My breadmaker has arrived!

[Millymollymandy]

I only ordered it in February! It's the Panasonic like Shirlz has. It is on at the moment!

I had to download the UK instruction manual to get some recipes, because mine, although it does have instructions in English, is aimed at the Belgian market and the very few recipes are for some completely unknown brand of flour that means nothing to me! Interestingly the English recipes contain milk powder and the Belgian ones don't.

Anyway, few quick questions:

Do you need to sieve the flour?

Should the butter be at room temperature?

Why does it need to 'rest' for an hour or so before it actually bloody does something?!! ?? !!

[Shirley]

Afternoon M3!

I don't use anything at room temperature - it's straight out of the fridge with the butter for me.

I don't sift the flour BUT I do try to make sure that it doesn't go in with a wumph... that's a technical term for the noise that's made when you put a scoop full of flour into the pan and it puffs flour dust everywhere

The 'resting' is so that all the ingredients come up to temperature - apparently. You can do the fast bake, which eliminates this initial resting period... the bread isn't as good but it is edible.

Which loaf have you got baking at the moment then??

[cat]

Happy baking! let us know how it goes!

[Andy Hamilton]

My recipes all ask for olive oil rather than butter, mine must be aimed at posh people Where did you down load the recipes from would be good to see if there are any more. In fact there must be a website with other bread making recipes on it.

[Wombat]

although it does have instructions in English, is aimed at the Belgian market

Well that would make my son-in-law happy anyway!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

I haven't cut into my first loaf yet (I know, I'm being very restrained but I'll let you know at lunchtime) which is a plain white loaf. I don't normally do plain white by hand but I want to see what the basic results are like before I start tweaking at recipes!

I can see and feel that the top dome is hollow underneath though overall quite impressed! I'm never sure really with French flour as I've found some different flours recently which are stronger and more suited to bread making, so lots of experimenting is necessary.

Have put milk powder on my shopping list!

[Millymollymandy]

Sorry Andy, nearly forgot. The Panasonic instruction manual in PDF format is available here

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/customer-Sup ... centre.asp

You have to click on 'home appliances' under the 'select product category', then 'automatic bread maker' under sub category, then select 'SD253' (although I think mine is a SD255, a newer model). Select the one in English which is dated 2003 because the other one won't download!

[wulf]

I gave up using milk powder in bread recipes quite early on in my breadmaker experiments - it didn't seem to contribute much to the elements I wanted in a loaf and was just an extra artificial addititive to buy, store and use.

Wulf

[Millymollymandy]

I am absolutely over the moon! There wasn't an air bubble under the top dome of the loaf, it had just shrivelled a little whilst cooling!

Currently munching on a cheese and home made pickle sarnie, with lovely soft, moist, light-and airy bread, just like decent stuff you can get in the UK! I can't make hand made bread anything like this - mine are quite solid and dense, and we certainly can't buy bread like this in France!

My hubby will be pleased too because it is a compact, perfect for sandwiches, shape of loaf!

Did I say I was really chuffed?

[Wombat]

Well done M3!

Nev

[TheLancsLass]

Well done, sounds really great! You have made me hungry now too! lol

[the.fee.fairy]

there's a book sold by the book people - i think its called 'tips for your breadmaker' or something similar. I bought it a while ago, it was about £1, and its a small book with lots of recipes and tips in it.

[Thomzo]

Hi M3
That's great news. I love my breadmaker and wouldn't be without it.

I don't know about the waiting. Mine is a morphy richards and only waits on the wholemeal settings. Apparently you have to let the wholemeal flour soak for a while before you start.

Like Shirlz, I don't bother sifting the flour but just spoon it in gently.

Apart from the water, I also use all ingredients straight from the fridge, including the yeast. I do use hot water as that activates the yeast better (not boiling). No point if you are using the timer though.

My one bit of advice is to time it so that you can remove the loaf at the end. Don't leave it sitting in the breadmaker once done. My machine stays hot for an hour so you get an overdone loaf. After that, the loaf just gets soggy if the steam can't escape.

Enjoy.
Zoe

[Shirley]

Glad you are happy with it M3 - we've just made the muffins that are in the panasonic booklet - if you liked the bread you'll LOVE these... scrummy!

[Millymollymandy]

It's on again, wholemeal with seeds this time.

I'm surprised my white loaf was so good, as I've just read the instructions better. It was supposed to be 1 1/2 TABLESPOONS of sugar, not Teaspoons!