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Lidl Bifinett breadmaker - any recipes that work?

Hello everyone,

Please could you help me with my new breadmaker? I've bought the £20 Bifinett breadmaker from Lidl and am now wondering if it was a waste of money !! Does anyone else have this machine? Have you found a recipe that works? I've made 3 loaves so far and all have turned out awful. For the first two I followed the recipes in the leaflet that came with the machine, for the third I followed a recipe off this thread. I've done one white loaf and two brown. The yeast is quite new. The bread either doesn't rise or comes out too spongy. I'm so disappointed!

The recipes that are in the machine leaflet all seem to involve eggs, or complicated ingredients like Rye flour or groats! I just want a simple loaf!
It also gives confusing instructions, for example there is a french bread programme and the recipes for it all ask for butter, but later in the booklet it says that the French programme is not suitable for recipes requiring butter. I am wondering if the booklet has been badly translated or something. Also, the recipes in the book are all in metric but the sizes of loaves you can do are 1.5, 2, or 2.5lb. So its quite hard for me to work out which size loaf I am making!! :confused:

I've been reading through all the breakmaker threads and there is lots of useful info, so thanks for that, but I still can't make a good loaf!

Have I bought a dud??? I'm going to have one more go this weekend I think.
Thanks in advance,
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Comments

  • Pink.
    Pink. Posts: 17,675
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Hi greentomato,

    There are a couple of recipes for the Lidl Bifinett breadmaker on this thread:

    Breadmaker £19.99, does anyone have one?

    Pink
  • wizzkid_3
    wizzkid_3 Posts: 115 Forumite
    I can't comment on the Biffinet, but my loaf through trial and error in a £25 ASDA BM goes like this.

    1 1/2 cups water
    splash oil
    1 tsp salt
    dessert spoon honey
    4 cups flour, white or a mix of whole wheat and white.
    1 tsp yeast

    I plonk all that in and mix it up, then I stop the machine and put it onto the sandwich setting and set the timer so it finishes when we get up. Seems to help doing that first mix as
    a, you can see if you need more water or more flour
    b, it gives it an initial rise before it all gets going again, definatel seems to help when you use the whole wheat flour.

    HTH
  • greentomato
    greentomato Posts: 130 Forumite
    Thank you, I hadn't spotted that recipe, there are so many breadmaker threads to look through! (I'd forgotten I'd posted on that thread before...)

    I'll try these out and see how we go. Don't want to think I've wasted my money!
  • Jake'sGran
    Jake'sGran Posts: 3,269 Forumite
    It really is so easy to make bread. I am always surprised that people buy breadmakers. Its just not necessary to use a machine. My daughter bought one even though her children and I had great fun when they were small when I was making bread and gave them a piece of dough to play around with. Anyway, she doesn't use it anymore and is now buying packets of bread mix!
    All you need is strong flour, salt, tepid water and oil or butter and you can add whatever you like. Maybe a bit slower than a bread machine but never fails and you can leave it until the next day if you are short of time.
  • Bossyboots
    Bossyboots Posts: 6,746
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    Jake'sGran wrote:
    It really is so easy to make bread. I am always surprised that people buy breadmakers. Its just not necessary to use a machine. My daughter bought one even though her children and I had great fun when they were small when I was making bread and gave them a piece of dough to play around with. Anyway, she doesn't use it anymore and is now buying packets of bread mix!
    All you need is strong flour, salt, tepid water and oil or butter and you can add whatever you like. Maybe a bit slower than a bread machine but never fails and you can leave it until the next day if you are short of time.

    You are right it is simple to make bread - if you have the time.

    Before I went back to work full time I made all my bread by hand. Now if I want freshly made bread when I get home or warm bread for breakfast, my only choice is to use a breadmaker. I don't consider making the dough one day and cooking it the next to be a freshly made loaf and on the one occasion I did that some time ago the results were not as good as they should have been.
  • zombiecazz
    zombiecazz Posts: 535 Forumite
    I have one of the Lidl's BM. I make the Express white loaf loads. I've never had a problem with it. Only thing I would say is this recipe says something like 4tsp salt - I only use 2 tsp. I've adapted this recipe loads by swapping some of the plain flour for rye or wholemeal flour, adding sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, throwing in some chopped olives and cheese, using honey instead of sugar. I use fast action yeast from Tesco - the one in the little sachets.

    hope this helps.

