I’ve been making my own bread for years now since I got a bread machine.

I wish I had a pile of money saved to show for making my own bread and not buying bread from the store.

My initial reasoning for buying the bread machine was… ‘think about all the money I’ll save’.

The bread machine has become one of the hardest working appliances in the kitchen, and to think I got it on a whim. It’s a sturdy little workhorse that makes the most perfect fluffy loaves.

You wouldn’t think a bread machine would be versatile, but it is – I’ve made pizza dough, cinnamon buns and even bagels. Then was the disastrous summer of jam making, when I tried and failed miserably to make jam in the bread machine (don’t ask).

Sadly, I haven’t been making bread lately; I’ve been a bit lazy and buying bread from my local Cob’s Bread. They do have amazing bread but it’s not the same as baking my own.

I really have no excuse, baking with the bread machine is one of the easiest and uncomplicated tasks there is. I’ve decided to use this post as motivation to start making bread again.

I tried my perfected modified quick go-to wheat bran raisin bread.

I normally use whole wheat flour and a cup of white flour to counter the denseness but I’m all out of wheat flour.

I use olive oil instead of butter because of the whole “I don’t eat dairy products” business

Ditto for almond milk – I use about a cup and the half (eyeballed) to about four cups flour.

A cup of wheat bran to make it a ‘wheat bran raisin loaf’

Nutmeg and almond extract gives it that nutty aromatic flavour

Yeast, honey and a bit of salt to finish it off.

It’s pretty important to follow the machine instructions.

After many disastrous experiments, I’ve come to realize (of course I could have easily read this in any baking book) that baking is a science, you just need to know the right flour to water to yeast to salt ratio

My machine recommends putting in wet ingredients before dry ingredients, so here the almond milk, honey and oil goes in first, then I throw in the nutmeg, sometimes I add the nutmeg after I’ve added the flour but I have this thing about the yeast and nutmeg touching.

It’s all in and the machine gets to work.

Here’s my dough kneading away, I normally do a quick check here to see if I need to add more water or flour.

Raisins are added when the machine prompts, and it folds it in perfectly!

After a long nap, I come to check on my bread and it’s almost done.

It turns out a simple chewy perfect loaf every time.

The End