Bread maker series coming soon!

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Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. -John 6:35

 Would you love to have fresh bread for dinner or breakfast whenever you wanted?  First of all there is the amazing aroma that fills your home while it is baking, then there is the fact that you make it, so you know whats in it, and for that matter what isn’t in it.  So many of the big chains have admitted to putting crazy things in their bread even beyond preservatives but things like this https://www.yahoo.com/food/yoga-mat-chemical-found-in-way-more-food-products-than-77969476828.html.  In a couple of weeks, I am going to begin a series of blogs on making bread using your bread maker.  Not the square looking stuff with the hole in the bottom that you picture when you think of “bread maker” bread, but cinnamon and caramel rolls, pretzel rolls, french bread with a crunchy crust and soft chewy middle, crescent rolls,  pizza rolls, bagels, jalapeno cheddar rolls, cinnamon swirl bread, homemade pizza crust and bread sticks and much more.  The list is just too long to write on here.  I am telling you that you can do it and you will never go back to store bought bread.  I am asking you to be patient with me though as my technical blogging skills are still evolving, so I am in the beginning stages and hope that the blog will look more and more professional as time goes on. It will be functional just working on my professional look.  I finally decided that if I waited until my blog looked exactly like I wanted it to, I would probably never start.  So if you want to do this with me you will need the following things:

  • A Breadmaker -Dust yours off from storage, get one from a friend who has no intention of using theirs or use your Christmas gift card to get one.  They are hard to find in stores anymore but if you go on walmart.com or any of those kind of places you can get one for less than $50.00.  I don’t have any fancy ones (yes, I have multiple breadmakers and use them almost daily).  Things to look for are; make sure it is a 2 pound capacity, and I do like to have the delay start option.
  • Bread Flour- You can find this at any grocery store.  It is higher in gluten and really is the best for making a great loaf of bread.  You can get it in a smaller bag or for a tiny bit more you can get a 25 pound bag at Smart and Final or many other places.  I have a great system (one of my first blogs in this series) that I use that helps with storage of the flour as well as ease for making things.  If you are interested in really giving this a try, get the big bag.  It is really a money saver and you will be surprised how quickly you go through it.
  • Quick rise yeast or instant yeast-  When I began using my breadmaker, I always bought the little glass jar of breadmachine yeast which was so expensive.  I now buy a one pound bag of instant yeast  for half the price of the 4 ounce jar of breadmachine yeast.  Just empty it into an airtight container and keep it in the fridge.
  • Instant (Powdered) Milk- Not one of those things that most of us have in our cupboard. This is in my pizza crust recipe that you will use to make garlic or cinnamon/sugar bread sticks (your family will flip for these), calzones, pizza roll-ups and who knows what else.  The recipe calls for only 3 tablespoons but you will make it over and over again.
  • A Basting Brush-  I prefer silicone.  This you will use to brush loaves with egg or olive oil or butter prior to baking.
  • A clean spray bottle that can be used only for water (food grade)- These are cheap and you will use this with the french bread recipe.  Trust me it is worth the small price of the bottle.  Don’t recycle a bottle that has been used for something else.

The following things are optional and you will need them if you plan to use the system that I will suggest (one of my first blogs) for easily doling out and storing your flour.  This system will also make it quicker and easier to put your recipes together since things will be all measured out.

  • A Digital Scale- Mine has a 10 pound capacity but you would never need more than a couple of pound for this purpose.  I have an electric one and a battery operated one, I love the battery operated one because I don’t have to have it near a plug in but it does go through batteries and always seems to need one at a crucial time when I have no extras.
  • 1 Quart Ziplock Type Baggies– These will be used for measuring your flour into and can be reused several times.

Of course you will also need things like a good cookie sheet ( I use half sheet pans), and a good loaf pan.  I am a big believer in parchment paper but that is optional.  Most everything else you will need are things that most people have such as water, sugar, eggs and milk.

It will be the middle to the end of January before I begin posting recipes while I get ready but I am beyond excited.  Stay tuned.

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