    Z
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    "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain." Mark Twain
  • Hello, I'm back again with my Bifinett bread problems! :o

    This morning I made the White Express Loaf, with my fingers crossed. Its OK, the best so far, but its still a bit soggy in the middle, and tastes quite sweet and doughy. Also its gone quite brown on the sides and is still white on top. Is this normal?

    Do you remove the paddles before baking it? I left them in but it seemed to leave quite big holes in the middle after I took them out.

    I've been using Allinson yeast but I think I might buy a different brand.

    Thank you for all your help!! :A
  • zombiecazz
    zombiecazz Posts: 535 Forumite
    Hello, I'm back again with my Bifinett bread problems! :o

    This morning I made the White Express Loaf, with my fingers crossed. Its OK, the best so far, but its still a bit soggy in the middle, and tastes quite sweet and doughy. Also its gone quite brown on the sides and is still white on top. Is this normal?

    Do you remove the paddles before baking it? I left them in but it seemed to leave quite big holes in the middle after I took them out.

    I've been using Allinson yeast but I think I might buy a different brand.

    Thank you for all your help!! :A

    I use one whole sachet of dried fast action yeast

    Yes mine tends to be darker on the sides than on the top.

    I take the paddles out. If I remember rightly the express mix kneads for 20 minutes and then bakes for 1 hour. So take the paddles out at the end of the 20 minutes Knead. Gives details of timing in the back of the instruction booklet

    If it's too sweet add less sugar.

    If it's a bit soggy add a little less water. I tend to use half water half milk.

    Check your dough after 10 minutes. Your dough should be elastic (forms a soft tacky ball), not wet (doesn't really form a ball while kneading) and not dry (forms a solid ball while kneading).
    Too dry add a liitle more water or milk.
    Too wet add a little more flour

    Good luck. Once you get the basics right you can start to experiment.

    Z
    "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain." Mark Twain
  • mirakl
    mirakl Posts: 484 Forumite
    Hello, I'm back again with my Bifinett bread problems! :o

    This morning I made the White Express Loaf, with my fingers crossed. Its OK, the best so far, but its still a bit soggy in the middle, and tastes quite sweet and doughy. Also its gone quite brown on the sides and is still white on top. Is this normal?

    Do you remove the paddles before baking it? I left them in but it seemed to leave quite big holes in the middle after I took them out.

    I've been using Allinson yeast but I think I might buy a different brand.

    Thank you for all your help!! :A

    I had this breadmaker and I loved it. It's worn out now :(

    The express bread is a failure though, it's far too sweet because it needs more sugar to get the yeast active quickly. Try the dough setting and make rolls which you finish in the oven. I always thought that had the best result.
    My Doctor told me that "1 out of 3 people who start smoking will eventually die." The other two apparently became immortal.

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  • greentomato
    greentomato Posts: 130 Forumite
    Thanks for this. DH tried the bread last night and agreed that it was too sweet. I did think it seemed like a lot of sugar but thought I ought to follow the recipe! It makes sense that the express recipe would need extra sugar to rise.

    I think I'll try the same recipe but with less sugar on one of the normal programmes.

    I don't really want to bake in the oven, the reason I got the breadmaker is because I want to be able to bake bread without having to keep an eye on it. I have a baby who is just starting to crawl around the house and wreak havoc, and there have been a few occasions recently when I have burnt food because I've been distracted by rescuing DD from pulling the house down! Remembering to take bread out of the oven would be one task too many for my poor brain at the moment!!! :rotfl:

    Here goes, 5th time lucky I hope..... otherwise you might find a breadmaker in my wheelie bin....
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