I'm considering investing in one of these so a few questions for the yeast and dough intelligentsia...
1. Is it worth getting one with loads of features or will a basic one suffice?
2. Where do you buy ingredients from?
3. Can you make up any type of bread you want and include different flavours - cheese bread etc?
4. Is it possible to make gluten free bread if you're following a particular diet?
5. Any make / models particularly recommened?
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Comments
2 You can get them from any supermarket
3 Sure can
4 Think so yep
5 I had a Morphy Richards fastbake. Was good with plenty of features.
Hope this is helpful
Used to use it a lot for pizza bases and like Chimp it was great to get on with life whilst it made bread
BUT when it went wrong it was serious - and could have caught fire - so am not sure now if I'd leave it alone
Now I just use the fast action bread maker yeast (single rise) and stick it all in the Kenwood to mix - it's not the hassle it was in the old days of buying yeast from the bakers and 'sponging' it first
2. Any good supermarket will have the rapid-action yeast and strong flours that you need, and everything else. This isn't a problem.
3. Yes. The machine will have recipes included in its instruction manual, and there are books sold separately, recipes on the Internet etc, or you can experiment.
4. Yes, if the machine supports it (you'll need to check this). However, I am told that the resulting bread has the taste and texture of cardboard.
5. Panasonic SD-251.
General tips: avoid the £50 generic "bakes a loaf in one hour" machines. They're flimsy, unreliable and rely on inordinate amounts of yeast. I had a Kenwood Rapidbake, big mistake. The Panasonic one costs about £100, is solid and well-made, has a shedload of recipes and baking cycles (including for proprietary gluten-free ingredients), and has never turned out a bad loaf. This morning's effort was ploughman's bread, containing Branston Pickle and apple juice. Lovely!
I haven't bought shop bread in years.
Highly recommended.
Almost worth buying one just for that!
but it makes a nice change to have proper bread.
have made pizza dough, raisin cake, raisin loaf and different times of bread
my dad recommends Carr's flour, I brought some the other day and it made my best loaf to date
we have russell hoobs bread maker pro, got it off ebay for about £30 less than in the shops
go on, get one, its fab
Some of these machines can make jam and marmalade as well.
Its very noise when its chugging away - especially if you put it on for an early morning loaf and it wakes you up at 4.30am!
Where do you get the ingrediants from ?!!!!
Strong bread flour (supermarket - Tesco's or Sainsbury's have a good range of organic flours - I use 1/2 wholemeal and 1/2 white - Mr SS used normal flour once - you end up with a brick)
yeast (supermarket)
water (tap)
oil (bottle - olive's great)
I never use salt or sugar
(only joking!)
spelt flour - which is sort of Roman I think and although it contains gluten apparently most people with gluten intolerance find it OK becos its at such low levels
we've got spelt flour in the cupboard so must've made some once - can't remember it tho
You'd have to be a real bread junkie to get the price of the machine back in savings / loaf
Cost isn't the point, YRR. Ever wondered why supermarket bread keeps for ages? It's full of weird preservatives. Home-made bread goes off within a couple of days (if it's not scoffed in the meantime). Easy solution - freeze it.
I admit it, I'm a bit of a bread machine bore :-)
Making it by hand you can get away with being a bit more inaccurate
SS, I asked as the supermarkets in Barnsley are of the `no frills' variety. We don't have a Sainsburys8-)
Since we got ours (year ago) I've only bought a couple of 'emergency' loaves from the supermarket - and I can't stand the taste or texture of them now.
Get one!
love the idea of ploughman's bread muttley - how much pickle did you put in?
forgot the yeast once and ended up with dwarf bread - which was used as a door stop for a while before it went off!
Happy breadmaking :-)
make up the dough - roll it out into a rectangle - spread it with tomato puree / olives / cheese / whatever - roll it up like a swiss roll - slice thinly - freeze
then each morning you can take out a few slices - put in the cold oven - they defrost and prove whilst it's heating up and then you can have mini pizza swirls for lunch! Takes about 15 mins to cook - me and Min are addicted
I sometimes do this one with Pataks pickle and a tablespoon of curry powder - the resulting loaf is a fluorescent yellow colour like a council workman's jacket.
Right now, the smell of baking bread is filling the house. Mmmmmm!!!
Would definitely recommend getting one.
Standard loaf is 70% wholemeal - use a mix of wholemeal and granary. When the kids ask for white bread I tell them they can have it if they make it they do!
I use a lot less salt than the recipe says, and you kow exactly what is in it. I also add a few seeds sunflower, linseed etc for added goodness.
SS - will try the pizza swirls this week!
OK, the Panasonic 253 came yesterday...
Attempt one at a Basic White Loaf - flour water, milk, salt, butter, sugar, yeast poured in. Result was a flat mess. We put it down to using milk rather than milk powder therefore too much liquid.
Attempt two at a French Loaf - flour, water, salt, butter, yeast (no milk needed). Pressed all the right buttons. Result much the same as attempt one.
I've read the troubleshooting guide and it suggests that if the water touches the yeast then it might not rise.
So attempt three involved pouring in the ingredients very carefully.
However (being an inquisitive sort) I keep peeking in the oven during this 6 hour process and for an hour nothing seems to be happening, not even the oven getting warm. Is this normal or have I got a dud?