Wonder Bread

Prompted by a number of factors--including dinner at a friend's recently, where she served us the most delicious homemade bread ever, watching Food, Inc. (great movie--watch it!) and therefore wanting to lower the number of unknown/manufactured ingredients in our food, and in trying to follow Michael Pollan's "you can eat anything, as long as you make it yourself" motto--the BF and I purchased a breadmaker about 2 months ago. I know I always say this, but this simple little machine has changed my life. Truly.

So, I want to show you HOW SIMPLE it is to make the most delicious whole wheat bread you'll ever eat...

1. Start with 6 (I know, 6! That's it!!!!) ingredients: whole wheat flour, water, salt, honey, vital wheat gluten, and yeast.

2. Measure out the ingredients following the recipe (breadmaker comes with a small book with over 65 recipes for different kinds of bread!) and put them into the "bread pan" in the order listed. 

3. Put the bread pan into the breadmaker, and close the top of the breadmaker. Select the settings for the type of bread you're making, the crust color you want, and the size of the loaf that you're making, and click start (you can EVEN set the timer for whenever you want the bread to be ready. So, say you're about to go to bed and want warm bread when you wake up, set it for 7am!). Then you just wait as your home/apt. fills with the smell of freshly-baking bread :)

 4. When you hear your breadmaker beep, go and retrieve your freshly baked loaf of bread. Take it out and let it cool for a few minutes (if you can keep your greedy little paws off of it for long enough to let it cool! It's hard if you've been smelling it baking for hours).

5. Cut yourself a few warm slices, spread your fav condiment on top (or enjoy plain!), and take a few moments to savor the simple, yet hearty taste of just 6 ingredients! DELISH.

As a sidenote, you can add all sorts of fun ingredients (nuts, seeds, different grains, etc.) to make a number of different kinds of hearty breads with your breadmaker. AND, you can also make things like banana bread, zuchinni bread, and even pizza dough or rolls in this machine (crazy, I know!), but I can't vouch for their easiness because I've just been making the whole wheat bread over and over again (creature of habit, I guess). Once I try another recipe out, I'll write a quick note :)

Share: What's your favorite healthy, simple, no-hassle, no-baking/cooking skills required recipe?

Namaste!
Mary Catherine