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I’ve gone back and forth over the years with making bread at home vs. buying it in the stores. My standards aren’t super high, so I don’t usually mind just getting whatever is cheapest at the store. And in the past when I made bread, it was hugely time consuming and I wasn’t in love with the results. Last year, though, I decided to get a bread machine and try again. And wow, I’m so glad I did!
I use bread flour to make this, and I’ve found that Sam’s is the cheapest place to get it. I bought a food grade 25 lb container and I store it in there. It’s so much cheaper than buying the smaller bags! And one bag lasts us about two months depending on how much bread I make.
If you don’t have a bread machine, you can still make this. Simply mix together the milk (slightly warmed), yeast, and sugar and let it sit for a minute in a stand mixer bowl. Then mix in the salt, oil, and egg. Finally, add the flour. Then let it rise for an hour or so. Then move on to the step where you let it rise in the pan.
Homemade Sandwich Bread in a Bread Machine
This takes less than 5 minutes to get the ingredients in the bread machine, 90 minutes for the cycle (which requires no work on your part), an hour for the dough to rise in the pan, and 30 minuets to cook. A total of about 3 hours, but you only really have to do something for about 5 total minutes.
I have a Hamilton Beach bread machine from Amazon, and it’s been going great for almost a year!
The first step is to add the wet ingredients—milk, oil, and egg—and then the salt and sugar.
Then add the bread flour (I recommend weighing it, at 512 grams) and the yeast on top.
Then set your bread machine to the dough cycle. Mine takes 90 minutes.
When it’s done, it will look something like this.
You’ll spray two bread pans with cooking spray and then divide the dough in half. It’s not super sticky, so I just use clean hands, twist the dough in half, and form the divided dough into two balls.
Then cover the pans with a towel.
After an hour, the dough will have risen in size.
You’ll bake for about 25 minutes. Once they’re done, immediately remove them from the pan. (They should pop right out.) Otherwise the heat from the bottom of the pan will produce steam, and it will start to make the bread soggy.
You’ll want to wait to cut the bread until it’s cooled completely or it won’t cut well. But if my kids know I’m making this bread, they want it immediately so we almost always disregard that best practice!
Ingredients
- 1.25 cups milk
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp. honey
- 2 tsp. salt
- 4 cups (512 grams) bread flour
- 1 tbsp. active dry yeast
Directions
- Add the milk, oil, egg, honey, and salt to the bread machine FIRST.
- Measure 4 cups bread flour or 512 grams.
- Make a little well in the top of the flour and add the yeast.
- Set the bread machine to the dough cycle and let it do its thing.
- Once the dough is ready, divide it in half and place each ball of dough in a greased bread pan.
- Cover the pans with a kitchen towel and place in a warm place. Let rise for an hour or so until it is doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350 and add the bread pans.Bake for about 25 minutes.
- When the loaves are done, immediately remove them from the pans and let them cool on a baking rack.
- Once the bread is cool, enjoy!
