Mmm...Fresh Bread

Machine Wheat French Bread
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups bread flour & 1 cup wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 tsp yeast

This is my new, absolute favorite bread. It's so simple. (Plus low in fat, no butter or oil and no sugar or honey and saves well.) I put it in my bread machine and use the 2 lb expressbake setting. It takes just an hour and the texture is wonderful!

The girlie and I sliced a couple pieces for a snack this morning. What a treat. Of course you can use regular white flour, table salt, whatever you have on hand. When I started making this recipe I used white flour, and I would take it out of the machine before baking and shape it into a long french bread loaf. It was great that way, but with two little ones who can resist letting the machine do all the work?!

This way it's a really great sandwich bread. I slice it a little on the thin side; it's a dense bread that will really hold up. I don't like it when it's all crumbled by the time I am half way through my piece. The thing I missed most when switching over to machine bread for frugality was my soft dense sandwich bread. Now I have this and I don't miss it one bit!

AND, we added up the cost on this loaf and it's just under $0.50. Wow. That's quite a competitive price on a price on a 2lb loaf.

Now, I'm sure the bread machine is the oldest tip in the in the frugal book, but I just couldn't resist sharing this recipe with you. If you'd like to see more ideas on fun frugal living check out Biblical Womanhood for Frugal Fridays.