This Recipe Will Change Your Life

This may be the best bread EVER.  It includes spices that I'd never heard of before, and that are quite expensive, but, trust me, it's worth it:

Herbless Herb Bread
3/4 c. warm water
1/2 c. milk
2 T oil/butter
2 T sugar
1 t salt
3 1/2 c. flour
2 1/4 t yeast

- add herbs/spices
OR

Cardamom/Vanilla Bread
- Use the recipe from above and add:
1/8 t cardamom*
1/4 t coriander*
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 t vanilla

* I recently increased the amount of flour in this bread (from 3 to 3 1/2 cups), because it makes a nicer bread loaf.  Since I did that, I also put in a little more of the cardamom and the coriander.  Not doubled or anything, just a little more.

I make this in the bread maker on the dough cycle.  First I add all the water and sugar and yeast and let the yeast soften for a few minutes.  Then I add the rest of the ingredients and let the bread maker take over.  It kneads the bread for 5 - 10 minutes, then lets it rise for about an hour and punches it down.  About then is when I remove the bread from the bread maker and transfer the dough to the bread pan.  Then it rises for another 20 minutes or so.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 - 45 minutes.  (I generally do 45 minutes on the nose.)

I've been making this bread for about a year now, and it's delicious!  Everyone I give it to loves it, and I give it to a lot of people because it's bread worth sharing!

So the person who gave me this recipe loves to bake.  He makes 4 loaves of bread every Sunday and experiments with spices and such.  I noticed mace on his counter, for example, and asked him about it.  He said, "Smell it.  Now imagine ... cranberry."  I couldn't imagine a mace/cranberry combo, and I don't experiment with spices.  But he told me I had to try out this bread, and the other suggestion he made was the best pancake experience of my life, so I had to believe him.  At the store, though, I was taking his name in vain as I bought the $12.95 cardamom.  "This better be worth it," I kept telling Rob as the bread was baking.  Oh.  It's worth it.