by Texas Homesteader ~
My homemade honey & oat sandwich bread makes a delicious 2-pound loaf of bread. Use your bread machine to simplify bread-baking day!
(Note: Some links in this post will take you to other related articles for further information. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click and buy something I could receive a tiny commission.)
Bread Machine Makes Homemade Bread EASY!
There are lots of brands of *bread machines out there, mine is a Oster Expressbake and makes up to a 2 pound loaf with 12 bread settings & 3 crust settings.
I started experimenting with my own Oatmeal Sandwich Bread recipe to make a 2-lb bread-maker loaf to make it work with the bread machine.
I baked several loaves, tweaking the recipe each time until I found what was for us the perfect balance. (The recipe is below)
Can You Premix Homemade Bread Ingredients?
To simplify bread-baking day, I pre-mix several batches of the dry ingredients. This way I’ve looked up the recipe & dirtied up the measuring cups, etc. only once. It’s my own convenience mix!
Baker’s Note: Mix all dry ingredients EXCEPT the the yeast. You don’t want the yeast touching salt or any moisture until you turn the bread machine on. So yeast is added only on bread-baking day.
A wide-mouth canning jar gives me juuuuust enough extra room to add my bread’s dry ingredients. Now I whip these pre-mixed dry ingredient jars in no time with this shortcut:
I put a jar on the scale, tare the weight to zero and add each dry ingredient, tarring to zero after each addition.
SO EASY, SO FAST!
Work smarter, not harder as RancherMan always says…
How To Bake Bread In A Bread Machine
On bread-baking day I’ll first place the wet ingredients into the bread machine’s pan.
I place the bread-maker container on a digital scale, tare the weight to zero and add each ingredient by weight of the measurement I’ve noted on my recipe card.
Then I’ll add the dry ingredients, put a small indention in the top of the flour & add the instant yeast separately. (my machine recommends adding yeast in this manner)
In the colder months I enjoy the delightful aroma of homemade bread baking inside the house. But in the summer months to keep that Texas summer heat outside, I place the bread maker on our covered back porch.
Then I select regular bread, 2-lb loaf and medium crust & simply push the ‘Start’ button & walk away.
Characteristics Of Bread Baked In A Bread Machine
Bread-maker bread comes out in a large square with a paddle hole at the bottom. Here’s how I slice it:
After I cool the loaf I cut it in half at the paddle hole. Then I lay each half cut side down and slice the loaf using our *Bread-Slicing Guide.
This way of cutting makes the paddle hole less noticeable & the resulting slices of bread not quite so large and square.
The end piece is always the slice that RancherMan & I enjoy hot and freshly baked, sometimes before the rest of the bread is even sliced!
Does A Bread Machine Make Bread With A Thick Crust?
Some complain that bread from a bread machine has a thicker crust. I found the crust that touches the bread pan is indeed a little thicker than when baked in my own pans in the oven.
To reduce the thicker crust issue I place the hot baked bread on a rack & lightly coat the surface with butter to soften it. Then I immediately cover the bread with a clean (dark-colored) kitchen towel. The light steaming also softens the crust.
It’s still somewhat thicker than the crust I bake in my own bread pans. But it’s so slight that it’s not off putting to us.
Using A Bread Machine To Knead Dough, Then Bake Bread In An Oven
Oftentimes I’ll allow the bread machine to prepare the bread dough. Then I will cut the dough in half and bake two loaves of bread in the oven.
After that first rise & punch down I’ll remove the dough from the bread machine & prepare it for the oven:
-
-
Knead dough briefly and cut in half.
-
Flatten each half of dough into a long rectangle.
-
-
-
Roll each rectangle into a log, pinching the ends to seal.
-
Place each dough log into a greased glass loaf pan, turning to coat all sides of dough.
-
Allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
-
Bake bread at 375ºF for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
-
Bring bread from oven, remove from pans & place on a rack.
-
Coat surface of bread lightly with butter, cover with kitchen towel & allow to cool.
-
We enjoy that first slice to be hot out of the oven. Perfection!
Solar Oven Option For Baking Bread
Sometimes I rely on my trusty *Solar Oven and using just the power of the sun I bake my bread!
(mine is a Sun Oven brand of solar oven)
I use the same procedure as the oven baked instructions above & allow the bread machine to prepare the bread dough. Then transfer that dough into 2 loaf pans as instructed above.
When the bread is ready to be baked I place them in my preheated solar oven.
Cook times in a solar oven can vary depending upon whether or not you’ve preheated the oven, the quantity and thickness of clouds present to impede sunshine, etc. But my homemade bread bakes in about 1 to 1.5 hours.
What Is The Internal Temperature Of Baked Bread?
The King Arthur site indicates a perfectly-baked loaf of yeast bread will have an internal temperature of 190 degrees F. if you want to check with a quick-read or *Wireless Thermometer just to be sure. The bread crust will be lightly golden-brown.
