Homemade Bread in the Bread Machine

If you have ever lived with boys you will understand when I say we go through a lot of bread in this house!  We easily go through one to one and a half loaves a week.  This adds up!  Unless I buy bread right from the bakery, I am so tired of all the preservatives that go into the shelf bread that you buy in the grocery store.  It is a weird consistancey and texture.  It doesn't even hold up to buttering with soft butter.  Yuck.  So in my attempt to feed my family better and save some money I wanted to start baking my own bread.  Being honest with myself I know that at this point right now I can't commit the time to baking bread completely from scratch.  I would love to, but with taking care of Little Man, I am not always open to lots of free time. So I got the bright idea that purchasing a Bread Machine might be the right way to go.  But before I know exactly what brand or size I want to invest in, my sister is lending me hers for a trial spin.  This way I will know if it is worth it.  And if I will indeed get some good use out of it.  She also lent me her Bread Machine Cookbook, Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time by Lora Brody and Millie Apter.

After getting it last week I was so excited to give it a whirl!  The thought of my house being wrapped in the delicious smell of home-baked bread was getting me giddy.  I thought I would start simple and try out the most basic White Bread recipe.  Oh man, I couldn't believe how easy this was!  You literally dump all the ingredients in the bucket, close the lid and leave it alone for 3 hours.  A voila! you have home-baked bread!  We cut into it this morning and gave it a taste slathered with some butter.  Wow.  It was so yummy!  It was very soft and light, yet held up great to cutting and didn't crumble everywhere.  This would make a great sandwich bread- not too dense.  We both gave this recipe a 5 stars.

Maple Buttermilk Bread
1 Tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon pure Maple Syrup*
1 Cup water
3 Cups unbleached white flour
4 tablespoons powdered buttermilk
1 teasoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Place all Ingredients in the machine, program for Bread, Basic Bread, Basic White, Basic Wheat or White/Whole Grain, and press Start or On.

Please note: these directions are for the Regal, Large Oster, West Bend, Large Pillsbury, and Large Zojirush machines.  If you happen to have a different machine and you want to try this recipe, contact me and I can let you know if there are any differences in measurements.

*I was running out of Maple Syrup so I used 2 tablespoons of Maple Syrup and then I substituted the rest with pure Honey.   It came out beautifully!