Bread!

I hate the bread out here.  Let me preface this--I grew up in sunny Floridian suburbia and now live in the mountains, 2 hours from a big city.  I love it here, but we have crappy bread.  We don't have any upscale grocery stores, and all our bread tastes like dry cardboard.  So much money was spent each year on bread I hated, so I decided to buy a breadmaker.  I found one on Food Network for about 60 bucks, and am now a happy breadmaker!

It's fun, delicious, fresh, and guaranteed no preservatives.  Can't beat that.  Here's the recipe I used for my first loaf!

Homestyle White Bread


Ingredients
1 cup + 1 tbsp water
1 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Directions
1.  Place the ingredients in your breadmaker bread pan in the following order:  water, butter, sugar, milk powder, salt, flour.

2.  With your finger, make a small indentation on one side of the flour.  Add yeast to the indentation, making sure it does not come into contact with the liquid ingredients.

3.  Carefully insert the bread pan into the breadmaker and gently close the lid.  Plug the power cord into an outlet.   Turn your breadmaker on then sit back, relax, and wait for your bread!

*Remember to take the bread pan out of the breadmaker as soon as it's done baking, but leave the bread in the pan until it has cooled.  *

The best part of making your own bread (besides the eating part, of course) is the amazing way your house smells while it's baking!  Delicious!