I've just got a breadmaker - what do I do with it?

[Babaj]

MIL bought us an early xmas present of a bread maker, is there anything special anyone can suggest? :)

Have a look through the recipe book and experiment with whatever takes your fancy?
We just make white or brown loaves and they are excellent, but I like the spelt bread option, or add fresh rosemary to make a herby bread.

Tomato bread - great in chunks with olive oil and balsamic vinegar if you're doing nibbles over festive period. Also, make sure you add the ingredients in the order shown else your bread won't rise as well.

pizza dough.

Pizza dough is what I mostly use mine for too.

Does it have a raisin dispenser? Mine doesn't, which is probably just as well. I loooove raisin bread and would probably make it every night if I could do it on the timer.

I'm trying brioche in mine tonight so we can have it for breakfast.

If it is your first time I suggest a simple loaf to begin with. Simple warm fresh bread with butter on is actually a treat in itself.

breadmaker bread is delish. get cooking!

I use mine mostly to make bread. Perfect your plain white loaf recipe first, move on up to wholemeal (which can be a little trickier) and then ring the changes by adding various bits and pieces like seeds, olives etc. I tend to use the Magimix for making pizza or bread roll dough as the mixing bowl is bigger.

Which make/model?

We make at least one loaf a week, invariably with the 2 hour fast programme as we don't notice much difference between it and the 4 hour normal one (apart from using a teeny bit more yeast). We've got a 7-year old Panasonic.

Make sure you only ever buy yeast with vitamin C in, which helps activate the yeast for the breadmaker. You may end up with a rather flat loaf otherwise!

My favourite, when I'm going to be at home for a few days so I can eat it, is the multiseed loaf. I double the recipe quantities of seeds (linseed, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, poppy, pine nuts) and get the butter out ready for when it's done...

mmmmmm...

Follow the recipe book you'll have perfect bread by Christmas,. I got a bread maker last Christmas and hardly buy bread at all. I do however find the flour I use, big bags of allinsons bread flour needs a bit more water than suggested in the book. For brown I use half wholemeal half white otherwise I find it a bit heavy.

I made naan bread dough last night for the first time, search the net once you've exhausted the book it came with, you can do so much, hot x buns at Easter are really easy too.

With my bread maker you had to prime the tin before the first time you used it, which involved oiling and heating it up. Which i must re-do. Because it stops the bread sticking. The newer ones might have better non stick properties, but if it says this in the instructions dont skip it.
Pizza dough is ace.
Homemade bread is much better for your tummy, as supermarket bread has enzymes and improovers and too much yeast.

We make tons of bread but also pizza dough. I've also in the past made jam and cakes in the bread maker too

Love my breadmaker, although I still can't promise fault free bread every time - fortunately the family don't seem to mind concave topped bread too much!

Never had so many compliments as the time I used it to mix the dough for hot cross buns - don't have a timer to add raisins etc but they were lush (can't wait for Easter again!)

Have used it for jam too which had the added bonus of being easier to pour into jars from the squared corners of the breadmaker than from a widemouthed pan! Mine also came with a lovely gingerbread recipe