Basic 1/2 Whole Wheat Bread -- No Perservatives Added!

Indulge yourself with the invigorating scent of freshly baked bread! Sure, it may not be as cheap as some of the 99 cent wonder breads available in your local grocery store but definitely more inexpensive than freshly baked partisan bread.
The nicest side benefit may very well be that you know at least the ingredients that you added... and guess what, you can even read them out loud without twisting your tongue in some chemical "kauderwelsch."

I started making my own bread when my husband gave me a breadmaker for Christmas. Ever since I have been baking religiously once a week. I don't like stale bread so when the bread is done, I place it on a cooling rack and let it sit for an hour. Then I sliced it, put it into a large ZipLoc bag and put it in the freezer. As the week goes by my family takes the slices of bread they need out of the freezer and quickly defrost them for 40 seconds in the microwave. Voila, always crispy, fresh home-baked bread at hand.

Basic 1/2 Whole Wheat Bread (Makes a 2 lb. loaf)

Use the basic bread setting (approximately 3 hours)
1.5 cups warm water
2 table spoons olive oil
2 cups whole wheat white flour
2 cups white unbleached flour
1.5 teaspoon salt
2.5 teaspoon active dry yeast

For immediate baking:
Add all ingredients as listed above, choose the basic bread setting (approximately 3 hours) and turn on the machine.

For timed baking:
Add all the liquid ingredients and the salt. Then add the flour, and at the end add the active dry yeast. Make sure that the yeast doesn't come into contact with the salt because this will cause the yeast to start reacting immediately.

Of course, I can never help it... I always have to cut off one of the ends immediately and spread butter with honey on the warm bread as soon as it comes out of the breadmaker. Delicious!

Tip:
If you are not scared you can obtain a breadmaker very inexpensively four a couple of dollars from your local 2nd hand store. Just clean it very thoroughly.