Those of you who have wondered about making your own bread machine mixes,
listen up.
Over the past few years, I have found myself making a light whole-wheat
bread mostly for sandwiches, and thought it might save me some time if I
could "batch" the mix. I like eating home-made bread, and let's face it,
using an ABM is a pretty mechanical process, in order to save myself time,
here's how I proceeded.
The recipe I used was modified from Carris' Wheat Bread found on page 36 of
The Bread Machine Cookbook III by Donna German. I got a 2-gallon plastic
paint bucket and lid from Home Depot, and uncerimoniously dumped the
contents of a 5-lb sack of white bread flour into it. I then weighed 2.5
lbs of whole wheat flour and added it to the bucket. I then weighed 3 cups
of the mix and found that it weighed 385 grams (0.85 lbs). 7.5 lbs. of
flour mix translates to 3405 grams, which, when divided by 385 grams means
that that 7.5 lbs of flour mix will make 8.8 loaves. Call it 9. I did. I
then multiplied the remaining ingredients by 9 to get the amounts to add.
In order to use a measuring cup for measuring the remaining ingredients, I
converted the British units to metric, using 5 mL for each Tsp, and 15 mL
for each Tbsp.
Since my measuring cups, and yours (don't deny it), are graduated in both
British and metric units, I use whichever system best fits my calculations,
so excuse the mixture of units. To the flour mix in the bucket I then
added:
2.25 cups 7-grain Cereal
270 mL Brown Sugar (compacted)
405 mL Wheat Gluten
35 mL Salt (2 Tbsp. + 1 Tsp.)
270 mL Bread Enhancer*
*Made from 1 cup lecithin granules, 2 Tbsp. citric acid**, 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
** I used Fresh Fruit Protector, made by Ball, found with the mason jars,
pectin, etc. in the local supermarket. It consists of an unspecified
mixture of citric acid, ascorbic acid and sugar.
I then took the bucket out in the garage and mixed the dry ingredients
using my cordless drill with an auger-type paint mixer (clean, of course
and never used to mix lead-containing paint).
Done! Snap lid on to bucket so almost-2-year-old Emily-Claire can't get
into it.
Now for the fun part. Measure out:
3.5 cups of the mix and add
3/8 cup milk (I may substitute powdered milk some time)
3/4 cup water
1.5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp yeast
. . . and push the button.
Now when I want to make my weekly loaf, I just measure out the above
ingredients, push the button and get on with life.
The bread has a light texture and is somewhat sweet. Emily got the top,
which is the fluffiest part, of the first loaf. She looked up at me and
said her most complex sentence yet, "I like this bread."
That's good enough for me.
Cheers!
Quinn Farnes
Laguna Niguel, CA, USA