Breadmaker

[redflagsahoy]

Hi All,
I've recently gotten a breadmaker (on special offer in Lidl) now apart from the obvious, bread, is there anything else you make in it? Any ideas from experience?
I also find the bread from it, quite heavy and it goes hard after an hour or so. It could be just my technique as I've never made bread before this and I have fiddled around with the setings. Any advice welcome.

I tend to use mine just for bread. I use my food processor to mix dough for other things. If your bread is heavy then your dough might not have enough water in it - needs to be quite soft. And are you using 'extra strong' bread flour, since that has more gluten which makes the bread stretchier and lighter? A little fat in the mix will make it last longer. And it's important to get the right yeast... the type for hand-making bread doesn't work so well. My standard mix for a medium-size loaf is as follows

14oz extra strong white bread flour
290ml water
2 teaspoons salt
Good knob of real butter
1 tablespoon Marvel milk powder
1 sachet easy-blend dried yeast for bread machines

If your machine has a 'quick' setting, try that as well. I think I made a few bricks before getting good results with my first machine. Good luck

Thanks Cogitoergosometimes I will try that :)

Hi Redflagsahoy,

I use a breadmaker every day as it is so much easier. Here is the recipe I use most often and you must place the ingredients in the order given as it is so important.

1 level teaspoon of dried easy bake yeast

16oz of strong bread flour

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 egg beaten made up to 300 mls with tepid water (the egg gives the loaf that lovely golden colour)

These all go in the breadmaker in the order above and are cooked on the basic bread programme for 4 hours. It may be a different programme on your breadmaker. I have a panasonic which is fabulous and have had it for years.

Tip: Keep the salt away from the yeast as it will kill it. Do not use too much salt.

For any other recipes especially for french bread please see my website www.french-recipes-to-love.com

Thanks frenchfoodie :-) maybe where I was going wrong was the bread mixes I was buying, I shall buy some strong white flour today and remember the tip about adding some fat

i do nan bred with mine, pitza bases and whats that posh italian bread with lumps of cheese and stuff on top? focacia. do you want ingredients listed?

I'd love the naan bread recipe in particular dreamingofsun, I love naan bread mmmm

Breadmakers do fantastic pizza dough.
Try doing different flavoured bread, eg cheese and onion, walnut etc. There are some great recipes on t'internet but I'm just too lazy to look them up (sorry).

No problem HarrietSchulenberg...goodbye to any kind of diet with all these new bread recipes, walnut bread...mmm.

Once you get good results with your 'basic white' recipe, you can be quite creative with different types of bread. Wholemeal needs slightly different treatment... helps if you start with warm flour, for example. How are you getting on now? Are the loaves coming out any better?

nann bread using basic dow option in a panasonic:
1/2 teas yeast, 250g strong white flour, 1 teasp sugar, 1/2 teasp salt, 1/2 teasp baking powder, 1tbsp veg oil, 2 tbsp natural yog (i've used flavoured yog as well) and 100ml water.

divide dough into 4 balls and cook under a very hot grill - it will bubble up. keep close eye as easy to burn. instructions say 2-3 mins each side