The Best Bread Machine Bread

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I’ve attempted making bread many times over the years with all different recipes and techniques, but none seemed to work. I accepted that maybe making bread just wasn’t my thing.

That all changed when I was given a bread maker. After trying a variety of recipes that came with the bread maker, I wasn’t totally impressed. The fresh bread was nice but, the super dense, funky shaped loaf with a hole in the bottom wasn’t ideal. So it was back to making adjustments.

Eventually, I reached the outcome I’d been searching for. A delicious recipe that can be made with white or whole wheat flour and produces two beautiful loaves. And the best part is the very minimal effort it takes to have fresh, homemade bread…I do the hardest part, which is loading up the bread maker, while I’m waiting for my coffee to brew!

This is the bread maker I use and I have zero complaints. It comes with an array of recipes for everything from breads, to pasta, to cakes, to jams and glazes! It is easy to clean and doesn’t take up an outrageous amount of space.

What you’ll need: 1 1/3 cup warm milk, 1 1/2 tbsp butter, 1 egg, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cups bread flour, 2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast. (If you plan on making bread often, this is a great bulk option for yeast.)

Before you start, make sure your kneading blade/paddle is properly attached! You don’t want to check back in 90 minutes to find your dough hasn’t even been mixed, trust me.

First, you’ll add the warm milk, butter, egg and salt to your bread maker pan. The order of these 4 ingredients doesn’t matter as long as they are the first 4.

Next, add the flours. Try to add them gently to keep them floating on the milk. I use a spoon or my hand to gently level the flour out if it ends up in more of a pile. Sprinkle the sugar over the flour.

Create a well in the center of the flour layer that is about 1″ across and not quite down to the milk layer. If the liquid starts to come through, add a little flour back in to cover it. Add the yeast to this well.

Set your bread maker to the dough setting. On mine this is setting number 9 and takes an hour and a half.

Once the bread maker cycle is complete, turn the dough onto a clean surface and divide into 2 equal portions. Shape each portion and place it in greased loaf pans. Pull the down and around, tucking it in the bottom of the loaf creating tension across the top of the loaf.

Place these pans in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. I set my dehydrator to 95F and place the pans inside or place them in the oven on the proof setting. This rise usually takes about an hour, but this is completely dependent on the temperature they are at. When the dough has nearly doubled in size, preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake loaves at 350F for 25 minutes. Use a thermometer to check the internal temperature, its should be 190F – 195F when they are done. Remove from pans and transfer to racks to cool.

*To make dinner rolls: Divide dough into 12 equal portions in step 5. Shape into buns and place in greased 9×13″ pan in step 6.

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