Our Favorite Bread Recipe

As you may know from previous posts, Bethany was off wheat for some time. During this time I hunted high and low for a gluten-free, "everything" free bread recipe that was a hit. While I enjoyed some of them - one I copied in a previous post - none of them were a huge hit with the girls (my second daughter so far has no known allergies but is a willing guinea pig in my cooking experiments). When we were allowed to have wheat again, I started looking for another bread recipe to try. I found one that sounded good for my husband and I, but didn't think it would be a hit with the kids - I was hunting for one that was like the super dark steakhouse bread. Lo and behold it was a huge hit with everybody, and now I can give my girls peanut butter & jelly sandwiches! For some reason it is a huge emotional salve to be able to feed my daughter a "normal" kid food like PB&J.

For those who are interested in making it, the recipe is below. I made a couple of changes: it calls for warm water & instant coffee granules, I just put in warm coffee. Bethany is allergic to honey so we use agave nectar - both work well. I make it in my mini-loaf bread maker and it works great. You can make it either in a regular bread maker or the traditional way of making bread. I put the ingredients in the bread machine in the order they are listed, then do it on the light crust setting for basic bread:

1 c. bread flour (I use a 100% wheat all-purpose flour)
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 T. sugar
1 T. unsweetened cocoa
1/2 t. salt
1 T. softened butter
1/4 c. agave nectar
3/4 c. warm coffee (I use decaf just in case it doesn't cook out!)
2 t. yeast

YUM!