I’ve been making my own bread for some time now. I suppose using a bread machine the way I do is “cheating” somehow according to some people. Don’t care. All I know is that the results can be amazingly good. Even better, we know exactly what’s in that loaf when it’s done. We haven’t bought bread at the store since we started doing it some three or four years ago.
Anyway, this one, an oatmeal bread, has become our favorite here. It’s simple, has great texture and flavor and is even relatively healthy. We’ve been going through about 2 loaves of this stuff a week since I discovered this recipe.
So here it is:
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey
2/3 cup quick cooking oats (we’ve been using standard rolled oats with good results, not the ‘quick cooking’ kind)
2 1/3 cup unbleached bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast.
This is about as simple as bread can get, and the results I’ve been getting are excellent. I put in the ingredients into the machine in the order listed, but your machine may want something different. Just follow its instructions.
And yes, that’s a Hello Kitty toaster sitting there. I originally bought that to irritate the family and make then question my sanity, which is always great fun. The strange thing is that it’s turned out to be the best toaster we’ve ever had.
grouchyfarmer 
Yum
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hmmm. I might have to try that. I don’t have a bread maker, so it takes a good deal of mulling to motivate me into the bread making place.
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Hmph… I left a reply to itsathought and it seems to have gotten eaten somewhere along the way.
You don’t need a bread machine, really. It just takes some of the grunt work out of it by doing the kneading and proofing for you. Proofing is what takes most of the time. That can take up to an hour waiting for the dough to raise, then punch it down, let it raise again before baking. With the machine just throw everything in, set the controls, and 3-4 hours later you have a fresh loaf.
Unfortunately the cheap department store bread makers aren’t worth a damn. I’ve tried several of them over the years and none of them were very good. The one I have now is outstanding. We’ve had it for about 3 years now and it’s been putting out 1-3 loaves a week, plus buns, pizza dough, etc. But that puppy cost me around $300 if I remember right.
Financially we’d be better off buying commercial bread, to be honest. By the time you add up the cost of the ingredients, we’re probably looking at around $3 -$4 per loaf. That varies depending on the ingredients, of course. The advantage is we always have fresh baked bread, and more importantly we know exactly what’s in the stuff.
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