Whole-Grain Daily Bread

Due to the fact that we live in a small town, the grocery store is not always super accessible.  We do have a great little one in town, but hours are limited and if you roll into town hungry after 8 pm (especially in the winter) you could just be out of luck.

For this reason (and the fact that I just like to do it,) I make most of our bread (unless I am pregnant or have a bitty newborn and doing anything extra is completely out of the question.)  When we invested in a Zojirushi bread machine, I also bought "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger.  I honestly only use a few of the recipes on a regular basis, but have not tried one that hasn't turned out well.  If you like making bread at home in a machine, get this book!

So with my little modifications noted (If you haven't noticed, I am not super great at following recipes 100%) here it is:

Whole-Grain Daily Bread

2 pound loaf (it is embarrassing how fast we can go through this)

1 1/3 cups buttermilk (I often just use baking buttermilk powder)
1/2 cup 5 grain cereal (or 7 or 9...)**
1/2 cup water**
**or you could follow their directions and use 1 cup of cooked whole grain, firmly packed**
3 T. canola oil
3 T. honey

3 1/3 cups bread flour
2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cups rolled oats
1 T. + 1 t. gluten
2 t. salt

2 1/2 t. SAF yeast (or 1 T. bread machine yeast)

Use basic cycle on your machine!

I have to note also that one thing I love about this bread machine is the fact that it has a pre-heat function.  This is especially handy when your home is often less than 60 degrees before noon (until the sun warms it up...or we make a fire!) and bread can be sensitive to temperature.  I highly recommend it!

Obligatory Photo (not the most beautiful loaf in the world, but yummy anyway!):