Simple Bread Recipe using Bread Maker

The recipe that came with the breadmaker works well, but it requires egg, milk, and most of all butter, which makes me on the hunt for a healthier option that doesn't require so many ingredient, and most importantly, must not require butter.

And I found the recipe that works wonderful, and only requires water, sugar, yeast, olive oil, flour and salt.

This recipe makes a 1000g bread. I usually only make half the serving (500g), so the numbers in red in bracket is for 500g. I'm also making the wholemeal version using this recipe, so I usually use 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 2.5 cups bread flour instead of 4 cups bread flour.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups warm water (1/2 cup)
• 2 Tablespoons and 2 teaspoons sugar (1 TBS + 1 TSP)
• 3 teaspoons yeast (1.5 TSP)
• 1/3 cup Olive Oil (39.5g)
• 4 cups flour (or 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 2.5 cups bread flour) (3/4 cup wholemeal flour 1 1/4 cup bread flour)
• 2 teaspoons salt (1 TSP)

Directions

1. In bread machine, place water, oil and salt.

2. Add flour on top of liquids. Make sure to cover the liquids. Pour sugar into one corner of the bread machine basket. Then make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast (be careful that the yeast should not touch the salt/water).

3. Set your bread machine for basic loaf, and let it do the rest of the work. For Donlim breadmaker, this is function #1. I used 450g weight using the 500g recipe.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

Almost all the supermarkets are having a sale on berries (I got my Strawberries from NTUC at $9.45 for 2 boxes. i think Giant is selling it cheaper), and I took the chance to indulge in lots and lots of berries in my diet.

Last night, I tried making strawberry jam, and it taste wonderful, and the husband gave his approval too. :)

Surprisingly, it's also super easy to make, and no need all the redundant chemicals and addictives!

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled

4 cups white sugar (I used raw sugar, and only used 70% of the portion, and still finds it a little too sweet. Will try 50% the next round)

1/4 cup lemon juice

Tools

Mason Jar(s) with Lid (any glass jars will do. just avoid the plastic ones)

Blender (optional) or a big bowl

Saucepan or pot

1. Wash strawberries, and cut off the head (the green leafy part)

2. Sterilize jar and lid by soaking them in hot water

3. Put strawberries in blender, and pulse a few times. Alterntively, you can also crush the strawberries in a huge bowl as the original recipe suggest.

4. In a saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. 

5. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). 

6. Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. I read that we have to invert the jar after filling it. This will supposedly "seal" the jar, which will make the jam last longer.

Homemade Strawberry Jam with Homemade Wholemeal Raisin/Walnut Chiaseed Bread

original jam recipe here