better bread

I love our bread maker. Like, really really love it. I use it a few times each week, and for the past four years I have made nearly all of the bread, buns, pizza dough, and rolls our family has eaten with it. I can't imagine running my house without it, actually. But, I made a mistake on Sunday. I threw some dough in the machine to make a loaf of bread, but I accidentally set the dough cycle, instead of the bread cycle. I had no choice but to transfer the dough to a bread pan and bake it in my oven! And that's when I realized that no matter how amazing my bread maker is, bread baked in my own oven tastes a thousand times better. The crust was soft and chewy, not hard and crispy. The entire loaf was light and fluffy. My kids ate the whole thing, crusts included, for lunch that day. I'm not sure I'll ever use the bread machine for baking again.

Irish Potato Brown Bread is my favorite everyday bread recipe. Except I skip the bread flour and only use whole wheat flour.

From now on, when I need a loaf of bread, I will use the dough cycle on my machine. Once the dough cycle is complete, I will knead the dough a few times and put it in a lightly greased pan to rise for 45 minutes or so. Then I will bake it in my 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. Once it's out of the oven, I will rub the top with butter to make it glisten. And then we will try really hard to make it last for a few days, at least.