Breadmaking made easy

Simon and I usually buy a loaf  each week, and it's mainly used for toast. My dad is a coeliac, so we were worried about Isabelle having issues with gluten, and avoided giving her bread for a while. We slowly introduced it and, luckily, she seems to be ok. However, over Christmas, I heard a lot of information about supermarket bread and how - like everything that is mass produced I suppose - it contains preservatives and other bits and pieces that I would really rather not be feeding to Isabelle.

When Simon and I got married, we had put a breadmaker on our wedding list, but nobody bought it. The idea went out of my head until Simon mentioned it may be a good idea for us to start making our own bread, so we know that Isabelle is getting good quality stuff. The fact that we know exactly what is going in to home made bread, and that we can whip it up whenever we need it, is definitely very appealing. After commandeering and unused breadmaker from my parents, we set about making our first batch.

Warm from the breadmaker and ready for lunch

I had vague recollections of making bread during my time as a nanny, and we used my somewhat limited knowledge as a base as to what we would include. After several batches, trialling the different settings and different quantities of ingredients, we think we have it cracked.  Using the breadmaker is so easy - I pop the 6 ingredients in and turn it on. 3.5 hours later, the house smells delicious and a batch of freshly cooked bread is waiting. It makes me feel like a total domestic goddess! OK, so it certainly isn't as impressive as hand making the bread, but the idea is there! It feels great be able to give Isabelle homemade soup and homemade bread for her lunch.

So here is our recipe. If you decide to give it a go, use this as a starting point as each breadmaker will have different functions, and will turn these same ingredients out slightly differently.

Ingredients:
350g wholemeal flour
250g strong white flour
400ml water
7g yeast (ours comes in pre-measured sachets, specifically for use in bread makers)
Teaspoon sugar
Pinch salt

As with everything, the price of breadmakers really varies, but you can pick some up quite cheaply if you fancy having a go.

Do you make your own bread? Have you a favourite recipe to share?