Buttery Brioche Loaf for the #BreadMachine

My son recently started kindergarten. We're still getting the hang of packed lunches; up till now, we pretty much always had hot lunches at home together. So, we're trying out different lunches and figuring out what he likes best. 

He mentioned to me that his friend has a sandwich every day. "And it's on white bread! Can I try that, too?" Poor kid. It's not that he hasn't ever had  white flour—he loves Italian bread dipped in olive oil and he's recently discovered the deliciousness of croissants—but we really never buy white sandwich bread. Our sandwiches are almost always on sprouted, whole grain bread. Which he likes just fine! But I did want to honor the fact that he wanted to try something new.

So, I decided to bake some white bread with more nutrition than your average supermarket loaf. I used the best-quality ingredients: I'm talking organic flour and milk, pastured eggs from a local farm, and grass-fed butter. And, hoo boy, did it come out divine! It's flaky and light. Plus, I made it in my breadmaker, so it was ridiculously easy.

Best of all, my son loved it. And he thinks I'm some sort of sorceress for making him special bread.

I adapted this recipe very slightly; I didn't have bread flour (and I don't have room in my pantry for yet another baking ingredient), so I added some vital wheat gluten to all-purpose flour to achieve the same result. FYI, vital wheat gluten can be purchased online or in any health food store and is already in my pantry for when I make wheat bread.

Ingredients
yield: 1 1/-lb loaf

• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, cut in pieces and softened
• 1/3 cup warm milk
• 3 T warm water
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 cups minus 3 tsp all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp vital wheat gluten
• 2 T Sucanat or sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer; for my machine, this meant wet ingredients at the bottom, topped with dry ingredients, and then the yeast on top.

Process on the white bread or "basic" loaf setting. I chose the setting for "light" crust color.

After baking, cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, I wrapped my loaf in aluminum foil, placed it in a plastic zip bag, and stored it on my counter.

Not only does this bread make fantastic toast (the butter in it makes the slice gorgeously golden when toasted), but it makes amazing French toast and bread pudding. So rich and delicious—enjoy!

Just look at the brioche and ignore the Toblerone, mmkay?

Don't have a bread machine? No problem! My friend, Nancy, wrote up a handmade version at her blog, The Real Nani.