Homemade Bread

The local Wheat Montana coop is ready for orders this month. We've never ordered grains in bulk before, but I want to. DH has said that we need to make sure we could and would use the stuff we would buy.

We moved back in November and several months before that I got a bread machine from Freecycle. I had started experimenting with making my own bread occassionally. So, I decided I'd better drag out the machine and get back on track to prove to DH that ordering from the coop would save us money.

Once we order the grains, I plan to grind the flour myself in the Blendtec. But for now, I'm just using the flour we have on hand until it's all gone.

Here is the recipe I made yesterday. It came from the Joyful Abode blog. I tweaked it just a bit.

Here's what I did:
*Dissolve a little over 2 teaspoons of yeast in a cup of 110 degree water.
*Add 2 generous squirts of honey and stir. Let sit for 10 minutes to get foamy and exciting.
*Dump it in the bread machine’s well.
*Add 3 cups of flour (I added 1-1/2 cups each of whole wheat and bread flour)
*Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt
*Add 1/4 cup olive oil
*Set the machine to the sandwich bread/white bread/light setting.

My machine took not quite 4 hours to make the bread. It turned out pretty good. Perhaps a little more honey would have been nice if we planned to eat it plain, but it was quite yummy with various spreads we put on...like my Farmer's Market find of strawberry creamed honey. Mmmmm!!!

Here are two other recipes I came across that I want to try this week:
1. Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread
2. Sunflower Seed Whole Wheat Bread

As I learn more, I also want to experiment with making sprouted breads. And maybe one day I'll be brave enough to try to make my bread in the oven, but after several miserable failures a few years back, I'm thrilled I can even make bread machine bread turn out okay!

Do you have a yummy and healthy bread machine recipe I should try?? :)