Breadmakers

[Katsma]

I quite fancy the idea...

But will it just end up in the back of a cupboard along with the yoghurt maker and george foreman?

Do you have to faff around trying to source fresh yeast, or can you get sachets that you just bung in there with some water?

I have been meal planning and flying. But will feel like I've really arrived as a sahm when I get that 'just baked' aroma

[Katsma]

Thanks everyone. Mine arrived this afternoon

Will be having soup and freshly baked bread for lunch tomorrow (all being well!)

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Yes, a glug=a splosh=a drizzle

[UCM]

Thanks girls

[UCM]

Glug, is that a sort of splosh, I get what you mean as I don't measure the butter anymore, just a glob

[Lilymaid]

According to my breadmaker book, 1 oz butter is the same as 2 tbs oil, and the recipes suggest 1oz butter/2 tbs oil for a small or medium loaf (1.5 oz butter/3tbs oil for a large loaf). In reality, I just drizzle some in!

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Can I answer that? The amount of oil is not critical, but it makes it keep better, so I tend to add a glug (I use sunflower) if it's going to be eaten quickly and a couple of glugs if not.

[UCM]

A question for Lilymaid. If I was going to use Olive oil instead of butter, how much would I use?????

[UCM]

You can get tescos or asdas own and they work perfectly, they are in flat long box with 20 silver sachets inside. 1.60 per box I think. One sachets makes 3 loaves in my panasonic.

Has anyone else found that if they add 50g of wholemeal flour the bread is easier to cut??

[Lilymaid]

I use the Doves Farm Quick Yeast (a packet costs about £1) which lasts for months sealed in the fridge. I have a Panasonic and my bread keeps a reasonable time - 3-4 days or so. I agree with Frogs and others about salt, sugar, dried milk. I use a half tsp salt for a small loaf, a tiny amount of sugar and generally don't bother with the dried milk since I noticed that the local organic baker who makes wonderful bread only uses flour, salt, yeast and olive oil for his lovely plain loaves. I generally make loaves overnight (work full time so don't have time in day to set up and bake) and we wake to the smell of freshly baked bread. It only takes a couple of minutes to weigh out the ingredients and programme the machine.

[EmsMum]

I use the sachets - find that 1/2 of one is enough for a 1 1/2 lb loaf.

[gooseegg]

You need the quick acting yeast. I've only ever found it in sachets and have had disasters with the tub stuff. I've got the Panasonic. hth

[scienceteacher]

We had a breadmaker for a while when we lived in the US. I used to buy premixed ingredients (I got them at a reasonable price in Costco), and then all I had to do was add the water.

The problem I had with it was that it only produced one loaf of bread, and that wouldn't even make it once around the table for us.

I haven't rushed out to buy a new machine. My Kenwood has a dough-hook, and it's not that much extra work to use that - I can get two loaves out of it, or as we prefer, make rolls.

[Katsma]

Bumping for my yeast question - Urgent, as the breadmaker has been dispatched

[Katsma]

Have been shopping to get ingredients.

Kathy recommended the Allinsons yeast powder but said to get the tub not the sachets as they're more expensive. They were LOTS more expensive. But the tub says not recommended for breadmakers - are they just lying so you spend more on the sachets?!

And yes, it does look huge doesn't it?! Wish they'd photographed it next to a terraced house to give some sense of scale

[kittywits]

Jules{grin} I was tired!
Don't know how big it is but it's BIG!

[Egypt]

want one! panasonic sd254 looks huge. how big is it?

[JulesJules]

Pmsl at the old beard maker not being big enough, Kittywits ! I have a Morphy Richards Fastbake £40 or so, it's fab, use it every day, have never bought bread since. And it makes jam. Apparently. Not that I have. DD1 still sighs over white plastic bread however. So much nicer than your bread, Mummy...

[Katsma]

Thanks all - some great tips here

But STOP IT about the butter-coated chin kittywits you're killing me - mine's not coming til at least 7th Sept!

Will be giving the bread to my 11mo DD as well, so glad to hear you can reduce the salt. Oh bugger, just realised I won't be able to use the nut/seed dispenser til she's 2 (?). Oh well, raisins it is then

[frogs]

Yes, normal bread flour (strong). Shipton Mill (from wholefood shops) do nice big bags, otherwise cheap is fine too, though you go through a normal-size packet quite quickly. Dove do a nice granary one with seeds in, and I've occasionally experimented with Rye and Spelt flour, with slightly variable results.

Salt is normal table. You can play around with quantities if you're trying to reduce salt intake -- I usually use half a tsp, which is approx. half the recommended quantity.

Vitamin C powder is often used as a flour improver (by commercial bakeries as well). You can buy it from eg. Holland & Barrett, and it makes wholemeal bread a bit lighter. The recipes will tell you to use it, but again you can play around to get the effect you want. Mixing wholemeal and white flour (75% and 25%) will give you a lighter wholemeal loaf without the need for Vitamin C. And I quite like full-on wholemeal to be a bit denser iyswim.

Another tip: I always make the small size loaf, as it's much easier to cut than the large or XL ones -- as you go up the sizes the loaf just gets higher rather than larger all round as it would if you were baking in an oven, so the bigger ones get v. squashy when you try to cut them. And homebaked bread does go crumbly if you try to keep it longer than about 48 hours, so little and often is better.

Our current fix is normal bread (I alternate white and wholemeal atm) with a mixture of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and poppy seeds. Yum.

[kittywits]

I've just oedered the super new panasonic as my old beardmaker wasn't big enough and I wanted a loaf to last more than 5 mins!
They are ace we use ours pretty much everyday. There's nothing quite like waking up and stuffing loads of hot bread into your mouth and the melted butter dribbling down your chin

[EmsMum]

Its our most-used gadget. DH has high blood pressure, extremely salt sensitive so make
it with no salt at all - contrary to all the books this works fine (though the taste takes a bit of getting used to).

Just need water, couple of tbs oil, couple of tsps any sugar or honey, mix of stoneground wholemeal and white bread flour (or all wholemeal now that Lakeland is again stocking bread enhancer ie gluten). dried
yeast (dont need vit c with this).

The way to solve problem of it not keeping well (either through being devoured on the first day or left more than a couple) is simple - slice, bag and freeze.

If you buy a machine it will almost certainly come with recipe book anyway.

[Katsma]

And flour - I take it that you use the proper bread stuff (strong flour??)

Oh what a novice I am

[Katsma]

Oh that's great. Only really do brown sugar, so have about 6 different varieties in the cupboard, glad I don't have to get white as well!

But you're leaving me with more questions

Salt - is this your normal table variety?

VitC - Eh?? What's this??

[frogs]

Sugar -- any kind, including brown. You can safely halve the recommended quantity if you want to.

Salt -- again, you can use half as much with no ill-effect.

Milk powder -- used it assiduously, then ran out one day and left it out, with no discernible difference. Never went back to it.

You can also make wholemeal bread without adding VitC, though the texture will be slightly heavier.

You can also add 3 scoops or so of bran to the ordinary white bread recipe for added wholesomeness.

[Katsma]

6inchKathy (!) - that was my next question, will need to be at the ready with ingredients, so thanks for that shopping list.

What kind of sugar do you guys use?

Am hoping my supermarket stocks all of this stuff - have never payed a visit to the baking section!

And you're right about the putting weight on thing. And here's me still trying to lose my baby belly 11 months on
Will have to increase the pram pushing to allow for lots of bread indulgence.