The other day I just happened to mention in passing that I bake a loaf of bread in a bread making machine every day. A young lady in the group told me that she had a bread machine that she had been given as a present tucked away somewhere at the back of her garage that she had never used. She thought that the baking process might be too complicated so she had never even opened the box.

I guess that there must be many technophobes or owners of bread machines that have never tried baking a loaf because they are afraid of being disappointed with the results, so take it from me, it’s easy and it’s delicious, in fact it’s worth baking your own bread for the smell alone.

Sometimes the results received from a bread machine manufacturers recipe does disappoint a bit, so here is a fail safe recipe for a basic white loaf that I have formulated myself. I promise you that it works every time.

Before you bake, a few pointers

Make sure that the machine is set down on a level surface and that none of the air vents are restricted.

Always take the pan out of the machine to add the ingredients. This ensures that nothing can accidentally go inside the machine and possibly on to the element.

Remember to replace the paddle before you add the ingredients.

All the measurements in this recipe assume that you are using the cup and spoon supplied with your machine. Typically a cup is 225ml a tablespoon is 15ml and a teaspoon is 5ml.

To keep the costs down I always use supermarket own brand ingredients.
 
It is important to put the ingredients into the pan in the correct order.

Keep the liquid, yeast and salt apart. When yeast comes into contact with liquid it will activate and when it comes into contact with salt it will die.

Remember, when the process has completed, the bread, the pan and inside the machine will be very, very hot.

Ingredients

• 1 level cup of warm, not hot, water. If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast.

• 1 level teaspoon of salt.

• 1 level tablespoon plus 1 level teaspoon of sugar. It must be sugar to act with the yeast. Sugar substitutes or sweeteners will not work.

• 2 level tablespoons of semi skimmed milk powder.

• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil. I use sunflower oil.

• 3 level cups of strong white bread flour. Plain (all purpose) or self raising flours are no good for this recipe.

• 1 level teaspoon of fast-action dried yeast. This usually comes in 7g sachets so what I do is empty the sachets into an airtight container and use it from there.

Method

1. Grease the inside of the baking pan and the paddle with butter, margarine or oil. Do this even if the  pan has a non-stick coating.
2. Add one level cup of warm water then add the sugar, milk powder, salt and oil. At this point I usually give the pan a swirl to get the sugar and milk powder to dissolve.
3. Add the flour. I level it off across the pan so that there isn’t a pile of flour in the middle.
4. Add the yeast. I sprinkle it all over the surface of the flour.
5. Place the pan in the machine making sure that it is locked in properly.
6. Plug the machine in.
7. Make sure that the machine is set to the Basic White programme and then press the   Start button.

Take extreme care with the following steps. The pan and the loaf will be very, very hot.

      8.  When it has finished baking, turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.
           If the paddle remains in the loaf don’t try to get it out while it is hot or it will rip the
           bread or even worse, give you a nasty burn. Wait until the loaf cools down.
      9.  Leave to cool down for at least half an hour then it will be ready to eat.

There you go, now you’re a fully fledged baker.

All that’s left now is for you to slice it and eat it with your favourite butter or spread.
As a bonus, I find that this bread doesn’t go stale as quick as commercially baked bread.

Enjoy!