Bread makers

[Toby]

Anyone else here got one?

My mother (who is an astonishingly good cook and usually shuns such conveniences) was recently wowed by the bread produced by a friends machine and so got one herself. Having sampled the bread she'd produced we in turn have now got one and have become rather addicted to it.

Whilst it may seem a lot of hassle measuring out the ingredients for it, in actual fact I find it very convenient to produce frequent, smallish loaves rather than buying full sized loaves from the shop, part of which inevitably goes to waste.

So far we've not tried much - just basic white & brown bread plus spicy fruit loaves which are rather moreish toasted with lashings of butter. Was just wondering what others' take on these things was and whether anyone had any killer recipies to share?

[Blackstar]

****ing evil things, i've burnt myself twice in the same place with ours.

[Toby]

Sorry, shouldn't laugh at others' misfortune but that did make me chuckle - if only because I'm so damned paranoid about being burned when I take the bread out of ours.

[petemc]

I love the smell of fresh bread in the morning. That and coffee. Even if I don't want any, I just love the smell.

[Stan_Lite]

My Mam has one of those, the bread from it is awesome. I might be tempted to get one for myself.

[Will]

I have a Panasonic one (supposed to be the best brand out there) I swear by it. No more E numbers in my bread or any dodgy additives. And it's delicious and so so versatile. Works out to being cheaper than buying bread all the time too.

[lostkat]

Mum & Dad got a Panasonic breadmaker (you're right Will - Dad will only get Which? Best Buys :p) one year whilst I was at Uni... about 6 years ago now? They've used it more or less every day since then. It bakes absolutely beautiful bread and Dad makes the dough for things like chelsea buns and breakfast rolls in it too. I think a lot of people bought them, used them once and then the novelty wore off, but if you stick with it, it's really worthwhile. They wanted to get me one, but I really don't have the room for it at the moment. Maybe when we do the kitchen :)

[Will]

I can't remember the last time we bought bread.... I make baguettes using the dough setting, then baking them in the oven - yummy!

[Justsomebloke]

Mates wife has one. Takes her all day & loads of mess & moaning to make a Smelly Tuff piece of leather in the shape of a loaf that costs loads.
I go down Asda & buy a perfectly soft sliced wholemeal for less than a Quid.
She has an Ice cream maker thing an all, She puts Fifty bags of sugar in it & a teaspoon of water (maybe a lie) then sits & Yams the lot herself :D
I go down Asda buy a tub & share it with anyone with a spoon :cool:

[SidewinderINC]

We had one, was the best bread EVER! you can make lager bread too :D

[Zirax]

How much are these doofers and what do I need to look for? I have been getting very tired recently of the crummy bread you get in the supermarkets. Even Warburtons bread used to be ok, but that is virtually inedible now due to flavourings and random ingrediants :(

[SidewinderINC]

As will and lostkat have said, panasonic are the best ones to buy, and I find you can't really go wrong with a "which?" best buy when it comes to homeware & kitchenware

[Feek]

I've been singing the praises of the Panasonic ones for about three of years because they're so good, but for some reason I lost the taste for the bread it makes a while ago.

But by a strange co-incidence I bought some flour and yeast yesterday to try and get back into it. If nothing else, I want to wake up on Christmas Morning to the smell of fresh bread.

I'd be very interested in what recipes you are using for baguette dough, Will and for breakfast rolls, Kate?

[Toby]

Everyone says to go for the Panasonics and forget about the rest.

We've got the SD-255 which is £99 in JL. There's an SD-254 for £30 less and which only seems to be missing the nut/fruit dispenser at the top so if this isn't that important to you then you can save some cash that way.

We've been trying different brands of flour to see what the differences are and have settled on Sainsbury's strong white flour. It produces a much lighter and "fluffier" bread than either Tesco's own or the expensive Hovis stuff - highly recommended.

PS. Ta to mods for moving thread - my bad :)

[Justsomebloke]

It would have been an expensive one as all she is good for is spending money. Can you tell i really don't like her :evil: She is just one of those crap people you have to put up with because they are attached to a person you have known a long time. I was best man at there wedding an all, I even lent him one of my suits an Original Van Gill no less, cost me an Absolute fortune back twenty years ago. Pfffff I dunno :confused:
She is crap anyways ;D

[William]

****ing evil things, i've burnt myself twice in the same place with ours.

When they say "bun in the oven" they don't mean it like that. :)

[lostkat]

Feek - I'll ask him today. I think he's got a bread cookbook :D

Will - Baguettes is an awesome idea!! Might get him to make a couple to go with my boef bourguignonne on Christmas Eve :cool:

[Will]

Feek, Kate, firstly you have to set it to do pizza setting.

The only ingredients you need for baguette are warm water, salt, yeast, strong white flour (buy the better stuff, if you can buy French strong white flour then it's even better.

I tend to use: 275ml warm water
1 teaspoon (using the cup measurement) of salt
1 teaspoon of yeast
450g strong white

These values are approximate as I tend to do it by "eye" so to speak... Just make sure it's not too humid or too sticky when it's kneeding - if it is add either more water or more flower (in TIIIIIINY quantities until it's tacky but not sticky or dry - experience I'm afraid is the only key to this).

It'll take about 45 minutes or so. When the program finishes, leave it in the machine for about an hour or so.

Then take it out put it on a well floured board get the air out of it (otherwise known as petrissage if you want to technical term for it, basically kneeding), and divide into 2 dough balls. You may have to divide it into more depending on how big your oven is. Shape the dough balls into "baguette" shapes.

So now you've got your "baguette" shape dough, place it on a lightly floured baking tray, and cover with a tea towel for an hour or so.

Before shoving it in the oven, very lightly slit across the top of the baguette ever 2 inches or so - when it cooks it'll "split" the skin a little and give the inside an area for the air to escape whilst keeping enough pockets of air inside the loaf.

The oven should be preheated to 250C and the baugette should be cooked for about 20 mins. Again this is down to trial and error. The baguette should sound "hollow" when you give it a tap. It's important to let it cool down on a grill or cake stand or something where air can get to both sides.

A little tip/trick, is if you want to, you can throw a bit of water into the hot oven (warning: a LOT of steam will be created) and then quickly place the baguette in to cook. This is not mandatory, and works better in stone ovens, but it does look kinda cool.

It's very hard to get it right straight away, it's taken me dozens of attempts at getting the mixture right (with salt, yeast, water and flour), so my measurements are approximate (I never measure anything in my cooking :o) I hope they're not too wildly out, but if they are I apologise however they will be near enough for you to be able to work it out.

Good luck!!!

[Matblack]

Well I'm sold, we went and bought a Panasonic 255 today and our first loaf is in the machine now :)

MB

[Will]

Nice - we have the 253 :)

[Stan_Lite]

Must stop reading thread ........

*Drools*

They sacked the cook on the rig who made the scrumptious bread, now the bread we get is mediocre at best. I think I'll start a campaign to bring back the good baker.