breadmaker disasters - what am I doing wrong?

[pacinofan]

Have a Panasonic breadmaker that we don't use, it sits in our kitchen unused which is silly really. So, last night I decide to make a loaf in time for breakfast. Wake up to lovely smell of home-baked bread. I have really struggled to make sandwiches with it - the bread is really hard to cut (maybe our bread knife, not sure), I spent ages cutting crusts off for the kids and my dh has an odd looking set of mishape sandwiches. Plus, I found it difficult even to get the slices to match up - where the mixer blade thing goes there are holes, the whole thing has just put me off using it. Plus, the bread only lasts a day so am dreading going through all this again tomorrow. I am threatening to stick it in the cellar, never to see daylight again. Unfortunately, was a gift from dh who thinks we can use it.

Help me keep my breadmaker in action please!

New bread is really difficult to cut- if you want to make sandwiches with it I would make it the previous day and you should find it a lot easier.

Absolutely. Make bread the previous evening, allow to cool overnight, then slice the next morning. For longer-lasting bread make sure you include some fat in the mix.... 25g of butter (lighter loaf), or a couple of tablespoons of olive oil (slightly heavier texture). Fat improves shelf-life. If you keep your remaining loaf in an air-tight bread-bin it should stay fresh for at least a couple of days.

My recipe for a Panasonic Loaf
300mls water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon skimmed milk powder
25g butter
1 sachet Hovis yeast
14oz extra strong white/wholemeal bread flour

Set the machine to 'Basic White' option 'rapid', crust 'light', size 'small'. Takes just under 2 hours for a loaf.

have you got the recipe book? pitza and nan bread come out well and fruit loaf and tomato loaf (think it was called). the hole in bread is unavoidable

Wrap the bread in something like an old carrier bag and it will keep longer than 1 day too.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm fresh baked bread (drool)