Bread Machine Focus week Day 3- The Delay Setting

One of my favorite features on my bread machine is the delay setting. By taking advantage of this feature I can set up my bread machine and know that when the end of the day comes I will have a wonderful, hot, delicious loaf of fresh homemade bread waiting for dinner.  On a busy day when I can leave my two favorite kitchen helpers my bread machine and slow cooker in charge of dinner I know that when dinner time rolls around I will only need a few minutes to pull together a tasty and satisfying meal for the family. I do recommend getting to know your bread machine before you leave it for the day, like I mentioned a few days ago my current machine always needs to have a bit more liquid than most recipes call for. Since I know my machine so well, I can look at the recipe and make those adjustments in the morning when I put the ingredients in the bread machine.

Another good time to use the delay setting is for breakfast. Wouldn’t your family love to wake up to the smell of fresh bread waiting for them in the morning? Just slice and you are ready to head out the door.

Now, not all recipes can be left on Delay. You need to read through the list of ingredients. In order to be safe on the delay cycle there needs to be no fresh dairy (butter is okay though) or eggs, honey, meats or fresh fruits or vegetables.  As long as none of these ingredients are in the recipe you are good to go.

Do make sure when you are layering your ingredients in the bread machine that yeast will be safe from coming in contact with the liquid ingredients until the machine starts to mix, that is one of the reasons the yeast is almost always put in last on top of everything else.

Today’s recipe is Crusty Italian Bread; this is one of our family favorites and works well with almost any Italian inspired meal as well as almost any soup. This is one of my favorites to pair with slow cooker meals for a quick dinner on a busy day.

Crusty Italian Bread

1 1/8 cups water

2 Tablespoons olive oil

3 cups bread flour

1 envelope dry Italian salad dressing mix

3 Tablespoons Sugar

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon yeast

Layer ingredients in the bread machine in recommended order.

Set machine to Delay cycle, 1 ½ pound loaf

Enjoy

This recipe also bakes well at the basic or white bread setting if you don’t need to use the delay.