah, basically best breakfast EVER! lol Our ingredients... Add your milk, oil, and sugar to a saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until just below boiling. Sprinkle on the yeast and allow to sit for a minute. Stir in the 4 cups of flour. Allow to sit covered with a kitchen towel for an hour in a warm place.  then stir in the last 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Place in ...
4 comments
Read more