Panasonic bread maker

[PatChaunceysFruitCake]

I've treated myself to the YR-2540 in an attempt to reduce the amount of highly processed bread my DCs eat. Excited to try it out.

Any tips or ideas on the most basic recipes to start with please... ultimately I want to master a decent white loaf and a granary. I'd like to give rolls a go eventually.

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It's a doddle OP. I'd suggest starting with the basic white loaf recipe in the booklet that comes with it. I find my white loaves more reliable than the brown overall.

I don't bother with the rapid cycles unless I'm in a particular hurry as the bread doesn't rise as well in my experience.

If you're looking to replace shop bought bread for toast, sandwiches etc buy a great (and long) bread knife and a slicing guide. Total game changer, this is the one we have:

amzn.eu/d/8AVZ8FA

Don't try to slice until your loaf has cooled down

Good luck, enjoy experimenting. I bought a bread machine for the same reason and never buy sliced bread now. Makes lovely pizza dough too and dough for rolls.

Thank you @PurpleWhirple, I'm off to sainsburys before work to investigate their range of flour and yeast. We do have a mill near us that I might visit at the weekend.

How long do you find your bread lasts in the container you've linked? I've assumed you don't get long compared to a supermarket loaf?

Keen to try pizza dough... we have an Ooni and have only been 'ok' at making dough by hand so far.

Don't worry about the sugar or ascorbic acid. Butter can be replaced with olive oil.
Keep yeast in fridge.
Use digital scales.
MAKE SURE THE PADDLE IS OUT before you try to cut the loaf.

Panasonic Breadmaker Recipe group UK on Facebook, really helpful group, loads of info and tips.

We've really loved ours, makes gorgeous bread! Our DS has been making his own bread since 8 and he can just be left to it now.

Its 4 years old now and we have noticed this last 2/3 months that we're having a few loaves not rise properly though we've no idea why as nothing has changed and then when we set it going again using the same bag of flour, same yeast etc, it's absolutely fine and rises perfectly.

I find the rapid programmes better than the standard ones. I make hot cross bun dough mine and they are great, if I do say so myself!

I'd use the recipes in the supplied book. We particularly like the Italian bread. There are only two of us so I make a loaf, cut it in half when it's cool and freeze half. We never waste any.

Oh, by the way, if you're going to Sainsbury's, their own brand bread flour and yeast is great. One of their sachets of yeast makes about 2 loaves. I just put a clip on the opened sachet.

Gah.... there's one in there!! A white Italian. The suspense is killing me.

All seemed very easy bar I've got no idea how I'm going to get the paddle out. Hoping that becomes obvious!

Also bought some Allison's country grain. Wondering if that would be best mixed in with some wholemeal though? Going to experiment.

It's a brilliant breadmaker. We've had ours for 15 years and love it 🙂

The paddle just sort of falls out when you remove the loaf from the tin.

Congratulations! It's so fun. We have pizza nights most Fridays now due to getting a bread maker!

My first loaf was very successful! DH and DCs have been at it and it's half gone. Thank you for the tips.

The paddle was still firmly attached to the bottom of the pan but I've put a country grain loaf on the whole grain setting thinking I'll worry about the paddle when DH is home.

Very pleased with my new toy so far.

I bought this for the exact same reason as you, family scoffed at me that it would end up in the cupboard, it's been nearly a year and I can count on one hand how often I've needed to resort to store bought!

Main thing we've struggled with is the faff of slicing, I recently bought ninja knives and noticed it's much easier, so just make sure you have a good quality knife (I've just bought the guide the other poster linked too!)

I just buy a big pack of active dried yeast from Amazon, it's only £5, it's UPF though, I'm going to buy organic bioreal yeast next time, apparently thats better.

We have pizza every week also. It makes lovely jam too.

If the paddle is stuck leave some water in the bottom of the pan for a while.

@PatChaunceysFruitCake we just leave the paddle in the pan if it gets stuck, and normally just wipe the pan with a dry cloth.

Country grain was also successful. It's all so easy!

@Daftasabroom, that worked.

I don't even do that. I just tip anything left behind the next time I use the machine.

I like the yeast in the tin.

I got my breadmaker when I was pregnant with dd1 and she's 21 now.

Don't have a panasonic but use my lidl breadmaker regularly, fresh yeast is handy too, very cheap, available in Polish shops or sometimes from the bread counters in supermarkets that actually make their own bread as opposed to just baking bought in stuff. The paddle in mine, there are two, doesn't stay in the tin and embeds in the bread and is difficult enough to pull out, there is a little hook tool to pull it out but honestly I had the mess the paddle makes of a few slices of the bread so I always take out the paddle before it bakes. My machine beeps before last rise and baking starts so I just lift out the dough or even push to one side in a small loaf, remove the paddles and then I just get the small holes from the posts the paddle goes on.

Sometimes I give the dough a reshape before I put it back in, roll it up to get a neat top but it's not essential obviously. All this of course doesn't work if you are using the delay function but I never do as I like to check the dough ball as it mixes too for best results and I'd definitely do that for the first few times until you are sure you have a reliable recipe that doesn't need attention.

@marylou25 how do you use real live yeast in terms of measurements, and do you just chuck it in the pan as normal?

At first use the included recipes, don't substitute. Once you have got to grips you can get lots of interesting variations.

Rolls are easy as you are only using it to mix and prove them you shape, second prove on the baking sheet and oven bake. I make a lot of focaccia here, crowd pleaser and a good sub for shop garlic bread

We use ours every day for past 15 years! Love the non-UPF bread!

For convenience you can buy ready made bread mix, but beware that AFAIK only the Sainsbury's ones are UPF free.

The raisin bread is a huge hit in this house - fresh or toasted with butter - it's a great school snack YUM

I dissolve it in the liquid but many just crumble it in with the flour, re measurements I use 3 times fresh yeast weight to dry but on the panasonic fb page they say that most breads seem to take only a teaspoon of dried yeast which is equivalent to about 10g of fresh yeast whereas I am using recipes that take a 7g sachet so using 20ish grams of fresh yeast. I would stick to the manual recipes first until you figure out how the machine works best, basically a teaspoon of dry yeast as per the panasonic spoon is just over 3g weight so the usual advice given on that page is 10g fresh yeast for 500g flour recipe and 8g for 400g. This actually does not work for me at all in my breadmaker and I had to revert to my 20g of fresh so perfect some recipe first before switching to fresh.

Absolutely loved my breadmaker and used it nearly daily for about 10 years (so much so we had to replace it twice!) until I grew in confidence and now make sourdough & other bread by hand.

I never used milk or milk powder. Instant yeast granules. Olive oil not butter always. And homemade bread lasts up to about 5 days, although we usually ate far more because it’s nicer! The Panasonic recipes are a fantastic place to start - it’s also brilliant for making pizza dough and so on, so youll end up using it even more than you think.

have fun!

Oh, and another vote for the raisin bread here! We add extra cinnamon and mixed spice. If you’re using the timer function, which is amazing, then put the dried instant yeast in at the bottom, underneath the flour and other dry ingredients, and water on top, so that the yeast isn’t activated until the machine starts mixing.

Help! I have a Panasonic that i bought on Facebook Marketplace and my loaves all come out too squishy/with no decent crust.
am i doing something wrong or is my bread maker a bit rubbish.