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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In the last week I have tried brown bread, fruit bread and have a white loaf in at the moment just to see if it makes any difference. Previously all the loaves have filled the pan but now they are only coming half way up the sides and looking rather anaemic on top. I tried new yeast but it hasn't made any difference.

I am still within the 2 year guarantee period but I'm not looking forward to the postage cost to send the thing back and hope that M R don't tell me that there is nothing wrong with it when I do. Because it is a slight problem rather than a deifinite one, I'm trying every possibility before I send it back. I did wonder if using it for jam has done some damage to the element or the thermostat as it is kept at a high temperature for a longer period.

PamT, why don't you ring the help line number, it should be in your recipe book. I've rung them before and found them very helpful. I know it is important to be very careful that you keep the water/flour ratio exact but maybe you do have a problem with it.

Sister, I wanted to be sure that the problem was with the breadmaker and not the ingredients. The white loaf has just come out and it is an improvement on those of the last few days but I made it with the old yeast. I wasn't impressed with the Allinsons dried yeast that I bought the other day but the shop didn't have any of my usual Fermipan. I will try the Harvest Gold if it still comes free with flour at the supermarket this week. Then if I don't see a major improvement I will have to ring Morphy Richards. I'm pretty sure that it isn't the quantities that are at fault because they are the same as I have previously used and had success with.

PamT, I've never used Fermipan before, where do you get that from???

Try your local health food shop, it comes in red and gold foil packs and costs around £2.39 for a 500g pack. They also do lots of lovely flours too. I'm not into the bread mixes that a lot of people like because I find that you need to divide the pack for the Morphy Richards machine and they never seem to come out right. My son's favourite is the walnut bread from the MR recipe book but it gives me hiccups. I like granary but I use the white bread recipe with granary flour which worked ok until recently.

Sister, I am pleased to say that with a new pack of Fermipan my breadmaker is performing well again. The old Fermipan must have died and the Allinsons yeast wasn't very good (the tub did say that it needs activating before use, but I didn't because the breadmaker says not to).

I also made 2lb of strawberry jam in it this tea time. It is in the fridge now and hasn't developed a 'shop bought' set but is acceptable. Its certainly more jam than syrup

ExpatKat
The site we ordered from was: www.freenet.ltd.uk
try this link -

and our particular model is:

Product: Panasonic
Model: Breadmaker Panasonic SD251
Unit Cost: £114.99
Carriage: £0.00
Total: £114.99

Still very happy with it!

Sobernow, my Morphy Richards doesn't need cleaning, it has a non-stick pan and blade which just need a wipe over with a damp cloth or soak with an inch of hot water if there is some dried on dough on the spindle. The cups and measuring spoon just need a rinse out so it isn't a big job.

Just wondering if anyone has tried making jam in their breadmaker? Does it make a horrible sticky mess or does it work? MIL always enjoys telling the story of when DH was a kid and he made toasted marmalade sandwiches and ruined the sandwich toaster - I can't bring myself to try jam just in case it banjaxes the breadmaker!

I've done jam in mine but it only makes about 1 1/2 lbs at a time. You just stick the ingredients in and leave it for an hour on the jam setting. If it isn't setting then you can put it on for another 20 minutes which usually works. I have a Morphy Richards £42 model which has a good non stick lining so it is dead easy to clean out afterwards, I usually scrape as much out as I can with a plastic spatula then run hot water in to rinse the rest out. You must keep the lid closed whilst cooking though because it does spit a little bit when it is bubbling.

I've found the answer to any problems with the bread is usually the yeast - by far the best yeast imho is Dove's Farm Quick Yeast, which comes in an orange packet, and can be got from Lakeland or Waitrose.

I want a breadmaker that will make GOOD 100% WHOLEMEAL bread. Which? Online only talks about White or raisin bread (no help there!). I know the Panasonic is the market leader -- there's a deal on them at www.beststuff.co.uk for £100! But the very cheap and basic Argos Cookworks model (£35) also has rave reviews. And the Russell Hobbs Breadman Pro steams bagels, which we also love. Kenwood BM258 & Breville AWThompson are both stainless steel, which would be nice, and otherwise seem to have all the functionality we could want.

