Is there anything that smells better than bread baking? Maybe cookies. But not too much else. I bake most of our bread products around here. But I have a secret. This:
Yup, I use a bread machine for 99% of my bread baking. Every once in a while I get the urge to do some serious kneading and make a loaf the old fashioned way but most of the time I let my machine work for me. I make your basic sandwich bread and dough for dinner rolls, kaiser rolls, pizza, etc.
Our machine was given to us by my mother-in-law. It’s The Bread Machine by Welbilt. Our machine is great but is no longer being made. Two years ago for Christmas I got my mom the Cuisinart CBK-200 2-Pound Convection Automatic Breadmaker
, which works very well. Every bread machine comes with recipes and hers did too. But she prefers my basic white bread recipe, which I’m sharing this morning.
You can use this recipe for any machine so long as you use the proper loaf size setting. Also, be sure to add the ingredients in the order specified by your machine. So use other recipes (there are a ton of great ones on the internet!) but take a peek at your instruction booklet to be sure you put in the ingredients in the correct order.
Basic White Bread Recipe (2 pound loaf)
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 3 Tablespoons of oil
- 3 Tablespoons of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 tablespoon of dry active yeast
Put all the ingredients into the bread machine in the order listed. Select the 2 pound loaf cycle. Push start and about 3 hours later you’ve got bread!
My mother-in-law also gave us a handy slicing guide. With such large loafs it is an incredibly helpful tool.
Another must-have is a good bread knife. Ours is the Rada Cutlery Bread Knife.
Do you bake your own bread? Do you bake the old fashioned way or use a machine?
Cat is a teacher turned stay-at-home mom of two boys. She shares crafts, DIY projects, kids’ activities, and a little bit about life in Ohio. Learn more about her and the blog on the About page.