Today I’m sharing a recipe that has become the go-to bread in our kitchen. Several years ago I “borrowed” my mom’s bread machine and somehow just haven’t given it back yet. The bread machine is one of those weird kitchen appliances that takes up entirely too much room, and is really only good for one purpose, but I really do think it’s worth its weight in gold.

Homemade bread is approximately 1273 times more delicious than store-bought bread, and the bread machine makes it so much more attainable. If I was kneading bread by hand or even watching it in my KitchenAid Mixer, I would rarely make it. With the bread machine I make bread almost every week. It’s so easy to throw all the ingredients in, push a few buttons, and forget about it for an hour and a half. I do prefer to use my machine to knead the dough and do the first rising, but then I bake it in the oven in a regular 5×9 loaf pan.

After the dough has completed its cycle, you just remove it from the bread machine pan and pat it out on a floured surface (I like to flour a rimmed baking sheet because it makes for easy clean-up!) You want your dough to be roughly rectangular, and about the length of your well-greased 5×9 loaf pan. Don’t think too much about this though – it doesn’t have to be perfect!

Once you’ve patted the dough out, fold it into thirds. Look! It’s a little bread burrito!

Once your dough is folded, gently lift it and flip it into your greased bread pan so that the seam or fold is on the bottom.

Use a knife to make a shallow (about 1/4 inch deep) cut in the top of your bread. This will allow space for it to expand while it rises a second time.

At this point we wait again. Time to let the dough rise. Set it aside in a warm place till it looks about the size you want it to be once baked. My method for this is to heat my oven up slightly and then shut it off. I put the dough in for about 25 minutes before removing it. This speeds up the rising process quite a bit, especially if your house tends to be cold.

Once the dough is almost the size you want it to be when finished, remove it from the oven so you can preheat it to 375 F. Once the oven is good to go, put your dough in for 25 minutes. It’s finished when browned on top and hollow-sounding when tapped with your finger.

Carefully remove the bread from the pan and let it cool completely before cutting it. If you have a cooling rack, that’s perfect for this. If you place your bread flat on a plate, it can get soggy on the bottom as the steam from the bread will condense on the plate as it cools. And no one likes soggy bread.

Mmmm. Fresh-baked bread perfection. That wasn’t so difficult was it?

If you’ve got a bread machine, use it! If your mom or grandma has a bread machine, borrow it! You can thank me later. This bread is perfect for sandwiches, grilled cheese, french toast, and even just dipping in olive oil and spices.

And one last note – if you don’t have whole wheat flour or prefer not to use it, you can follow my original bread recipe instead.

Honey Wheat Bread for the Bread Machine

Asharae Kroll

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Ingredients

1 c warm water
2 Tbs butter softened
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs honey
2 c bread flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 packet yeast 2 1/4 tsp

Instructions

Place ingredients into bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
Mine recommends to put the water, salt, butter, and honey in first.
Add the flours on top of that.
Make a small well in the flour and add the yeast.
Adjust your bread machine to the Dough setting, 1.5lb loaf and let it run. I like to check on it about 5 minutes in to make sure it's not too wet or too dry. If it looks too wet and sticky, add a tablespoon or two of flour. If too dry and flaky-looking, add a tablespoon or two of water. Let the machine run through its whole cycle and try not to peek at it too much! (Bread machines heat up slightly which helps the rising process, each time you open it you let some of the heat out which can cause it to rise slower.)
Once the dough cycle is finished, turn dough out onto a floured surface. Gently press into a rectangle about 9-10 inches long (you can measure it along the side of your 9x5 pan). Fold one of the long sides in toward the center and fold the other long side on top of that - you're essentially folding it in thirds. Gently place the dough, seam side down, in your well-greased 9x5 pan. Use a knife to cut a small slit (about 1/4 inch deep) down the middle of the dough - this will allow it to expand.
Let the dough rise for 30 minutes or so until it looks good. If your house is colder, this could take up to an hour or more. I like to heat my oven for a few minutes, turn it off, and place the dough in for about 30 min to speed up the process. Whatever it looks like now is approximately the size it'll be when it's done baking. Toward the end of this final rising, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. (Take the bread out at this time if you used the oven to let it rise.)
Once dough is finished rising, bake for 25 minutes at 375.
Bread is finished when you tap it with your finger and it sounds hollow.