Whole Wheat Bread

Last week I received a request. The person who wrote to me told me that she had had a bread machine on her counter for years but never used it. She had tried the mixes in the past but it just didn’t do anything for her. 

True confession time – I had never used anything but bread machine mixes in the past also. I have a friend who does not have a lot of confidence in her cooking/baking. I told her that I was thinking of using my bread machine but didn’t know if they still sold the mixes.  She told me that she had never used a mix but had used the recipes in the instruction book.  HUH???? There were recipes in the instruction book? Amazingly, my husband still had the instruction book filed with other appliance instruction books and I looked at it. Those have been the recipes I have been making along with some recipes from Pinterest.

The reader who wrote to me asked for high fiber/low sugar recipes. Today, I am going to share a whole wheat bread recipe that I made on Sunday. I really liked it and while I am sure it could be higher in fiber it is a good starting point. 

BEFORE YOU START – MAKE SURE YOU CAN MAKE A 1 LB. LOAF OF BREAD IN YOUR BREAD MAKER. The bread machine that I have can make a 1 lb. or a 1 1/2 lb. loaf.  I make the smaller loaf all the time because there are only two of us and the bread does not have any preservatives. (It gets stale fast. )

Whole Wheat Bread  (small loaf – 1 pound)

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon margarine or butter, softened

2 1/3 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbs brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp of regular dry yeast          OR        1 1/4 tsp of bread machine or quick acting yeast

Place the ingredients in the machine bread pan IN THE ORDER LISTED.

Now, the next part depends on your bread maker. You need to look and see which is the correct setting for whole wheat bread. By the way, if you have lost the instruction book for your bread maker, you can look on line and probably download it. While Silent Sam found the book before our move, it has not been found in our new house. I downloaded the book from the manufacturer’s web site. 



I have to tell you what happened when I made this recipe. I had not made a whole wheat recipe before. I put the ingredients in the machine, plugged it in and made my selection for type of bread and hit start. NOTHING HAPPENED. I could see that the time for baking showed on the screen but nothing else.  I was upset and thought that my bread machine was not working.  Then I noticed that the time seemed to be going down but there wasn’t any noise from the machine.  I don’t know why (maybe laziness) I decided to just let it go and see what happened. I walked away.  Every once in a while, I would hear something from the machine.  I then checked it after an hour or so.  The machine was cold and but the  dough  had risen. I then had the brilliant idea to check and see what the timing description for the whole wheat cycle looked like. OH! It seems that whole wheat recipes start with a 1/2 hour rest cycle. There is another 1/2 hour rest cycle during the process. Well, isn’t that special.  You might want to check before you think your machine has broken. (I was so upset – I had just started using it and then it broke?  NO!!!) 

Despite the glitches in the prep, the loaf was very good. I would also say that I think that it lasted better than other loaves we have made. I made it Sunday evening and we had it with dinner on Monday and Tuesday and it was fine. 

I went to Calorie Count to get the nutrition facts.  This is based on the loaf having 6 servings.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 95 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 208

Calories from Fat 22

% Daily Value^*

Total Fat 2.4g  4%

Cholesterol 0mg  0%

Sodium 413mg     17%

Potassium 77mg  2%

Total Carbohydrates 40.4g    13%

Dietary Fiber  1.5g      6%

Sugars    3.0g

Protein  5.4g

Vitamin A 2%                    •   Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 1%                        •      Iron 14%

Nutrition Grade A-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Good points

• Low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• High in selenium
• High in thiamin

I hope this recipe inspires you to use your bread machine.  It is so easy and the bread is so tasty.  The best part for us is that I make a small quantity that has a short shelf life.

Thanks for reading.

I’m Baaack!

via GIPHY

Okay, thank you for still reading this after I have been gone for so long.  Wow!  What  a time we have had. 

I’m sorry that it seemed like I abandoned this spot.  I haven’t; it is just sometimes life becomes complicated.  So, what has been happening?  Well,  Silent Sam worked for a company for 35 years and that suddenly closed one night.  Yep, we found out at 2 a.m. that he was out of a job.  As you can imagine, this was not good news and it led to a lot of transitions. His new full time job was looking for a job.  After eight months, he found a position in a different city.  We decided that we would take it slow.  He got an apartment by his new office and  came home on weekends.  I stayed in our home and started cleaning up and cleaning out.  We had been in the house for 31 years and there was a lot to clear out. 

(Which is a great thing to do, by the way.  I am a huge fan of cleaning out.  It is freeing.  The worst part is that you have to find somewhere to get rid of everything.. Anyway, we conquered that and got rid of lots of stuff.)

After six months, Silent Sam loved his new job and we put the house up for sale.  It sold right away and there we were without a new house.  So we put everything into storage and lived for a month or so in Silent Sam’s apartment.  We did finally find a new house and then moved (again!) to our new home.  Two weeks later, I went back to our previous town and had my knee replaced.  Between the hospital and rehab, I was gone about 3 weeks. 

And if that sounds like we had a lot going on, there was one other INCREDIBLE  thing that happened.  The day before my knee surgery, our daughter gave birth to our first grandchild.  Yes, our perfect grandson was born.  He is a day older than my knee. 



So many highs and lows in a small of time! 

So, recovery has been going well and I am working to get back to you.  I have started cooking again so I hope to be sharing new recipes with you soon.  I know I have talked about this before but I am back using my bread machine.  Be honest, how many of you just thought, “I have one of those somewhere.” Yes, I think there was a time when everyone had to have a bread machine.  When I was cleaning out, I found mine.  Actually, had you asked me, I would have said that I got rid of it years ago.  Wrong again!  There it was and I started using it.  The machine that I have makes a small loaf that is great for the two of us.  (Which is a good thing because if you have ever made bread this way, you know that it doesn’t last long.) 

It feels great to be back!  Thanks for your support!


I also thought that this new start should have a new look.  What do you think?