Homestyle Whole Wheat Bread

I tried another recipe from The Bread Machine Bible: More Than 100 Recipes for Delicious Home Baking with Your Bread Machine! By Anne Sheasby for our bread this week. This time for homestyle whole wheat bread. This recipe is slightly different from most wheat bread recipes as it doesn't call for dry milk powder. Again, this was a very moist bread with a great crumb and a good, nutty flavor. I have a lot of dry milk powder right now, so I doubt I'll make this one again anytime very soon, but I'll definitely be using this as my recipe once I'm out of the dry milk powder!

As a side note, I am totally loving this weekly homemade bread - never have to buy the stuff from the store again goal! Using the bread machine is super easy - effortless really... so is using the KitchenAid... which I'll be doing more of in the near future. There really is no excuse for not doing this sooner! We don't really eat a lot of bread - and rarely finish an entire loaf in a week... but I've been making homemade bread crumbs and storing them in the freezer with the inch or so of remaining loaf each week. I'm saving tons of money, not having to buy bread anymore, and even more now that I will never have to buy bread crumbs again!! It may not be a huge savings on a weekly basis, but it sure does add up fast! As my bread crumb stock continues to grow, I'll be using more leftovers to make homemade croutons for our salads. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know! I've wondered if I could slice and freeze the ends and pull them out when I get enough to make a french toast bake or strata or something else calling for day-old bread or the like.

I'll update later with a picture... I'm very behind at uploading pics from the camera right now...

Homestyle Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 cups water
3 cups whole wheat flour
Heaped 3/4 cup bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, diced
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast

Pour the water into the bread pan. Sprinkle each type of flour over in turn, covering the water completely. Place the salt, sugar, and butter in separate corners of the pan. Make a small indent in the middle of the flour and add the yeast.

Close the lid and set machine to Whole Wheat or Multigrain cycle, then select loaf size and crust type. Press start.

Farmhouse Loaf

Yet another new bread machine recipe. This one comes from The Bread Machine Bible: More Than 100 Recipes for Delicious Home Baking with Your Bread Machine, by Anne Sheasby. This is another tasty bread. We're having a hard time figuring out which is our favorite of the new recipes I've tried these last couple of months. But its been fun having slightly different bread each week. I still have an arsenal of new recipes that I want to try, so this trend of having a new bread every week will continue for quite awhile. Anyway, this bread has a great crumb. Its nice, soft, and moist inside with a slightly sweet flavor from the brown sugar. And I liked that the sides didn't get super crisp and dark brown like most other loaves seem to if I let them cook the full time.

Farmhouse Loaf

1 1/2 cups water
2 3/4 cups plus 2 Tablespoons bread flour
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons whole wheat bread flour
1 Tablespoon skim milk powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons soft light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast

Pour the water in the bread pan. Sprinkle each type of flour over, in turn, covering water completely. Sprinkle milk powder over flour. Place salt, sugar, and butter in different corners of the pan. Make a small indent in the flour and place the yeast there.

Select Basic White cycle, select loaf size and crust. Press start.

If possible, 10 minutes before the baking cycle starts, brush the top of the loaf with water and dust with flour. Using a sharp knife, cut a slash, about 1/2 inch deep, along the length of the loaf.

Steakhouse Wheat Bread

I tried another new bread machine recipe for steakhouse wheat bread. I found this one on AllRecipes. This bread is delicious!! It really does taste just like the bread you get in some of the popular chain steakhouses. Whip up a small batch of cinnamon or honey butter and it'd be exactly like eating it at a steakhouse! Mine didn't rise much, but I'm not sure its supposed to since there isn't a lot of flour in it... and it still more than doubled in size, so I think its just how this bread is. It had a great crumb and didn't seem dense or anything like bread does when it doesn't rise enough. So I'm not sure. I'm going to make it again this week, so we'll see how it does then.

Steakhouse Wheat Bread

3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place the warm water, butter, honey, salt, coffee, cocoa, sugar, bread flour, whole wheat flour, and bread machine yeast in the pan of a bread machine in the order listed. Put on regular or basic cycle with light crust.

Old-Fashioned Wheat Bread

Here is another recipe that I tried from the 250 Best American Bread Machine Baking Recipes book that I have checked out from the library. I made this a couple of weeks ago and it is very good - I've actually made it once more since. It is moist, yet sort of dense, with a nice crumb. Its great for sandwiches and toast in the mornings! I have a picture of the bread sliced - but that picture is still on the camera, so I'll update with that later on.

Old-Fashioned Wheat Bread

1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons liquid honey
1 Tablespoon molasses
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1/4 cup gluten
1 1/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast

Measure ingredients into baking pan in the order recommended by your machine manufacturer. Insert pan in the oven chamber. Select Whole Wheat Cycle. Makes a 1.5 pound loaf.

* For a sweeter, milder-flavored bread, you may substitute packed brown sugar for the honey and molasses.

* You may use the Rapid Whole Wheat Cycle, just increase the yeast by 1/2 teaspoon.

French Bread

I broke out the bread machine on Wednesday for the first time in quite a long stretch of time. I'm really hoping to start using it a lot more frequently from now on - I'd like to stop buying any bread from the store, so we'll see how it goes. I tried a recipe from 250 Best American Bread Machine Baking Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt, which I've checked out from the library. There are so many awesome sounding recipes in this book - I'm excited to try some more! This recipe for french bread was very good, even with old bread flour and old yeast! (I had just enough of each to use for this before breaking out my new stuff... so I couldn't waste it!) The bread was very soft and moist on the inside with a great french bread texture and flavor. The crust was quite crisp... as I know french bread is supposed to be, but actually next time I think I'll just put the machine on the basic cycle with the light crust setting rather than the french cycle with light crust setting to see if it makes the crust a little less crisp.

French Bread

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon sugar
4 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast

Measure ingredients into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select French Cycle. Makes a 2 pound loaf.

Herb Cheese Bread

I tried a new recipe for herb cheese bread from AllRecipes to go with our lasagna on Tuesday. This was very good and was a great pairing with lasagna - and would be good with any italian dish, I think. Kevin, Carson, and I all really loved this. I'll definitely make this again. And best of all, the bread machine does all the work for you!

Herb Cheese Bread

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons dry milk powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the Basic or White Bread cycle, and press Start.

(Instead of adding the separate herbs, I just substituted with 5 teaspoons Mrs. Dash Italian Medley)