So I made bread.

For years I made bread.  Mostly white bread but sometimes others.  I had a Breadman machine and it made great wonderful bread.  I shared it with the neighborhood and it was something people asked me to make for them.  

I made a 2 pound loaf ever few days for nearly two decades.   I burned up two different machines.   Then when I went to replace the last one, I couldn’t find an up right pan machine that has the loaf standing rather than laying down.  The difference is an important one.  The laying down pan has the blade or two blades in the center of the loaf, and that leaves a large hole after it cooks.  Or in the case of two blades, two holes.  That means a lost of a lot of bread.  However the standing loafs, pans that are up right so the loaf forms higher than wider the blade hole in the bottom loses a lot less bread.  

After a few years of going without making bread I looked for new bread machines.   I picked a Cuisinart bread machine.  I dislike it.  It just down’t produce a large, good loaf.   But I tried to use it.   But by then both Ron and I were diagnosed as diabetics and we were trying to get our A1C down, so we switched to using Splenda for baking.   Guess what?  Despite everything the manufacture claims, Splenda doesn’t bake the same.  Every loaf I made in the machine was not worth trying to eat.   So we bought a big Kitchenaid mixer and all the stuff to make bread by hand.  But still trying to use Splenda the bread was not good.   For a few years I gave up.

But we missed the fresh bread.  Ron and I agree that the problem was the Splenda, and since most breads don’t use much real sugar we should try going back to that.   So Ron got out the machine.  I made the first loaf.  I am using the Breadman machine recipe as I can not find my Cuisinart booklet.  Remember all that stuff was on a shelf in my old office that had the roof torn off and 8 hours of over 150 MPH winds lashing it.  Most of it won’t ever be found.  

The bread came out good.  Not great but good.  Better than store bought.   The problem was the loaf was again short and it was dense.  But in less than three days it has been eaten up.  I am going to make another one today or tomorrow.  I will add more yeast to this mix.   I wish I could find and afford a new bread machine.   On with the vertical pan.  The old Breadman made fudge and so many other things.   This one doesn’t do any of that.  But for now I have to use what I got.   Below are the pictures and one short movie on the bread.  Hugs to all.  Scottie

This is the recipe I used, the 2 pound one.  On the next one I will try using 2 tsp of yeast to see if it will rise higher and be lighter.  Oh and I already use bread flour.  The rest of the pictures are below and a short video of Ron slicing the first slice.  That seems to be the ritual we have.  I bake or cook it, and Ron always does the cutting.  It is silly I know, but it is something that makes him happy so I am all for it.  Hugs