Do you smell that bread?

In an attempt to curb our horrendous food spending habits, I started making our own bread. Yes, it started out rocky, but it has been perfected. For whatever reason, our kitchen turns into an oven during the summer, so baking in the actual oven is pretty much out. What to do. Turns out a fabulous sister-in-law of mine had a brand new breadmaker that had never been used and wanted to see some action.

I'll spare you the details of the inch tall loaves and the mushied middle loaves and get to the good stuff. King Arthur has some great recipes on their site. (They also have a great blog that you probably shouldn't ever check out.) The winner of all our bread tests (not based solely on the fact that Ava will eat the bread AND the crust) is the 100% Whole Wheat with flax seeds and Abigail's Honey. Over the course of my bread eating life, I've had quite a few $5 loaves that don't even compare.

Nevermind the fact that we're saving a few bucks and know each of the eight ingredients in our bread, the smell that occurs when those few items knead, rise, mix and bake is the reason I do it!