Baking Bread

i got interested in baking bread about 15 years ago when a friend of mine got a brand new breadmaker. she let me borrow it while they were on vacation and i fell in love. easy, fast, and yummy! what could be better? soon after i bought my own bread maker. at first i baked all the time, then i drifted off into other activities, but the last 5 years or so have revived my interest in getting the most out of my bread machine. i do 2 things regularly in my breadmaker. bake our weekly whole wheat bread, and make pizza dough.



isn't that a good looking loaf of bread? and it smells just heavenly when its done. that warm, yeast-y, ooo-ooo-ooo good smell that brings back good memories of eating bread warm with butter, maybe honey butter from mom?? well, you know what i mean ...



one of the other reasons i started making bread is i wanted to eliminate some of the additives, preservatives and excess sugars they put in store bought bread as well as save some money. i try to use organic whole wheat flour for half of the called for flour, but i haven't been sucessful finding oragnic white flour yet. i have tried making 100% whole wheat bread, but without good results.

the recipe i do use is one i found on the internet several years ago and i no longer know the source. if you know where this comes from give me a shout out in the comments and i'll definitely give the person credit. its a great recipe and so easy too.

Rich Buttermilk Bread

1 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil (i use olive oil)
4 1/4 cups flour (i divide this between the wheat and white flour)
6 Tbsp buttermild powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Add all the ingredients in order provided, use the whole wheat setting and presto! in a few hours you have homemade, delicious bread.

do you bake bread? do you use a breadmachine? chime in and let me know what you like to bake with or without a breadmachine!