During a recent visit back to my hometown, I told a good friend that I felt I lost something when I moved to Phoenix and scaled way back on my baking. I wasn’t really sure how or even why it happened… maybe it was the scorching summers or the long days at work that kept me away from my oven, but our separation was clearly starting to get to me. My friend said she had the solution and it was a very simple one — Start baking bread again and you’ll get your mojo back!
The day I got home I ventured to the back of my garage storage cabinet and wiped the cobwebs off of my bread machine. My long lost friend, how have you been…I’m so sorry I’ve neglected you! I found my favorite bread maker recipe book nearby and quickly got started. I crossed my fingers hoping the machine would still work… It did!
Of course, my first bread would be my family’s all-time favorite — Ricotta Bread. Rich, hearty and fluffy, I remember it being almost cake-like when it came right out of the machine. It screamed to be immediately spread with butter and plenty of times we gave in and did just that. It also made for amazing toast the following morning, if it ever made it that far.
I probably made 3 or 4 loaves that week, never straying from the familiar and delicious Ricotta recipe. The following week I made muffins, biscuits and quickbreads. Before you knew it I was dusting off my Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking and started pouring over my stacks of saved Bon Appetit magazines. What’s going on here…was I getting my mojo back? Indeed I was. Thanks Marion!
Bread Machine Ricotta Bread
Ingredients:
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 whole egg, beaten
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 1/4 cups bread flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of dry active yeast or bread machine yeast
Directions:
Place the ingredients in your bread pan in the order that is recommended by your manufacturer. (For my machine, an older model Welbilt — it is yeast first, then bread flour, salt, sugar, butter and end with liquids)
Continue with directions for your particular bread machine. These are the wonderful results I get…
Never will you get such satisfying results with so little input.
ricotta bread
So happy your back to your old baking self again. Keep up the good baking and postings!!
Thanks for helping me get there — great seeing you this week-end!
This bread is smokin’. My wife and niece love it. They can polish off half a loaf before work. I have a Zojirushi, and the first time the bread collapsed, then reproducibly. I reduced the ricotta to 3/4 cup and whole milk 1/4 cup. It was better. I just started another loaf with 2 tsp yeast.
Thanks for posting it!
Yes, this is my favorite bread machine bread…and I agree — its hard to not eat this right out of the machine when warm.
As with any bread machine, make sure you follow your machine’s directions for its size.