Anyone got a breadmaker? Tips & recipes please...

[MotherofOne]

With our nearest shops well over a mile away and baby No.2 due in a couple of months, I got sick of eating 'several day old bread', or worse, the cardboard stuff available from Petrol Stations, and have recently succumbed to the thought of smelling fresh bread wafting from the kitchen - and have bought a breadmaker.
First attempts all good so far... scrumptious crusty white for breakfast this morning!
Anyone else got one, and have any tips/hints/suggestions e.g. where can you get BIG bags of the right flour? - our local Safeway only seems to stick the 1kg size which only makes 2 loaves!

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We have one but we do have to buy 1kg bread flour(what about Internet shopping, Sainsbury/Tesco/ Asda etc? Then no worries about getting out etc!)

We get Hovis granary flour which is blissfull. We bought bread bags from Lakeland that keep bread fresh - a sort of plastic lined fabric bag that works wonders.

Can you set yours so that it starts at 4am so bread is ready for when you get up - we always do that and it makes you get up more eagerly as you can smell it!!!

We get our bread flour from a local wholefood co-op who do HUGE bags of organic flour - worth seeing if there's anything similar around where you are. I really like knowing exactly what has gone into the bread that we and the kids eat.

Like Zoe, we make bread overnight so that it's warm and fresh for breakfast every morning - bliss!

We mostly make a half wholemeal loaf - we find the totally wholemeal doesn't rise too well. We put in sunflower seeds and either poppy seeds or linseeds - I'll post our recipe if you're interested. Using black treacle instead of sugar is another interesting taste variation.

Finally, the other thing we use our machine for a lot is making homemade pizza. This has made homemade pizza a midweek dish rather than a special occasion one - I make the dough in the machine, then I can have the pizza rolled out, decorated and in the oven in about 5-10 mins.

Yes - I planned to go to Lakeland for bread storing solutions - so good to hear about your bag Zoe.

Our model does have a timer, so I've just set it up to make a wholemeal loaf overnight. Azzie - what do you use for a 'half wholemeal' loaf - just white flour for the other half?
I'd LOVE to see your recipe if you have time...
Incidently, some of the recipes in our guide call for powdered Vitamin C - where do I get that then?
(Complete novice here...

MotherofOne, My DH brought me a bread maker for Christmas - not very romantic I know but at least I got something! I'm very proud of myself because I've only had to buy one loaf from the shops since but be warned, I've also gone up a dress size since Christmas! I buy value brand vit C tablets from Tesco and crush them between two teaspoons.

OK, here goes on the 'half wholemeal' recipe:

9 fl oz water
2 tablespoons sunflower oil (I actually use large dessert spoons)
8 oz wholemeal bread flour
8 oz strong white bread flour
2 heaped teaspoons powdered skimmed milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 rounded teaspoons sugar (I use dark muscovado)
2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 oz sunflower seeds (shelled of course!)
2 teaspoons of either poppy seeds or linseeds

I usually put the water and oil in first, then the flour, then the rest - I don't know if it really makes a difference, but all the breadmaker instruction books say to do it in the right order.

We use this recipe all the time. I got my breadmaker for Xmas 1998 and except for on holiday we haven't bought a loaf since. Once we got used to eating our own bread we didn't like the bought stuff so much - in particular our bread is fairly low salt, so we find bought bread a bit on the salty side now.

Thanks Azzie! This morning's loaf seemed OK, and the smell in the kitchen was heavenly!

My 2.5 year old thinks its all great fun at the moment - helping me measure out ingredients - but I'm sure the novelty will wear off...

Hi there

Does anyone else find that they end up with very dry bread if they stick to the amount of water that the bread maker recipes say that you should use?

Azzie, I'm going to try that recipe you posted, it sounds wonderful.

Azzie can you tell me what settings you use to do the pizza dough? The book that came with my machine was missing this section and I've nver got round to getting another one.

Have to tell you we used to have our breadmaker start at about 4 in the morning till we took pity on the poor dog who slept next door in the utility room - must have given her a heart attack starting up at that time!!!

Anyone come across a really good breadmaker recipe book?

Mmm, very tempted to get one after reading this thread...which makes do people recommend? How much do they cost? Does it work out cheaper than buying bread - at the moment we buy Sainsburys organic white at 89p a loaf. I do make my own sometimes but relish the idea of chucking everything in a bowl and hey presto.

Kia, my breadmaker has a dough setting which takes 1hr 3mins from start to finish, then the dough is ready to be rolled out and the topping added right away. Half the bread recipe I've given below (minus the seeds) makes one good 12" pizza. On pizza days I set the machine up on the timer before I go to work, then the dough is ready for me to throw the pizza together when I get home.

Enid, we've just bought one for my brother's wedding present (he and his fiance came to lunch and tried some of our bread, and got very keen on the idea!) and they seem to vary a lot in price, depending on what you want them to do. Ours is relatively old now (an LG) and doesn't do too many fancy things, but it does everything we want. I suspect it's like a lot of gadgets, you never use most of the settings (like my washing machine, which has about 8 million different settings of which I only ever use 2!). Friends have a Panasonic which they seem quite keen on.

I don't know whether it's any cheaper than buying bread, but there are other benefits. I love the smell of new bread in the house, and eating fresh bread for breakfast. I like knowing exactly what is in the bread I feed my children. I like experimenting with different recipes.

