Boston Brown bread

I have been buying a cheap whole wheat bread at WalMart for the past few months ($2.50 a loaf).  Unfortunately, when toasted, it has this smell that is absolutely disgusting.  In the morning, it is almost more than I can handle!  I was going to treat myself this week and buy a different type of bread, but most of the other whole wheat varieties were in the $4 range.  I just couldn't justify spending that kind of money when 1.  I am capable of making my own bread, 2.  I have all of the ingredients at home, 3.  even if I don't want to make my own bread, I have a perfectly good bread machine.  It was the third reason that had me leaving the bread aisle and heading to my public library for a bread machine book.  I found a book called America's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt that looked promising.  Their recipe for Boston Brown Bread looked easy and I also had all of the ingredients handy.  The crumb was good, the taste was better, and when toasted, the bread smelled toasty instead of rank.  What more can you ask for?  I did adapt their recipe a little by using spelt flour instead of whole wheat.  Use what you have.

Boston Brown Bread from America's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt

Makes a 2 lb. loaf

Add these ingredients to your bread machine baking pan in the order listed:

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup skim milk powder

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tbls. molasses

2 Tbls. shortening

2 1/2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour

1 3/4 cup bread flour or all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp. bread machine yeast

Set your machine to the Whole Wheat cycle.

Because 2 lbs. is quite a large loaf, I cut the loaf vertically down the middle, laid the halves cut side down, and cut slices along the short side of the halves.  Doing this seemed to make good sized pieces.