Commercial bread mix vs homemade = homemade bread wins!
Both of these weigh 650g, which I’ve found bakes best in my 1kg capacity bread machine to allow room for rising without touching the lid. The homemade loaf is clearly larger and has a softer crumb ideal for sandwiches. This costs me AU$0.46 to make 1 x 650g loaf (right loaf in the photo), excluding power and machine costs. Happy baking! –Megan
Ingredients for BASIC WHITE BREAD (BREAD MACHINE)
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Yield: 1 x 650g Loaf
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Yield: 1 x 800g Loaf
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Water, Room Temperature
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250g
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310g
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Oil (i.e. Olive)
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15g
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20g
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Plain (All-Purpose) Flour or Bread Flour
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365g
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450g
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Salt, Finely Ground
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5g
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6g
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Caster (Superfine) Sugar
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5g
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6g
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Bread Improver
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5g
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6g
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Dry Yeast
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5g
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6g
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METHOD:
1. Measure water and oil into bread machine bowl.
2. Add the flour, salt, sugar, bread improver and yeast on top of the water/oil.
3. Bake on 3 hour setting.
4. Remove from bread machine once cycle is complete.
5. Cool bread for 15 minutes or more before slicing.
6. Slice into thin (sandwich) slices or thick (toast) slices. TIP: use your meat slicer.
7. Place bread slices into an airtight container (or ziploc bag) and store at room temperature for a day or two (best eaten within a day of baking) or freeze for up to 3-6 months (wrap the loaf in plastic before freezing). TIP: use a vacuum sealer.
8. Thaw frozen bread at room temperature then unwrap, or unwrap the frozen loaf and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180°C (350°F) before serving immediately.
NOTES:
o You can use any oil, it can be warm but not hot, room temperature is ok as long as it’s liquid;
o Plain flour vs bread flour: plain resulted in a larger loaf for us, but experiment using your local flour to see which one you prefer. Remember to look for unbleached flour!
o Salt can be iodised, or not, or Himalayan – all work well, just grind finely before adding and measure carefully! We add salt first then the sugar, bread improver and yeast last;
o Bread improver and dry yeast are available in the supermarket flour section;
o Alternative
method for better shaping (like our first photograph above): measure all ingredients into bread machine tin, select "dough" setting, which is usually around 90 minutes. Then shape by
hand using spare flour or rice flour on any sticky parts, cover with a cloth and rise in a bread tin for 1 hour before baking in oven at
200'C for 30 minutes;
o Bread loaves for sandwiches are best left to cool completely before slicing - if you can wait that long that is!
Author: Megan Radaich
Image credit: Megan Radaich
Publication: www.foodpreserving.org