Another recipe idea that we love:

FRUIT BREAD
Standard bread recipe (minus seeds).
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon.
When the signal goes to add things (e.g. fruit), add 1 mug full of roughly chopped dried fruit salad (prunes, apricots, pears etc, chopped into big chunks - e.g. just cut the apricots and prunes in half).

Serve toasted with loads of butter for Sunday afternoon tea.

For those on a budget-
I bake my own bread rolls.One day I ran out of strong plain flour so I used asda cheap 11p a bag stuff. There was NO difference. Not sure if it would work so well in a loaf, but worth a try.

Enid - our breadmaker is a Panasonic SD-251. It says its specifically designed for the UK. Dh did extensive research (! he's a bit like that on electrical goods...) and bought it on-line for about £20 cheaper than it was available in high street stores. If you want info I can post the website details etc we bought from can't remember offhand...)

Now here's a thing I've observed.... because it's an electrical 'gadget' it seems to have assumed similar 'boys toy' status to the gas BBQ outside, and dh is completely into using it at the moment...Can't say the same about the food mixer or the iron though....

Funny that, isn't it MotherofOne? It's the same in our house!

My mum bought me 'The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook' by Jennie Shapter (pub. Ted Smart) which I find really useful.
The only thing that I've screwed up (so far) was pitta bread, the recipe is fine but she says to cool them on a rack which makes them go all hard; Delia suggests wrapping them in a tea towel while they cool which works much better (although her recipe didn't !!)

MotherofOne

If he was a real man then so long as it have electricty going through it or gas burning in it he would want to master it.

True I can only say this as my mother stopped doing my ironing when I was 14 and cooking for me at 16.

I wanted to eat and wear ironed clothes so I learned quickly.

The best thing is that I ended up becoming a fairly good cook when all of my mates could barely do burger and chips. Ironing on the other hand stayed at the functional level.

The food processor is another great gadget that all men should have a good working knowledge of (shame most don't even know what one is).

As for what Bread Maker, I think the best thing to do is look around and see if Which or a consumer mag has done a recent test and see what they recommend. The one dw and I have has lasted 2.5 years of regular (2-4 times a week) use and the only problem we have is that the mixing paddle usually ends up stuck in the loaf and not in the mixing bowl after cooking.

I have found the perfect solution to figuring out which one to buy....I do all the research (mags, internet, etc.), get completely bogged down trying to decide and then just ask dh to get me one for my bday or xmas. He goes out the day before at 5pm and buys the only one left the one open store he can find and it turns out to be just fine!
The breadmaker he got me is made by Bush and apart from the completely indecipherable instructions, it makes great bread! I use plain flour instead of strong white as I find it makes a lighter loaf. I know they say you aren't supposed to use milk or eggs in the overnight timer, but I do and I've yet to get food poisoning from them. It's soooo wonderful to wake up to the smell of baking bread and then actually discover that you weren't dreaming and the bread actually exists.

SimonHoward, v interesting that you wanted to both eat and wear your ironed clothes!

We have a Prima breadmaker and it is great, would thoroughly recommend one. I did try making my own bread when I was waiting for a new bread pan being delivered for the machine but just ended up with a big mess that certainly wasn't bread but I suppose it just takes practice!

I have got a cheap Hinari lent to me by my mother to try out to see if we liked it prior to buying the Panasonic (reccommended as the best) I have to say it is brilliant! MY DD and DS now eat 'proper bread' instead of clamouring for Kingsmill or Hovis Extra thick which my son can get through a whole loaf after rugby! I use the ready mixes, the best one so far is the Laucke available from Waitrose ans sold by Lakeland.

I also use the large packets by Hovis and just substitute multi grain mix, 2/3 and 1/3. they work really well.

Has anyone tried to make bagels and what success, we eat so many, but at 95p for 5 I think the qualityof homed bake would have to be far superior to bother!

Needless to say, my mother hasn't got her Hinari back yet after 3 months!

I buy dried yeast in 500g bags from my local wholefood shop for about £2.30, it works out much cheaper than buying individual sachets. It is called Fermipan and comes in a red and gold foil pack. One bag lasts for months. My bread maker is a Morphy Richards basic model (£42) and makes quite small square loaves but they do seem to turn out perfect every time. I also like the jam making facility and the wide range of recipes (all measured in scoops - no weighing) in the accompanying instruction book.

Motherofone: Some weeks ago you offered to post the website info for the Panasonic breadmaker you own and got cheaper online. Can you still do that?
Or can anyone else recommend a make that works well? I will look into Which but in the meantime would be grateful for any suggestions.

My top tip - instead of butter in the recipies, use the same amount of olive oil. Healthier, and you get a nicer crust too!!

After I raved about my breadmaker last week it has started playing up and the loaves are coming out undercooked and resembling house bricks. I have tried a new pack of yeast and fresh flour but it hasn't improved at all. Has anyone got any experience of Morphy Richards and faulty goods? Or any suggestions as to what might be wrong (I used the same recipes which have been successful in the past).

PamT, What sort of bread are you trying to make? I've got a Morphy Richards too and I find that it is not very good with Wholemeal flour, have you tried the granary recipe, it comes out a treat