My teenagers eat a good amount of bread. Is it a teenager thing? When I was that age (looong time ago, haha!) I remember my brothers going through a few loaves of white bread a day. I don't know how healthy it was, this steady diet of bread.

Anyway, my kids don't eat white bread, and I've never been too keen on the store-bought wheat bread, either. So a few years ago I bought a bread machine. I love the bread I can make! We use it almost every day. I usually don't use the machine to bake the bread, just to make the dough. I find that the bread machine-baked bread is too clumsy to slice. I prefer the "Italian" style loaf-- a kneaded, elongated loaf resting free. I program the machine to make dough, and I knead it and rise it myself on a pan. The smell of rising and baking bread all day long is delicious.

Once in a while I find a really good recipe and tweak it just a little. I've been using a terrific bread machine recipe and I think I finally have it perfected. Naturally, I thought I'd share it with you!

A few notes:

This recipe is a great way to get some uber-nutritious ingredients in the daily diet. I use whole flaxseed in the dough, but I've used milled flaxseed and it works just as wonderfully. Flaxseed is very good for you.

I've also discovered a terrific substitute for white granulated sugar: sucanat. I found it in the Bulk Food section of my local grocery store (Hannaford's has a great selection of bulk foods). Yet it is a little too pricey to buy regularly at retail. I did some searching and found a terrific price online, at Amazon.com's Gourmet Food section. I didn't even know they had a Gourmet Food section before!

[Now here's a shameless plug for my blog: in the sidebar, you'll see an Amazon.com search engine box. Every time someone uses that search engine box (or clicks on a Google Adsense ad) I get a tiny little credit. After I have earned enough credits, Amazon and/or Adsense will pay me for the effort. Would you consider using the search engine to access Amazon? It might make that little bit of difference in gasoline for my travels! I've tried to make it accessible and convenient.]

Sucanat is sugar made from the juices of the sugar cane. It is milder and less acrid than refined sugar. It also serves as a terrific replacement for sugar in coffee or tea. Since using sucanat in my coffee, I no longer have that annoying buzz or light-headedness that I got from the refined sugar. Sucanat is a direct replacement for refined sugar: that is, if a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of refined sugar, you can use 2 tablespoons of sucanat as a substitute. But like I said, sucanat is much more expensive than refined sugar, so it helps to shop around for a good deal. I think Amazon has it for $1.69 a pound right now.

Here's the recipe. Be sure to make your measurements exact.


Mrs. Mecomber's Flax Seed Bread (for bread machines)

In your bread machine bucket, place the following ingredients in this order:
1 and 1/2 cups hot water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons flaxseed (whole) or ground flaxseed
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups flour (I usually use 3 cups white flour with 1 cup wheat or graham flour)
2 Tablespoons refined sugar or sucanat

Now with your finger, make a small well in the flour mixture. In this little depression, add:

2 teaspoons bread machine yeast (the quick-rising kind).

I set my bread machine to "dough" setting (usually 1 and 1/2 hours). I knead it (only a little, just enough to make the shape of the loaf), rise it (on a lightly greased cookie sheet, covered with a cloth, for 30 to 60 minutes), and bake it (about 1/2 hour at 350) myself. You can bake it in the bread machine easily enough, though.

This bread is terrific when served still warm. Yum! Leftovers make very good toast for the morning. Enjoy!