I bake fancy breads, thin breads, rolls, shaped breads, flatbreads ... Complicated breads don't frighten me.
But as the holidays approach and I'm rushing around trying to get a dozen things done at once, the everyday bread needs to be fast and easy. I don't need anything fancy - just a bread that I can toast in the morning or that I can smear with peanut butter when I need quick food.
If it's a little bit healthy, that's a plus. Because when I'm rushing, I might not be bothering to whip up salads - I'm more likely to grab a sandwich or snag some leftovers.
This bread fills the bill perfectly. Whole wheat for some fiber and nutrients, an egg for a tad more protein, and of course it's simple, since it all went into the bread machine.
Sure, bread made in a bread machine is kind of a weird shape, but when I'm shuttling trays of cookies in and out of the oven, I don't want to have a loaf of bread taking up valuable oven space. Not to mention that opening the oven door every 10 minutes to swap cookie trays isn't going to make the bread very happy either.
So here it is. My fast, easy, bread machine loaf. And no, it's not ALL whole wheat. I like whole wheat well enough, but I prefer the texture of bread that includes white flour. So shoot me. I'll eat an apple later to make up for the missing fiber.
Whole Wheat (and white) Bread
(in the bread machine)
1 teaspoon instant yeast2 tablespoons cane sugar
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) whole wheat flour
2 cups (9 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter
Place all the ingredients in your bread machine in the order specified for your machine (this is correct for mine.) Press buttons. Wait.
Remove bread from the machine, remove it from the bread pan, and cool on rack before slicing.
Easy peasy.
This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.