Anyway, here’s the recipe I use for a 2-lb loaf from my bread machine. (or TWO one-pound loaves baked in a regular oven or solar oven!)
Oatmeal Sandwich Bread - 2-Lb Loaf
A 2-lb oatmeal sandwich bread recipe for an Oster ExpressBake Bread Machine. #TexasHomesteader
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 2 Tablespoons bacon grease
- 1/2 cup coarse oat flour
- 3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
Instructions
Instructions:
-
Mix milk, water, honey & bacon grease & warm gently in microwave or allow to reach room temperature before continuing. Then pour into the bread pan.
-
In separate bowl mix oat flour, all-purpose flour and salt.
-
Pour flour mixture into bread-machine pan on top of wet ingredients.
-
Make a shallow well in flour and add yeast. (it's said the yeast should not touch the wet ingredients or salt until it's mixed in by the machine)
-
Choose your settings - choose a 2 lb loaf and then choose light, medium or dark crust.
My machine defaults to the last setting used, so typically all I need to do is press "START"
Recipe Notes
NOTE: SOLAR OVEN BAKING OPTION - I often use a bread machine dough cycle to make the dough and complete the initial rise. Then I can use my my Sun Oven solar oven to actually bake the bread.
After the first rise in the bread machine I'll remove from the machine, knead the dough & divide the dough in two. Each half is rolled into a flat rectangle and rolled into a log, pinching the ends to seal.
Then I'll place the dough logs into greased loaf pans, turning to coat with oil. I allow the bread to rise until doubled in bulk (about 45 minutes), then place the loaf pans into my pre-heated solar oven. Depending upon sun intensity, cloud cover, my adjusting the oven to track the sun more closely, etc. the bread bakes outside in my solar oven in about 1 to 1.5 hours. (King Arthur site says internal temp should be 190 degrees F. if you want to use an instant-read thermometer to be sure)
The bread will be lightly golden-brown.
~TxH~
This post categorized in 
Tagged in COOKING 
Other Favorite Breads
Sandwich Bread Recipes
No-Knead Bread Recipes
Flavored Bread Recipes
Recipes For Buns
Biscuit Recipes
- Homemade Country-Style Buttermilk Biscuits
- Mix-n-Bake Cheddar Biscuits
- Snappy Jalapeno/Cheese Biscuits
Cornbread Recipes
Tortilla Recipes
Sweet Breads / Desserts
- Leftover Biscuit Dough Cinnamon Rolls!
- Cantaloupe Bread w/Pecan Praline Glaze
- Chunky Apple Bread With Honey Glaze
- Sweet Pumpkin Bread
Bread Tips
- Making Pre-Mix Bread Ingredient Packets
- Making My Own Oat Flour For CHEAP
- My Favorite Bread-Making Kitchen Feature
- Homemade Bread-Making Shortcuts, Tips & Tricks
- Make Self-Rising Flour From All-Purpose Flour
- Our Favorite Bread Recipes, All In One Post
All Bread Posts
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page. It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea – lots of good folks sharing! You can also follow along on Pinterest, on Twitter or on Instagram.
If you’d like to receive an email each time a new blog post goes live it’s EASY to Subscribe to our blog!
Reference:
King Arthur Internal Yeast Bread Temperature
This recipe makes a soft, lightly chewy loaf of bread. We love it!
I substituted 3/4 cup whole wheat flour for 3/4 cup of white flour and 1tbsp butter for 1 tbsp of bacon grease. Still excellent bread.
This sounds so yummy and I must try it. Instead of “winging it” I thought I would ask. Do you have instructions on how to make this without the machine? I love your blog BTW!
Well Alisha, this bread machine recipe makes a 2-lb loaf. It seems my typical loaf pans (9×5) make about a 1.5 lb loaf. The easiest thing I’d think is to make this recipe, which makes 2 standard 9×5 sized loaf. It’s the recipe I’d amended to make my 2-lb bread machine loaf anyway. (note: these days I’m pretty much replacing ALL of the whole wheat flour with oat flour and we like it just fine) –> https://texashomesteader.com/homemade-sandwich-bread-variation-oatmeal/
Seriously? Now I have to go make this in my machine–your recipes are addictive. I have had so many bread machines since the first one I received for Christmas over 29 years ago. I wear them out from so much use. he latest one actually makes a loaf shape, and I love it. I also set the crust for the lightest setting, and take it out immediately. I will try taking out the paddle and see how that works. I like using the one hour setting, the bread seems to turn out better for me. Something I have started using instead of water is the whey left over from making kefir cheese. When I use the one hour setting it creates a softer loaf. I suppose any whey would work. I can’t believe I never thought of premixing my ingredients for the bread machine. I do it with my biscuit and pancake recipes–just pop them in the bottom of the fridge, and when I need them I jut add whatever wet ingredients are needed. Thank you for the tip!