OK, I never factored in the amount of "kitchen walking" that I did, so that I could include it in my exercise plan. (Well, my exercise plan is to work in the garden and on the farm and not "exercise" any more than I can help it, but still.....)

The thrift stores are really good sources of things like bread machines, rice cookers and salad spinners, things people think they'd really like or they get them as gifts and find out that they never really use them at all.

I do use my Zojirushi a lot, but right now I have a batch of no-knead bread in the fridge and I really like that too.

You still have butter left? Don't hold back, butter some toast! (grin) There's nothing quite like homemade bread, toasted and liberally buttered, yum. I also like just plain buttered bread, especially dipped into soup or chili.

Annie

Like annie1992, I love the thrift stores for the little appliances. I have a Zoirushi from one that I keep for backup, but my work-horse is an Original Pre-Columbian DAK/Welbuilt with the big glass observation dome and unfortunately round loaf so I never bake in it. BTW, your ruler appears to be Pre-Columbian as well.

I had always assumed that complete Whole Wheat bread would be heavy so I mostly made White bread or just added Some Whole Wheat to the White. However, I tried the King Arthur Whole Wheat recipe with their flour and found it to be moderately light and I have been using it for most of our bread for the last month.

The recipe is essentially 3.5 C Whole Wheat, 1.25 t salt, 2.5 t yeast, and quarter cups each of Powdered Milk, Oil, Honey and perhaps Orange Juice to cut potential bitter notes. Add approximately a Cup or more water to produce a wet dough that hasn't come completely together at the beginning of mixing but is a soft ball by a third of the initial kneading. I believe that within limits, wetter dough increases loft.

Lovely bread!

I don't understand why people think unless your bread machine can make bread shaped like store bought bread, it's not good enough bread.

I have a Panasonic for many years.

dcarch

Looks good.

Nothing beats fresh bread and butter.

Except maybe adding fresh homemade strawberry jam

Enjoy

Blah! This loaf
sucks. Same as store bought. Light fluffy falls apart mashes up into
a gooey mess. Purely a conveyance for peanut butter from jar to
mouth. Next will drastically reduce the pastry flour by 2/3. Only good thing is
it doesn’t contain mono iso amyl acid ortho phosphate merely as a
preservative.

Yes, I would ditch the pastry flour, keep your WW and switch to AP. Pastry flour is just too "fluffy" for bread, IMO. I like a certain texture and I don't get that with pastry flour.

Like Chas, I like King Arthur Flour's 100% whole wheat loaf, and I also add additional water because it always seems too dry while kneading. Maybe the humidity here isn't high enough, or my flour is too dry, but I always seem to need to add liquid. I never add vital wheat gluten, since I have none and don't buy it. I still get a plenty high loaf. I've also substituted milk for the water and left out the dry milk when I didn't have it, and that worked for me too.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-bread-for-the-bread-machine-recipe

Good luck!

Annie

Pastry flour is for cake. Low gluten = fluff but little stretch. Bread flour is for bread. High gluten = very stretchy, good for yeast bubbles. Bread flour + Pastry flour = All Purpose flour. Not so stretchy but some stretchy. White AP flour makes adequate bread, especially with a high amount of yeast. Whole wheat AP flour, because of the bran, makes for underrisen bread. Not so good even if it fills the can.

Either use whole wheat bread flour only, or use white AP flour. Whole wheat flour goes off quicker, so try to use newly bought whenever you can.

It looks like you're having fun, at least!

I realized this morning the bread was cakelike. Brilliant huh? Trying to slather on peanut butter was like buttering cake. Not easy. That was a clue. My best bet here I think is to just follow and be content with the recipe in the book. They are the pros. Probly tried lots of combos before zeroing in. I'm certainly not qualified to second guess em. Yah it's sort of fun.

I'm tempted to cut it in little cubes and stir it into softened chocolate iceceam.

Cut it into big cubes, toast it in the oven, make a custard of about two eggs per cup of milk and/or cream. Add a little sugar if you like, and some vanilla, lemon or other flavoring, optional, and some spices to taste. Add some dried or lightly cooked fruit, not-too-hard nuts, etc., depending on what you like. Stir in the toasted cubes and make sure there's enough custard to cover them. Put a dish on the mix with a heavy can on top. Let it all absorb for a couple of hours. Pour into a baking dish, and bake at 350° F for about 40 minutes, or until the top is starting to brown and the center is set (not wiggly). Optional, you can make a streusel topping. Serve warm or cold, hard sauce optional.

What you've baked is perfect for bread pudding. :)