Nothing fancy, just a reminder that the best things in life are easy and cheap(er)!
Homemade basic white bread machine loaf, whipped butter with fresh minced garlic, dried italian seasoning and salt. Gently kissed at 350 until the butter melts into the bread, finished on a low broil until your favorite shade of brown.
That is a matter of opinion. A bread machine that you can figure out how to program correctly means you dump some stuff in before going to bed and have fresh bread in the morning. Some people love this.
Personally I say no. I prefer to mix my sour dough by hand and bake it in a dutch oven with charcoal… Once in a while I cheat I put it in the electric oven which is easier. This is not hard, but I need to be at home for a full day since it needs to be kneaded, punched down, then get up early to bake it before my shower. You should not be surprised that I sometimes skip the gram measurements of a scale and just dump things into the bowl until it “feels right”. (but I fully endorse the implication of the other comment that you should throw away your measuring cups/spoons - either go by weight or by feel: bulk measures are worthless).
Yeeesss! Tell me about your dutch oven approach…preheat the pot in the fire, right? Parchment paper or no? How long total do you run your fire? Do you monitor temps or go by feel? So many questions!
I don’t preheat the pot. I do cheat and use charcoal briquettes, which means I can look up how many briquettes to make the proper temperature and put those on my oven. reheat the pot. I have to cook a few minutes longer to make up for lack of pre-heat.
I never use parchment paper for baking bread. The bread needs to break at hotter temperatures where parchment paper will burn. It doesn’t work even when I use my electric of an inside. Bread needs to bake at hotter temperatures than paper will burn at and I’ve had bad luck with it. I also find that bread releases from metal just fine, but doesn’t release from parchment paper.