I make a loaf of bread every week (or more if we eat a lot of bread), but I use my trusty 20-year-old bread machine to make it a quick and painless experience. I’m sure some people might find kneading dough therapeutic, but I am not one of those people. I’ve got my recipe memorized, so the whole endeavor takes less than three minutes.
The only pain in the patoot is slicing it, although letting it sit on the counter overnight usually makes it easier to cut. I freeze the sliced bread so it lasts the week.
By next week Sunday, the leftover frozen bread is used for our grilled cheese sandwich lunch.
My bread recipe includes the following ingredients, dumped into the bread machine and set to the two-pound load 3 1/2-hour basic cycle:
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 1/2 cups of warm water (my Pyrex measuring cup has the 1 1/2 c. mark marked in black paint pen so I can fill it without squinting, and I know that putting the measure in the microwave for 40 seconds gets it the exact temperature I need)
- 2 tsp. yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2-3 tb. of olive (or some other) oil
Skunk and Mouse Cottage 