You Don't Need To Knead

If you have one of these!

Admire the bread.
And no cracks about my crappy stove.  It's old.

Years ago I gifted myself with a bread maker.  They were all the rage and although I knew how to make bread and rolls and had been doing it for a long time I thought "Well, let's jump on that band wagon."  So I did.  When I first purchased it I made a lot of bread but due to space constraints I finally stopped pulling it out of the closet to use and just went about making rolls and such from scratch.

Then we moved.  And it came with us.

Then we moved again.  And so did it.

Then we moved a third time and by now my husband was grumbling about my purchase.

After our fourth and final move into our current home the bread maker was relegated to the garage.  Honestly I don't know why because this is the biggest kitchen I have ever had, but I suspect Pooldad was tired of looking at the dang thing.

Then I got sick and there were no more rolls to be had on Thanksgiving. :( We resorted to buying the frozen dough and making them that way and although they are good they still aren't quite what we were used to.

So Wallene [the finder of everything] mentioned that she knew exactly where the bread machine was and how about it be released from the confines of the garage and find a new home on our counter?

As you can see there it is.  It is still a honker big appliance but it fits nicely in the place formally held by my coffeepot.  [Which, if you remember, is now off to college.  Smarty pants Cuisinart 12 cupper.  We miss you!  Please write. sniff.]

The neatest thing about it is that you can make bread from start to finish in it or you can simply make the dough and finish it up in your own oven.  This particular model makes all kinds of dough too - pizza, bagel, french, white, etc.  The amount of actual prep time in either method is about 10 minutes total - and no kneading in either method.  Awesome!

I understand from reading a lot of message boards that people are selling these at yard sales for as little as $5!  I know I paid $100 for this one back in 1998 [?] so that sounds about right for one in good condition.  You don't even need a manual if you buy a used one [I lost mine eons ago. hee  Pooldad found mine today while cleaning out the garage.  THAT is tomorrow's post. egads.] because you can just go on line and find a recipe to fit what ever you want to make.

Which is what I did yesterday.

See how easy and inexpensive this recipe is:

Basic Bread Machine White Bread

1 cup warm water [110 degrees F - I just run my tap until the water is comfortably warm]

2 tbsp sugar

1 packet [.25 oz] of yeast made for bread machines [the reviews said you could use normal yeast and I believe it]

1/4 cup of oil [vegetable or olive]

3 cups of white, all purpose flour

1 tsp salt [some reviewers used 1.5 teaspoons - but you know me.  Both work.]

Put the yeast and sugar in the bread maker pan.  Pour warm water in**.  Let set 10 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients.  Set machine on Basic - White bread setting - medium [crust color].  Walk away. :D  In about 2 hours you will have warm bread. **Even if your bread maker or yeast says not to let the yeast touch the liquid, trust me, this does work.

Or if you like you can set it on the dough setting and when it is finished just pop it out, put it in a bread pan [I used two mini loaf pans] let rise for about an hour then bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush with butter.  YUM!

From the two little loaf pans [pictured above] I had 20 slices of bread that [duh] makes 10 sandwiches, which we ate one whole loaf at dinner last night with Pooldad's killer chicken salad.  So good.

I am going to substitute the sugar with honey and half the white flour with wheat flour today because I really like whole wheat bread better. I also want to experiment with whole wheat in our pizza dough because I think that would be healthier.

Anyone else have a good bread machine recipe?  [Amy - I still want your wheat bread recipe. Please!]