Whole Wheat Bread with Flax

One of the coolest things that happens in my neighborhood every Spring is a huge garage sale. It’s so huge in fact, that it has its own name: The Great Glebe Garage Sale. (Lovingly called “G3” by those in the ‘hood.)

Over the years I’ve found some great treasures among the trash–a futon, dozens upon dozens of books (my favourite find, of course), china tea cups, and the list the goes on.

One of my best finds, however, was a barely-used bread machine for only $2! The only downside was that it came without any manuals or recipes specific to the brand of machine.

I first started out filled with enthusiasm. “I’m going to be a bread baker!” I rejoiced. But all too soon that joy was quelled with loaves that wouldn’t rise, or would rise too much, or wouldn’t bake all the way through. Sigh. Tragic.

Heartbroken, I tucked the bread machine away for a while. Several weeks ago, however, I decided to break it out again and give it another shot. (I’ve been trying to cut out as many processed foods from our diet as possible.) Well, as you can imagine, it took a lot of trial and error to find a basic recipe that works. And that’s the recipe I’m pleased to share with you today. I hope it works for your bread machine too!

Wishing you sweet satisfaction,

Anita

Whole Wheat Bread with Flax (for bread machines)

Add to the machine in the following order:

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 rounded Tbsp ground flax

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp quick rise yeast

Directions: Place all the ingredients into the loaf pan in the order listed above. Select the program for brown bread. I also select the dark crust option.  Press start and in about 3 1/2 hours you’ll have a lovely loaf, ready to slather with butter. Yum!

Note: for a herb loaf, add 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning mix to the recipe.