Could I ask you guys to say which model you have and how good the wholemeal loaves are out of it?

And how noisy is the machine?

Am I right in thinking that as long as a "dough" program exists on a bread maker, that it will be possible to get any kind of dough (pizza or bagels or ?) out of it?

i think the panasonic was the only one good housekeeping said mage good wholemeal bread. will dig out article. I have v.old basic model (prima) and works pretty well but lust after the panasonic I think half the battle is recipes. The DK book is v.good. Yes you can make pizza dough-really yummy. Carrs flour make mixes-flour plus all bits needed and yeast, just add water, recommended by Delia, can buy on line and v.good if really pushed for time!

The Panasonic is excellent for 100% wholemeal and for other breads. only thing against it is you cant make jam in it.

We've got the Prima too. I am always happy with the results. I haven't tried 100% wholemeal, always added a small amount of white flour as this is what the wholemeal recipies in the book that comes with the machine say. My favourite is the granary loaf (yum, yum, feeling tempted to get the machine out now). Oh and the pizza dough is great, so easy! I don't think you can make jam in mine though, although you can in my Mum's Morphy Richards but we have yet to suceed in making edible bread in it!

PamT - I've just noticed that you have posted on this thread and you have a Morphy Richards machine that you are having trouble with. I bought my Mum and Dad a Morphy Richards bread machine a few years back a an anniversary present. I made the first loaf for them and it was fine, not great but fine, I assumed it could be improved on. Since then (my Mum won't even use the thing) I have made many unsuccessful loaf, sunken nasty loafs in it, unfortunately it is now well past it's guarantee. Do you have any tips for using the Morphy Richards, brands of yeast, adjustments needed to recipies? I would be really grateful if you could help, the machine is just sitting in my Mum's kitchen doing nothing, she won't even sell it!

We've got a prima which has a warming stage before any mixing. I find this great as it doesn't matter whether you add warm or cold water- the bread still rises.

No idea about wholemeal- we only use it to make gluten free bread- although I add ground linseed and hemp seed without any problem (the hemp makes it a very interesting green colour- the boys don't seem to mind though).

Message withdrawn

Actually, the small pan/loaf size rather sold me on the Cookworks -- our bread tends to go off before we eat it.....And I understood that home-made bread goes off faster than store-bought preservative-filled breads.

MIGGY: was that the May 2002 survey from Good Housekeeping? They have a faxback service to get the report, but DH won't let me try it... he's convinced that GH's faxback service is a huge scam from Good Housekeeping to keep us on the phone for half an hour costing £30 or more....

Demented, I found that my problems were down to old yeast. Having bought some more decent yeast I find that all the recipes work well (except the chocolate bread in the recipe book). I didn't like Allinsons yeast but Harvest Gold seems to work fine (don't use a full sachet). I used to use Fermipan yeast from the health food shop but I wasn't using enough of it to be worthwhile, at least the more expensive sachets are sealed.

I think the main thing with the recipes is to use exact amounts, a little too much/little salt, sugar, flour etc can make a lot of difference.

Message withdrawn

Thanks PamT, we tried Allinson sachets as this is what I use in my Prima machine and Hovis sachets but neither of these were very successful, I will have a look out for Harvest Gold, glad to hear the machine is working for you it has given me some hope. Thanks!

Zebra- April GH, 10 best kitchen gadgets. Tested 10 breadmakers and said panasonic was only one that made decent wholemeal loaf, but that others all made decent white loaf.
PamT- why not try a premix like Lauke (from waitrose/lakeland) or carrs (lakeland/internet) then you will have a better idea of whether machine or ingredients to blame
I also use the stuff from lakeland to add to denser breads- really improves texture/rise - dough enhancer/relaxer

Sorry should have been Demented not PamT