I simply followed the instructions for the classic white bread recipe in my Oster Bread Machine manual, but made sure to add some food coloring!
When making bread, it is important to add the ingredients in the proper order (wet ingredients first, dry ingredients second, and yeast last) and with very precise measurements. I pre-measured all of my ingredients and set everything out in a way that would help me remember what order to add each of them (except I accidentally forgot the salt for the picture!) Also, make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature before adding them to the bread pan.
Ingredients:
1&1/3 cups water
4 teaspoons softened butter or margarine
4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons dry milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
For each cup of flour that you measure do the following: scoop up a heaping cup full, tap the cup with a knife two times to help release air pockets, then use the back of the knife to scrape off the excess flour, making it level.
Add the wet ingredients - water and butter - to the bread pan. Notice I added the food coloring (about six drops) to the water in a separate bowl before pouring it into the pan.
Next add the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, dry milk, and salt - to the mixture. (Second picture is me holding the pre-measured salt I forgot to include in the other picture earlier, haha!)
Use your finger to create a well in the center of the dry ingredients to fill with yeast.
Put the pan into the bread machine, press start to let the magic begin, and in three hours you'll have delicious bread! Use this time to tend to the rest of your party preparations!
Once the bread was made and sliced, I used my princess cookie cutters to cut the bread into whimsical shapes!
For this tea party I wanted to make kid-friendly finger sandwiches so I didn't do anything too crazy! I made cream cheese with apricot preserve sandwiches, crunchy peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwiches, and turkey and cheese sandwiches. All were a hit! However, like I said before, you can make these colored, cut-out finger sandwiches for adults who are young at heart too! In that case though, you could choose to add other sandwich fillings to suit more mature palates.
Isn't it fantastic when the foods you serve double as decorations for your party? You'd be surprised just how much the colors and shapes of the sandwiches add to the table! Also, it is so satisfying using your own homemade bread!
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