When people get a bread machine they’re generally faced with two conflicting fears.

The first fear people have is they’ll go wild.  They envision becoming bread-eating machines.  After all, who could have restraint when faced with the aroma of baking bread?

The second fear, oddly enough, is that they won’t eat the bread fast enough.  They’re afraid that the bread will go bad before it’s eaten.  Nobody wants to waste time or ingredients.

Let’s deal with these one at a time.

Fear One – I’ll go wild and eat way too much bread.

The fact is that you will go wild.  It will last for two or three loaves of bread.  Then you’ll get used to having homemade bread around the house.  In other words, the effect will wear off.

Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still love the aroma of baking bread.  You’ll enjoy the taste.  You’ll scoff at store-bought bread.  You’ll start looking at sandwiches in a whole new way.  You’ll branch out into making hamburger burns and rolls.   But you won’t feel the need to eat bread all day every day.

Fear Two – The bread will go bad before I can eat it all.

Not to worry.  Here’s what you do.  Once the bread is cooled slice the entire loaf at once.  Then put the sliced bread into a Ziploc bag and put the bag into your freezer.

Take the bread out as needed and put into the toaster.  Our toaster can thaw the bread and toast it with one round of toasting.  My parents need to run the bread through the toaster twice.  Either way, it works fine the bread tastes great.