Recently I came across a fool-proof bread recipe for the bread machine and thought what the heck. So I dug out the old bread machine from storage and took her for a test drive.
Like everyone else, we bought a bread machine back in the day. And we used it. Or rather, hub mainly used it, to bake bread.
And then. He was diagnosed with Celiac and my bread supply sort of dried up. And the bread machine basically went into storage.
It was all store-bought bread for me. And I’m not complaining. I really haven’t met too many loaves of bread I’ll snub.
But lately I have been experimenting with no-knead breads. I love the crusty, yeasty smell in my house.
The allure of using the bread machine to do all the work and to confine the mess won me over to try this easy recipe with ingredients I already have on hand.
With all the decluttering I’ve been doing, I’m lucky I hadn’t already donated the old machine! And here’s the funny thing, many of the recipes I’ve found are shared by people who bought second-hand machines. And they work just fine!
And if there are any of my low-carb/no-carb buddies still left reading this, I see a lot of keto bread machine recipes too!
I love that this recipe isn’t fussy.
And if you’ve experienced problems using a bread machine in the past, I found this helpful article for troubleshooting.
Flour
I used the all-purposed flour I have on hand. No special bread flour.
Salt
Any kind of salt will do. Salt is salt in bread.
Oil
I used avocado oil. I also had olive oil, but I wasn’t sure if that would give a heavier texture or not.
Sugar
The yeast needs sugar, so it doesn’t seem like a tablespoon is too much. The bread isn’t sweet at all.
Water
Making bread with yeast requires a certain temperature range. I’m not sure how important that is with the bread machine, but I used warm water.
Time
I just pressed the start button and didn’t fiddle with any other settings. So the machine automatically set itself to 3 hours and 20 minutes.
Dough
Machine instructions are to leave the lid closed at all costs. But everything I’ve read is to open it and make sure you have a nice little dough ball. If not, more water or oil may be needed.
I got a nice little ball going.
Crust
The crust is perfect for sandwiches and toast. I haven’t tried this myself, but I read that reheating the bread in a 200⁰ oven for 15-20 minutes will provide a perfect crusty loaf as a side for dinner.
The little mixing doohickey does leave a deficit in the bottom of the loaf. No problem, I just ate until it was gone.
Ryan and I each had a slice right out of the bread maker and it was so good he took half the loaf home with him. So I made another loaf today.
A warm side with homemade chicken vegetable soup for lunch and hmmm, grilled cheese for dinner?
I have a lot of bread on hand now.
Here’s the simple recipe:
Bread Machine Bread Recipe
Equipment
- Bread Machine
Ingredients
- 1¼ cup warm water
- 1 tbsp oil I used avocado
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3⅓ cup flour
- 1 tbsp yeast
Instructions
- Add water and oil to bread machine pan. It's best to add the ingredients to the pan after it is well seated in the machine with the mixer in place.
- Add remaining ingredients except for yeast.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients with two fingers and add yeast to the well.
- Close the lid and press "Start."
Wrap Up
The weather is a little cool, so a nice warm fire, a cup of tea and a slice of toast is a perfect treat. Unless you’re Roxy, that is. She is just fine skipping the tea and toast.
Do you have any big plans closing out November?
God bless you and yours for a nice week ahead.