Bread Maker-Ready Bread Bags

One of my most prized kitchen appliances (besides the fridge, of course!) is the bread maker.  After stumbling repeatedly (Divine intervention? Yes!) across nutritional information about the average store-bought loaf of bread, I have gradually cuddled closer and closer to my little white friend on the kitchen counter.

Did you know that the average sandwich made from the "cheap" loaf of bread from the store contains enough enriched (code for overly-processed) flours and sugars that it turns into the equivalent of a candy bar in your stomach!?

On a related note, I recently did an experiment with the store brand hot dog buns where I left them on the top of the fridge until they got moldly, wanting to see how long they would last.  Also note, that this bag of buns was purchased near its sell-by date, therefore this test began when the food should have been starting to go bad.  We waited, and waited...then waited some more.  Finally, after THREE WEEKS of the buns sitting on the fridge, I threw them out, but NOT BECAUSE OF MOLD, but because I was beginning to get a little freaked out by the strength of the preservatives in this bread!

I decided it was time for a change. Now, I have been baking my own bread for my family here and there for the past four years.  Finding a bread machine at a garage sale (plus the recipe book!) for $10 was heaven-sent.  However, after the experiment from above, I have had a true change of heart and can't see myself going back to store-bought bread as a staple form of bread in the house.  Granted, I am not to the point of making my own hamburger and hot dog buns, but I am a work-in-progress. :-)

To help ease the time constraint of making your own bread, a woman from our previous church gave me the idea to make bread bags.  Bread bags are quart ziplock bags holding the dry ingredients for a particular bread machine (or by-hand bread) recipe.  Then, all you have to do when you need a loaf for the day is dump in the dry ingredients, quickly measure in the wet ingredients, and push the right buttons on your bread maker!  While this idea sounds not completely necessary for saving time, I like it because in a rush, I A GUARANTEED TO HAVE ALL THE DRY INGREDIENTS. How often do we go to make something, only then realizing we are short a half cup of sugar, or other ingredient?  This helps avoid that problem.

Rye Bread Bag

I also needed an organized way to store the bread bags, so I made a 2-paneled box to keep the bread mixes, labeling one side "White" and "Wheat" while the other side says "Potato" and "Rye", as these are the top 4 breads I use in my house.

Lastly, it is helpful to bookmark the bread recipes or even better is to write them out on separate recipe cards for easy access when it's time to add the wet ingredients.
NOTE: yeast does NOT count as a dry ingredient and should be kept in the fridge until time for baking. :)
Here are the recipes I use for the four different breads (each makes 1.5 lb. loaves):

I made 20 bags in 30min!

White Table Bread
Dry: 3 cups bread flour (I use basic white flour)
4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
4 tsp butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast



Whole Wheat Bread

Loaf of Whole Wheat Bread

Dry:  1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups bread flour (I use basic white)
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1 cup milk
3 T water
4 tsp honey or sugar
1 T butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast

Potato Bread
Dry: 3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes or buds, flavor of choice
1 T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1/2 cup water
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 T butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast

Rye Bread
Dry: 2 cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
2 T gluten flour (I used a product called Vital Wheat Gluten)
2 T brown sugar
1.5 tsp caraway seed (gives that tangy rye flavor, but opt)
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1 cup water
2 T butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast

As another note, you can even oven-can into canning jars these bread starters! Google "oven canning" for more information on how to do that, but I promise it's easy!

HAPPY HEALTHING!