Bread Maker - NOT!

So I've been experimenting with our bread maker since we got it some time ago. I've only been successful at like 2 loafs so far though. I don't remember the name of the 1st successful one, but it was some kind of Italian bread. The one that I've made the most and been the most successful at is Raisin Bran Bread, but that was prolly due to necessity. We had a good 10 or so boxes of the cereal that we needed to get rid of and thanks to the success of the bread, we're down to 4. However, one cannot nor does anyone want to just eat Raisin Bran Bread so I'm once again attempting this regular bread thing.

So I started with a recipe for making just plain ol' regular white bread. It smelled good and seemed like it was progressing really well until I opened the bread machine up and got a whiff of the semi-burnt bread. It wasn't burnt, BUT it was definitely darker than what I was aiming for with this bread. I wanted a nice, soft, light brown loaf of bread. FAIL!

I so didn't get what I wanted. I'm beginning to think the bread machine is broken or something. Maybe it's getting too hot too quickly. The inside looked fine ... But that outside made even me think twice about eating it. [Side Note: In case you don't know, Husband is what I call a Bread Racist. He won't eat bread if it's too dark. He'll eat the inside of it, but eating the crust is NOT happening if it's too dark. That amazes me because, well, Husband is not the lightest kid on the block & he has written a blog on crust having a bad rep (An Unfair Rep) ... anyway end of side note.]

I'm thinking that maybe I can still keep the bread maker and make it work for us. Here's what I figure. I could use the bread maker to make the dough for me. Then I can take it out and bake it in the oven to my desired firmness and crust color. And this is what I tried.

SUCCESS! It worked so well that we actually consumed the entire loaf in a week. It's a rarity for us to do that even when we buy a smaller loaf at the store. Oh yeah, this is going to work. Now, I only made plain white bread this time around, but next time I'll get a bit fancier. Heck, I may make up several batches and freeze then so we can thaw and bake and will. I know I have to make some biscuits for the Deac too now that I think I know what I'm doing :) ... I'll take pics the next time too; the bread was gone before I thought to take a pic for the site.