Homemade Bread...

...using a bread machine. I actually want to try making the 'no-work' artisan bread that I recently read about in How to Cook Everything (my father's day gift from my mother) but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Incidentally, the Bread Machine (a very nice stainless Cuisinart model) was ALSO a gift from my mother. It has seen a LOT of use in the last couple of years between making bread and making pizza dough and is still going strong.

Bread!

Hardware:
1 Bread Machine or a Stand Mixer

Software:
1.5 cups water, 90 degrees (filtered if your municipal water is high chlorine)
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
4 cups bread flour
1 packet active dry yeast
(Optional) 1/4 cup dry nonfat milk

Put the ingredients into your machine (don't forget the mixing paddle!) or your mixer's workbowl (use the bread hook attachment) in the order listed above.

If using a bread machine, simply choose 'regular white bread' or whatever the equivalent setting is and '2 lbs' loaf size, and walk away!

If using a mixer, knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, then cover and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour. Punch down, let rise again for 1 hour. Turn out, shape into a round loaf, and place onto a pizza stone in an oven preheated to 400 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes or until the bread reaches an internal temp of 205 degrees.

Either way, let the bread rest for at least 30 minutes before devouring.

So what's up with the dry nonfat milk, you ask? Basically, adding the milk proteins helps the bread to have a very consistent internal structure without a lot of giant steam bubble tunneling. In other words, it will make your bread look more like 'store bought' and be easier to slice for sandwiches and the like. It is completely unnecessary in terms of baking a good loaf of bread.

As for the flour, you can replace up to 50% of the bread flour with whole-wheat flour (although I don't really see the point myself)