The movie night group was over today for the inaugural movie in Christina's theme. The theme is "actors who played Jedi or Sith in the Star Wars movies" – but no one is allowed to show a Star Wars movie, naturally. The movie she chose to kick off the theme was Moulin Rouge (Ewan McGregor, who is in the film, plays the young Obi Wan Kenobi in the new movies from George Lucas).
As part of my continuing streak of food cruelty, I decided to have some bread baking while the movie played. Our guests were forced to endure the heavenly aroma wafting in from the kitchen while the movie unfolded. It was worth the torture, though. I did actually let them have some of the bread when it was done.
Here's the recipe I use whenever I want to make a quick loaf of good bread. Of course, it's a bread machine recipe (there's another way to bake bread?), but I'm sure if you wanted to do all that kneading and tracking of rises yourself, you could adapt this recipe with no problems at all. I used to use mixes pretty exclusively, but that was before I discovered how little extra trouble it was to just assemble the ingredients yourself. The bread always turns out better, too.
Honey White Bread
Based on a recipe by "Mimi B" – whoever she is.
1 cup milk (I use 1%)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
3 cups bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast OR 1 teaspoon instant yeast
Assemble ingredients in the order suggested by your bread machine manual. (Usually wet stuff first, then dry stuff on top and yeast last.) Use the basic cycle on your bread machine -- the 1.5 pound loaf setting is about right.
Often I will reduce the amount of butter and compensate with slightly more milk to make up for the lost moisture. Don't skip the ginger if you can help it; it adds a nice kick and complements the honey well.
Bread machine tip: to keep the kneading paddle from sticking to its post (which can keep your bread from exiting the pan gracefully) or from sticking to the bread dough (you can really tear up a loaf of bread trying to get the darn paddle out), spritz the post and the paddle with some non-stick spray before you add the ingredients.
As part of my continuing streak of food cruelty, I decided to have some bread baking while the movie played. Our guests were forced to endure the heavenly aroma wafting in from the kitchen while the movie unfolded. It was worth the torture, though. I did actually let them have some of the bread when it was done.
Here's the recipe I use whenever I want to make a quick loaf of good bread. Of course, it's a bread machine recipe (there's another way to bake bread?), but I'm sure if you wanted to do all that kneading and tracking of rises yourself, you could adapt this recipe with no problems at all. I used to use mixes pretty exclusively, but that was before I discovered how little extra trouble it was to just assemble the ingredients yourself. The bread always turns out better, too.
Honey White Bread
Based on a recipe by "Mimi B" – whoever she is.
1 cup milk (I use 1%)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
3 cups bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast OR 1 teaspoon instant yeast
Assemble ingredients in the order suggested by your bread machine manual. (Usually wet stuff first, then dry stuff on top and yeast last.) Use the basic cycle on your bread machine -- the 1.5 pound loaf setting is about right.
Often I will reduce the amount of butter and compensate with slightly more milk to make up for the lost moisture. Don't skip the ginger if you can help it; it adds a nice kick and complements the honey well.
Bread machine tip: to keep the kneading paddle from sticking to its post (which can keep your bread from exiting the pan gracefully) or from sticking to the bread dough (you can really tear up a loaf of bread trying to get the darn paddle out), spritz the post and the paddle with some non-stick spray before you add the ingredients.
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