Inflation and the Trump tariff taxes have moved me into savings mode and I’m returning to my cooking roots. I love bread, but artisan and specialty breads are expensive. Yet, their ingredients are relatively cheap.

Kneading homemade bread can be therapeutic for some, but for me the process is too time consuming. However, with a bread maker making bread is literally, “set it and forget it.”

Making a custom loaf of bread takes about five minutes of adding ingredients to the bread pan then pressing a button. Three and a half hours later I have a fresh loaf of bread. This has allowed me to customize a bread for a particular dinner that I’m making, such as making a herb bread to accompany a hearty stew. I’m not baking bread for every meal, but I do it often enough that the process has become routine.

My bread maker is accessible; I don’t have to get it out of a basement or the garage every time I need it. The same can be said for my ingredients which are handy; putting a loaf together is effortless.

As far as measuring ingredients is concerned, I do the easiest accurate method possible. Some recipes are listed by volume (measuring cups and spoons). This isn’t the most accurate, but if that is what’s listed, that is what I’ll use. The one exception is that I will always weigh the flour (roughly 125 grams/cup of flour) as measuring flour by volume is notoriously inaccurate. If I’m given a recipe by weight in grams, I will gladly pull out my food scale and use that. Baking by weight is not only more accurate, it is less messy as I can weigh everything directly in the bread machines baking pan. In this case I may still measure very light items, like salt and yeast as I find scales are a bit flaky when measuring very small amounts. No mater what method I use, making bread is very simple, even when making loaves that include a few extra ingredients.

Today’s recipe is for Sally Lunn bread from The Betty Crocker Best Bread Machine Cookbook.

Sally Lunn bread has a brioche quality, but it is a bit less sweet. Its texture and color are similar to brioche and it makes a wonderful sandwich or toast. In fact, I toasted some this morning for an open face PB J sandwich for breakfast. Delicious!

A word about keeping bread fresh. All homemade breads will stale much faster than store bought breads as homemade breads lack preservatives. I have tried a variety of methods and in general two works the best. If I make a specialty loaf that I know won’t be consumed at a meal I’ll freeze half of the loaf for a future meal. If I make a general purpose loaf I have found that a traditional breadbox works the best to keep the loaf reasonably fresh and mold free. In my climate I can still use bread that I made five days earlier, although I’ll likely be toasting it towards the end. Plastic bags will keep the bread softer, but mold usually appears in 3 days. The fridge tends to make the bread go stale faster, so that is a no go. However, if you don’t want to buy a breadbox and want to keep your bread out for a few days then do what my grandmother did. She would wrap her bread in a clean cotton kitchen towel.

Here is the recipe for Betty Crocker’s 2 pound recipe for Sally Lunn bread:

I put two eggs in a measuring cut and added enough water to make 1 and 1/3rd cups of total volume. Not shown: I also added to the bread maker 1/3rd cup softened butter.

I added 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of regular table salt.

Then 2 tablespoons of sugar.

The recipe calls for 4 cups of flour. I always prefer to weigh my flour. Four cups should be around 480 grams (120 grams/cup), but I’m finding that I have to add more flour when I check my dough ball in the machine. Now, I weigh a bit more flour, 500 grams (about 125 grams/cup). That has been working out well.

Finally, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast.

I set my bread maker on basic white bread.

The bread maker has beeped. Bread is done!

Always allow your bread to cool before slicing. I know that it can be hard to resists immediately cutting it, but that will result in a lot of torn and squashed bread.

Here is a slice. Rich, very slightly sweet, wonderful!

Happy bread making!

Mike