Monday, April 18, 2011

Recipe Monday: Bread Machine Honey Wheat Bread

So, I've been trying to eat as many whole foods without preservatives/hinky ingredients or corn syrup as possible. I figure the "no preservatives" is about close to a faux french diet as I'm getting in NJ and the corn syrup isn't about any real political agenda on my part per se, I don't like the aftertaste of it I find and I find it shows up in the weirdest places like kielbasa. I'm okay with it being in canned food as I've cut down on that and it does serve a purpose there in terms of not having the food taste like tin. So part of this quest has also entailed that I've started baking bread . . .in a bread machine. Which to real bakers counts about as much as making a cake from a cake mix and people claim once you make it the "real" way you'll never go back. Here's the thing: if I make it the "real" way and am solely dependent on that for my bread intake, I'm never eating bread again. I just don't have the time and energy to make it from scratch but making it in a machine I get to control what ingredients go in it and it's v. low hassle. At this point, I've got it down pat and don't even need the recipe anymore. And Jow is really good at cutting the bread which is good because my knife skills are "rustic" at best.

1 1/4 cup hot water (as hot as it gets from your tap)
3 counts of honey (like counting a shot), 3 times (approx 3 tablespoons?)
1 1/2 cup bread flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 capfuls of olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon Hodgson Mill Active Dry Yeast

Add ingredients to your bread machine in order as they are listed here. Set your bread machine to the smallest loaf, regular whole wheat setting and lightest crust. As your bread machine is mixing, check to make sure the bread is mixing correctly (is it too sticky? Too dry? Add more bread flour or water as needed).

1 comments:

Lavanah said...

Eh, this is one "real" bread baker that says that what you have made is real bread. The technique is different, not the materials, or the end result. If it is too crumbly to slice, either substitute special high-gluten flour for your bread flour (which is already higher gluten than standard flour) or a teaspoon or wheat gluten (which you can buy in the baking aisle of pretty much any supermarket). As for cutting the bread, let it cool a bit. There are also special bread knives that you can buy, with built in guides.

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