Tell me about your bread maker

[Martin]

it's now worked four times on the trot, so here's a recipe I've used succesfully - giving a really nice, moist wholemeal loaf - sorry about the mixed measurements!

To the tin, add in the following order -
Half a pint of tepid water
500 grammes Marriages Organic wholemeal flour
2 heaped teaspoons sugar
3 heaped teaspoons dried milk
1 heaped teaspoon "Doves Farm Quick Yeast" (ace stuff, and very economical!)
Just under a level teaspoon sea salt
A third of a one gramme natural vit c tablet, powdered in pestle and mortar
About a golfball-sized lump of butter

Setting 4 on my Morphy Richards!

[PeterNZ]

My breadmaker is over 40 years old, looks really good and is named Lilo. She lives at my place and makes the most wonderful bread you can imagine. She is the latest voice controlled model. All I have to do is place bags of flour, eggs, yeast etc. in the pantry and say out loud "We are running out of bread again!" And hey pronto, the next day the smell of freshly baked bread fills the house.

I am hungry now!

Cheers

Peter

I got rid of Margo, next on the hit list is Jerry!!!

[Millymollymandy]

Russel Hobbs and Morphy Richards aren't available in France. The only brand mentioned here that we can get is Panasonic which Shirlz has, but for some reason all Panasonic breadmakers are extortionately expensive!

Seems I have a choice between Panasonic, Moulinex, Delonghi, Kenwood, Breville and some other names I've never heard of.

Oh well!

[Stonehead]

I've got the Panasonic SD253 and it's brilliant.

We have the same one. We wore out the main shaft after three years, but it has been used day in, day out to make eight loaves a week.

Electricity-wise, it is expensive so loaves work out around the same cost as shop-bought (depending on which flour is used and which options are picked) but we control what goes into the loaf and cut out the travel.

I tend to use the quick, three-hour cycle to keep the electricity consumption down, even if the bread isn't quite as good and needs more yeast. I never use the overnight/timer options for the same reason. I can get a good wholemeal/rye loaf done in three hours and a very good wholemeal/wholegrain.

I also make hand-made loaves several times a week. (We eat a lot of bread and bakes, almost all home-made.)

It would be nice to make all our loaves by hand, but that would take up a considerable amount of time and, what with working the croft full-time, looking after the boys, and blogging, the breadmaker does mean that I can infallibly guarantee one loaf a day even if interupted/distracted repeatedly!

The only way we could go to entirely hand-made bread would be if I was working the croft and the OH was doing the domestic goddess thing. That's not realistic in today's world - and I can't see her buying the domestic, cooking wifie thing anyway!

So, it's either the breadmaker or commercial bread. Easy choice for us.

[Tay]

Russel Hobbs and Morphy Richards aren't available in France. The only brand mentioned here that we can get is Panasonic which Shirlz has, but for some reason all Panasonic breadmakers are extortionately expensive!

Seems I have a choice between Panasonic, Moulinex, Delonghi, Kenwood, Breville and some other names I've never heard of.

Oh well!

Lidl were doing an offer on breadmakers for E34.99. I don't know what brand they were, but they were apparently quite good. I just checked their website, and it doesn't look like they have any left in my local store, but you might be lucky!

[green-girl]

I have a breadmaker and I occasionally use it (maybe once a fortnight in phases). They are handy to have if you have visitors or are in a hurry or no time (you can set it to have the bread ready when you wake up). I have to say that I do prefer the hand made bread - not entirely sure why... I do use the bread maker to make mazsola zsemle because it is a bit messy and hard on the cranberries to do it yourself! (it is a sweet white bread with dried cranberries and cinnamon - VERY yummy!)

I will say one thing about the breadmaker... make sure the little spatular 'thing' inside the machine (that mixes up the bread) is metal, not plastic. My parents' first bread maker had a plastic one and it was USELESS.

[Millymollymandy]

Ok Shirlz's Panasonic wins - it has rave reviews (in French) on the web and the only bad thing they say is that it could be easier to clean, but most of all the moans are about the price.

Sadly it is miles more expensive in France - ordering over the internet via various companies it costs between €139 and €199, plus at least €10.00 postage, whereas on the link Shirlz posted there is one at £69 (only €104.67), and the bloody thing is being posted TO the UK FROM France!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

[Tay]

MMM, if you have to send it to the UK (a gift?), why not buy online through a British company, and they send it to wherever it has to go to in the UK? Should save quite a bit of money. Or am I missing something here?

[Millymollymandy]

Yes, it is for me, and I live in France! See my first posting - I'm fed up with making bread by hand!

[Tay]

Sorry MMM, I mis-read the last bit of your post "...and the bloody thing is being posted TO the UK FROM France!!!" and thought that you meant that you had to send it from here to the UK for some reason. I had read your first post, but skimmed those in between so therefore it was possible that presents were spoken about at some point.

Anyhow, now I understand. Can't you order online from Shirlz's link and get it delivered to a relative or friend in the UK? If you buy in France, it will be at least E150 including delivery, so that gives you E45 to get it from the UK to here. Will any friends or relatives be visiting you soon? Can't you find someone who would drop it off for you? There are so many expats in Bretagne, and given that half-term won't be that long away, you might find someone who'd do it for you. Ask on TF (I presume you still post on there?) on the 'do me a favour section'. It's worth a try.

[Millymollymandy]

Sorry, I can see my posting was a bit confusing. There appears to be a company based in France that sells cheap breadmakers to the UK but doesn't sell them in France.....

Nobody is visiting in a car sadly and I can't ask a complete stranger to deliver. Also I don't live in the part of Brittany where all the British have their holiday homes.

So I'll just pay the money and winge.

I find it a bit strange that the Panasonic is the only breadmaker that allows you to add seeds or nuts though.

[Tay]

That's a shame as it really is quite a lot more money.

I had thought that other mainstream manufacturers allow you to add seeds or nuts. I thought that was one of the main attractions! Given that it's Saturday morning, and 'shopping channel' is on TF1 at the moment, I am probably remembering the 'bargain' bread machine that they advertise each week which allows the addition of nuts etc... Very curious as to why other machines don't have that function though - perhaps the nuts are too hard so would cost the makers too much repairing the machines under warranty!