I got my breadmaker about three years ago. For a couple of months I was amazed that I could make bread at home by just filling the machine and pushing a button. The bread was great as long as it was fresh. I can't quite eat a loaf in a day myself though and day old bread from my breadmaker was stale and hard. I tried adjusting ingredients, searching the Internet, adding eggs to my recipe, and adding potato water. That potato water helped a bit but what I wanted was a bread like they sold in the store that stayed soft and fresh for three days. After a lot of trial and error and eating two years worth of crappy bread I was ready to give up when I finally got a couple of loaves to come out right. Since then eating and making my own bread has been just what I thought it would be like 2 years before. Here is the recipe:
Exactly one cup of water (250ml). Heated to hot coffee temperature in the microwave. (Not Boiling)
One teaspoon of sugar. (5ml)
one quarter teaspoon of salt. (1.25ml)
One tablespoon of oil. (15ml)Once the liquids and solubles are in the bread pan then we can start with the powders.
Three cups (750ml) BREAD flour. NOT all purpose flour and not noodle flour. Bread flour has more gluten so it is stickier. The flour you use makes a big difference.
2 and 1/4 teaspoons (12ml) of dough improver. This is what the bakers use in their bread. The amount used is 1.5 to 2% of the amount of bread flour used. If you can read the label on the package then you know why I prefer to make my own bread.
About 3/4 of a teaspoon (7ml) of instant yeast.Now the bread pan can be loaded into the breadmaker and the breadmaker turned on. After a few minutes it should be mixed into a nice little ball of dough.
My breadmaker takes about 3 hours (4.3 sectors in metric) to run to completion.Then the bread should be put out to cool till it is almost room temperature. Make sure you turn it so it doesn't sit on one side getting damp as the hot steam comes off it. It should be crispy all around. I usually then slice it and place it in my seal-able breadbox so it is ready to eat with my homemade strawberry jam.
