In my pursuit of healthier and more natural food choices, I came across some info on the bad ingredients in store-bought bread. Partly because of that and partly because it just sounded like fun, I decided to pull out my long forgotten bread machine.


In the past I didn't have much luck making bread in said machine, therefore it was relegated to a spot on the bottom shelf of my pantry, behind my backup crockpot and some other contraption that I'm still trying to figure out.

Before, I've always made a loaf or two, gotten discouraged and stopped trying. This time I was determined. My first loaf wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I blamed my yeast that expired in 2010. My 2nd was pretty doughy but tasted ok.

On the 3rd loaf I used fresh ingredients, followed the instructions and watched the loaf carefully. It looked great as it was rising then fell about 2 inches during the baking cycle. It turned out also very doughy. At this point I would normally have given up. But as I said, a woman on a mission. So I did some very scientific research (google) and surmised that the problem was that it rose too long and possibly had too much yeast.

So on my 4th loaf I used a shorter rise cycle cut the yeast back by 1/4 tsp and viola! Excellent bread machine bread! It would make great sandwiches, except my hubby won't stop eating it. Now that I'm starting to get the hang of this, I can't wait to try out some other varieties. It's so easy to just throw the ingredients in there and it's also great training in measuring for the girls. I should add that Kaleigh is getting so good in the kitchen. She's finally learned the difference between a teaspoon and a cup. I'm just kidding, she really is coming along. Seriously, she's miles ahead of my sister already. I Love you, Kelly.

Bread  Awesomeness!

Here's the recipe I used. It's good but now that I'm an expert bread maker person I'm sure anything I make will be excellent. Okay, for real if anyone is interested I'll keep you informed of future doughy endeavors, including grinding my own wheat. Since I'll pretty much have to make a loaf every other day I have lots of time to experiment.


Honey Oat Bread:
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
2 T oil
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast


Original recipe: Honey Oat Bread