My husband all the time says that bread machine is not meant to bake. To have a better crust and result in general, I should give it a try baking bread in oven.
So, for my third attempt for whole wheat bread I have made some research and found this useful step by step blog entry:
http://sewmuch2luv.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-oven-bake-your-bread-machine.html
For the recipe I have used:
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- 1 packet of yeast
- ¼ cup honey
We have bought this all natural honey in one of the framers markets in San Diego.
http://www.farmersdaughteroliveoil.com
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
The recipe was taken from: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/08/17/recipe-honey-whole-wheat-sandwich-bread-for-bread-machine/ As always I have adjust a bit for my preference.
The baking process:
- Make the dough with bread machine
- Place bread dough on the baking paper (put some olive oil that the bread would not stick while baking) and form a loaf
- Leave bread loaf for 1 hour in warm environment (around 100F) to raise.
- Bake bread for 35min in 350F and once done let it cool down for 30min or more.
My comments for this method would be:
- The baking form that I used was too big, thus the bread loaf came out in a bit funny shape
- The bread is a bit too sweet for my flavor (next time I would use less honey)
- The bread bakes better in the oven than bread maker
Overall the bread is very fluffy and eats very nicely!