Making Bread

I've been wanting to write about our bread making for ages. Many of the blogs I read regularly post nice photos of yummy foods they've been making and I'm a bit jealous. Mr Click is in charge of cooking in our house, but the one thing I'm allowed to do is make bread.

I should include a note here about the fact that this isn't 'proper' bread, it's the 'throw all the ingredients in the mixing pan, press the right button and wait until it beeps at you' variety. It's on exactly the right level for my culinary skills.

And the bread is pretty yummy and looks good too. Most of the time.

What happens when you try to make a 1.5lb loaf on the wrong setting. Yummy.

The recipe I use is one that came with our original bread machine, a big clunky thing that expired shortly after its warranty. It's been modified slightly (it used to call for Vitamin C powder) and I'm none too careful about the exact measurements anymore. You just throw them all in and watch it rise.

And here's how I do it:
3 tablespoons semi-skimmed milk powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 cups strong white flour
2 cups granary or whole meal flour
1 tablespoon yeast
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 & 2/3 cup water (I usually measure this as one cup, plus 150ml)

I put all those ingredients into the mixing pan, in that order. I'm not too exact with the measurements any more, if some are a bit over or under it doesn't affect it much.

You can also modify it slightly if you're running low on one type of flour. It needs four cups total but if we're running low on granary I might make it three cups white to one cup granary.

On our bread machine I set it on the whole meal setting, which is our option 3. This makes a 2lb loaf; I usually vary between medium and light depending on if we'll be eating it with soup or as sandwiches. This takes three hours, forty minutes, and I recommend eating it with chocolate spread on while it's still warm.