Homemade bread

We bought a breadmaker a few weeks ago and loving the whole fresh bread thing. However, I can't help but feel like we are not getting what we need in the bread. We mostly make plain white bread and a wholemeal one from Allison/simon Holst. We have yet to explore adding seeds etc.

Does anyone know what needs to be in bread to make it 'healthier'? I am thinking of things like low GI?? Wholegrain to keep the bowels moving?

These are probably stupid questions, but becuase we are 100% homemade bread now, we want to make sure we are doing it right.

TIA!

Thanks- -I think it can do both 750gm and 1kg loaves...??

Here is the 1kg mulitgrain one I use in our breville. I have adapted the recipe and use half wholemeal flour and half bread flour so its not too solid and then add seeds etc

400 mL water
2 1/2 T oil
2 tsp sea salt
2 T honey
2 C bread flour (hi grade flour)
2 C wholemeal flour
2 T milk powder
2 T gluten flour
1/3 c oats
1/4 c sunflower seeds
2 T each of chia, linseed, sesame seeds
2 1/2 tsp edmonds surebake yeast

Use wholewheat setting on breadmaker

I have had lots of people tell me this loaf is really yum! Its healthy and comes out a good texture. You can experiment with different seeds and things, sometimes I add oat bran and LSA as well
Good luck!

I'm relatively new to this breadmaking business and all the loaves I make are really dense and heavy! What am I doing wrong? Is it possible to make a light and fluffy loaf in a breadmaker?

i have a gourmet baker and some of the stuff included is sunflower seeds, walnuts, raisins, caraway seeds, honey...
this one sounds nice... a chunky nut bread
for a 750g loaf it has
1 1/8 cup of water
2 tblspns olive oil
2 tblspns honey
3 cups highgrade flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp
surebake yeast
1/4 sunflower seeds
3/8 cup chopped walnuts

everything except the last two ingredients are added in in the beginning and the rest after it has been mixed - my machine gives a couple of beeps to let me know when to add the extra stuff.

White flour has the fibre and nutrient rich part of the grain removed so really has not much nutritional value at all. Wholegrain flour is just ground up grains, so all the good stuff So it is both the seeds or grains you add in and the type of flour you use which makes the bread good for you. The healthiest kind of flour would probably be a stone ground wholegrain, but its a trade off between having a decently fluffy loaf and also cost! I find using 1/2 wholemeal, 1/2 white plus adding more seeds gives a healthy and inexpensive loaf which tastes good! 100% wholegrain I think is quite nice but it wasn't as popular in our house lol.
You could throw in some kibbled grains also

Hope I'm not threadjacking but what brands do people like? We need to buy one.

jano1 my breadmaker is an old L V martin breadmaker... i dont think they even exist anymore!

We have a breadmaker (Breville) but I don't use it all the time. Reading this thread has made me wonder about using it all the time. Has anyone done the maths on whether it is cheaper to use the breadmaker than it is to buy bread?

ETA: and do you make a loaf a day? Or does it last a few days? We go through about 4 loaves of bread a week and most of that is for DH

Edited by Linzy

We have a brevile one. It is probably their cheapest. It was $140 on special. The shop person couldnt tell me how the more expensive one was better, so we stuck with the cheap one.

I have no idea if it is cheaper in general, but I think it is for us. At least twice a week I was either buying a speciality bread form the supermarket or a pack of fresh rolls. With these each being $4, then at least 3-4 loaves of freyas bread at approx $4 each...that was around $20 on bread

We are going through a loaf a day, however once we get a better knife we will hopefully be able to cut thiner slices...DF is a shicker with his inch thick bread!

Oh,.....and nothing beats waking up to the smell of fresh bread in the morning