Fresh Baked Bread

Who doesn't love homemade bread? We love it at our house. I made potato soup for dinner tonight and a loaf of homemade bread. I must confess that I did cheat on the bread. I used my trusty bread machine. I use the bread machine to do the hard work; mix the dough and knead it. I then take it out of the machine, form it into a French loaf and put it into my French loaf stoneware pan. I allow its second rise near the stove and then pop it into the oven when it's ready. Presto, wonderful homemade French bread. What is not eaten with our dinner I use for toast the following morning. Since I had a dental appointment today I did not have time to go through all the steps so I put the ingredients in the bread machine and set the timer. It was baked and ready for dinner with no more than 5 minutes prep time, gotta love that. The house is filled with the wonderfully sweet aroma of the baked bread even as I type this. Ok, another confession...I try not to make bread too often because we love it and can't quit eating it. As delicious as it is, it is not good for the waist line. I do try to be healthy making the bread; I use whole wheat flour, honey and olive oil but unfortunately that doesn't cut out all those delicious calories.

I can remember when bread machines were all the craze. I quit buying bread and only used the machine for the bread we used. But like every craze, the fervor soon dies away and my bread machine sat in the pantry for a while unused. I am using the machine again especially since we have homemade peach jam, blackberry jelly and apple butter. Hmmmm, I wonder if anyone will be pulling their bread machine out of the pantry, dusting it off and making some homemade bread for their morning toast.