Since I have convinced you to make your own cheese AND to save the whey remaining, here is one way to use the whey… bread!  Something odd about me the I apparently get from my mother is that I hate to feel dough stick to my fingers, so I am not a big bread baker.  Generally, if I make bread it is in the form of a drop biscuit (oh man, do I need to post my paleo drop biscuits sometime soon…and make them with sausage gravy.  Mmmmm.) or a quick bread that requires no rolling or needing, like the excellent Beer Bread from Joy of Cooking.  I have made a ton of different paleo breads, but even though they promise to be sandwich bread, they never rise enough to fit sandwich innards, and I have yet to find a gluten-free one that I like, so I am going GLUTEN on this one, because I, like Oprah, love bread.  Not like everyday bread, that would give me heart burn and even acid reflux, but an occasional p b & j or an eggie in a basket, yes indeed.

To solve my doughy finger issue, I decided that I needed a bread machine.  Checking the prices I found the 1.5-lb loaf machines were around $100.  I take my Benjamins very seriously and am nigh-incapable of buying something that is not on sale, so it was not to be.  Until I found one at a resale store for $7 on 50% off kitchen day, so yes, $3.50 for a bread machine that may or may not work properly and did not come with instructions.  At the price, I decided that I could risk it and that sucker went home with me.  Of course, then I had to figure out how to use it.

Consulting the oracle (Google), I found the BEST web site that not only taught me everything I needed to know to understand my bread machine but also instilled me with the confidence to bake bread with a small robot without fear.  Go check out the Hillbilly Housewife…she is amazing.

The first few loaves were “okay”.  I made them with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free bread mix which I thought came out a bit heavy, which is why I usually do not like GF breads.  I went back to the oracle and found King Arthur’s recipe using their all-purpose flour and found it to be much more to my liking, but I wanted to use whey, so I have modified their easy bread machine recipe.

Pro-tip: even when a recipe tells you that you can mix all the ingredients and throw them in the bread machine, they are wrong.  If you are using active dry yeast, you must proof the yeast before mixing or your bread will not rise properly.  Also, do not be seduced by the turbo setting.  Just let it take the 3.5 hours to make the bread.  It will be better.

Bread-Machine Bread (Basics)

• 1 1/2 cup whey
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 3/4 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant yeast

1. Heat whey to 110*F.  This takes about 90 seconds in my microwave.  Do this 30 seconds at a time, until you get the proper temperature.  Add yeast.  Let sit 10 minutes.
2. Add melted butter, sugar, and salt to this liquid.
3. Measure flour into machine bowl.  Add liquid mixture, stirring with a nonstick spatula, if you have one.
4. Run the bread machine.
5. Pour out bread onto cooling rack.  When completely cooled, wrap in plastic.  Make breadcrumbs or freeze after 3-5 days.  This contains no preservatives.

Note the whole in the bread from the machine paddle.  Inconvenient, but not the end of the world.  The central slices are excellent for eggie in the basket.