A Great "Hy-Bread" Recipe!

Through the years many people who were involved in food storage saved mainly the basics: rice, oats, beans, and of course, wheat. Wheat is a great staple, but only if you know what to do with it. The "Gan"-"Green Thumb" and I are not especially experienced with baking bread. That makes the bread machine that my mother-in-law gave me several years ago even more valuable. There truly is nothing better than home-made bread, and with today's bread machines doing the work for us, even the busiest family can have some.

The Old Coot who married me comes from a family who actually makes the real deal, but even his aunt had a recipe for a bread machine. The reason that I like this recipe so much is that it allows you to incorporate some of the wheat that you have been storing into this recipe, without it being too much. The wheat that I add is a little coarser than most people would probably use. This is mainly because I don't have an electric wheat grinder, and running it through the manual grinder ONCE is enough for me. If you don't want coarse wheat flour, by all means, feel free to run it through the mill another time or two (or invest in an electric grinder). Either way, this bread is great! ("Gan"-"Green Thumb" told me that it wished it had a nose so that it could smell it baking!)

White/Wheat Hybrid Bread for Bread Machine
1-1/3 cup ice water
1/3 cup oatmeal
1 cup wheat flour
2 cups white flour (you can use regular flour, but flour for bread machines gives a lighter loaf)
2 Tablespoons powdered milk
1½ teaspoon yeast (rapid rise works best)
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1½ Tablespoon butter or margarine
Mix the dry ingredients (except for margarine) in a mixing bowl. Put ice water into the bread machine first, add the dry ingredients, and add butter last on top. Use the “rapid rise” setting (or whatever setting on your machine is closest to 3:20).