I haven't got a bread maker and I love making bread by hand, but I know some people love to wake up to freshly baked bread in the mornings, which is perfectly possible if you have a machine with a timer.

The recipe I turn to over again is very simple - 500g flour with a knob of butter rubbed in, 300ml warm water with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon and a half of dried yeast mixed in. This makes a large loaf. You can mess around with this recipe as much as you like - all plain flour for a white loaf, or maybe 50:50 with wholemeal or spelt wheat. Rye flour is nice too but don't go more than a third of the total amount because it doesn't rise as well as strong white flour (neither does spelt or wholemeal for that matter). Seeds are brilliant, linseeds, poppy, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame. I generally let the dough rise to double the volume and knock it back - then rise again - knock back - and then knead into shape for the bread tin. By letting it rise three times, it seems to greatly improve the texture, and it goes lovely and fluffy, just like a loaf from the bakery!

__________________

Dwell simply ~ love richly