Panasonic Breadmakers Tips and Quick Questions Thread

SUESMITH_2

sandraroffey wrote: »

warm water is best. my recipe book for my breadmaker specifies warm water. and i just use supermarkets own brand of strong bread flour.

my bread is yummy. try adding bits and pieces when it beeps on the 2nd knead cycle: grated cheese, roasted garlic, onion, herbs. even chopped up left over roast potatoes.

good luck. we dont eat any shop bought bread now.

you dont need to use warm water in the panny, i used to have to do this with my other bm but the panny sits for a while and brings everything up to the correct temp, it tells you this in the instructions and at first i was unsure if it would work.

i use my panny a lot for making dough, i do a version of an antonia caluccio foccacia which is delicious

Syn

Make it by hand, it's so much more delicious and you can try any variation.
I started making my own bread in September last year and can't have bought more than a fiver's worth of shop bread since then (only when no time and haven't planned ahead); it's loads of fun, very easy with a little practice, and you can make some amazing loaves.
I follow a lot of recipes by Dan Lepard (as well as making up my own) and they work so well, with very little kneading (30 seconds!).
This one is a very quick loaf that still tastes great.
and this has general tips and another basic recipe (the one I started with)

kah22

When I started using my Morphy Richards machine I had some awful results. To be honest I think we all have.

My way around the problem was to go back to the recipe book that came with my machine and concentrate on two recipes: basic white bread, and wholemeal bread until I got them right

I went exactly as instructed with one addition. After measuring everything out the way Morphy Richards suggested (cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons) I then weighed everything individually with the exception of the liquids and oil before I placed them in the machine. When I finally achieved the results I wanted I then worked purely by weight and I've had 100 per cent success since then.

Volume is not a good way to measure the likes of flour.

After you get the basic recipes under your belt then experiment a little. I now use this recipe as my standard

MIXED WHITE AND WHOLEMEAL

Water 1 1/8 cups
Oil (Sunflower or Olive Oil) 2 ½ Tbs
Brown Sugar 28 grams
Salt 7 grams
Milk Powder * 13 grams
Flour
White 150 grams
Wholemeal 200 grams
Yeast (fast acting breadmaker yeast) 4 grams

* if there is a build up of milk in the house I'll use milk instead of water. If using ordinary milk drop the milk powder from the contents. Only use milk if baking straight away.

Good luck with your baking

Kevin

SavingScaramouche

Hi 1st post, so here goes. We brought a bread machine a couple a weeks ago and it was the best thing we ever brought. Though to start off with we cheated a bit a brought a ready mixed bread mix in a pack at the supermarket, just add water, milk or marg/butter depending on which loaf you're making. Though wondering if its cheaper using ingredients from scratch bread mix bags are about 50-60p per loaf. Anyone know how much a loaf would cost from scratch?

Cat72

Hi try the FRENCH loaf mix- it tastes beter than the plain loaf and is easy to make.
I tend to avoid Allisons flour and instead go for Hovis & Dove.
I also have tried and like LAKELANDS bread mix- it is dearer but you just add water and the loaf is Huge.

For some reason my Panasonic isnt that great at making Brown bread so I have gave up on that -I tried adding vitamin c but a lot of the time it doesn rise properily- Im wondering if my Panasonic is not heating correctily and is very scratched inside.

cooking-mama who does which suggest is the best breadmaker now- as Im thinking of buying a new one ?

MrsE_2

cooking-mama wrote: »

I phoned Panasonic helpline,they told me to buy Canadian flour,!,and try 5ml less water.

I have been using Lidls flour, I tried a couple & this was the best.

Waitrose have strong Canadian flour on off (50p or 60p off if you buy 2 bags I think).

I will try it now & see what its like, I wasn't going to bother.

cooking-mama

Cat72 wrote: »

cooking-mama who does which suggest is the best breadmaker now- as Im thinking of buying a new one ?

Apparantly its the Kenwood BM450...Altho i only got that info from a post on this forum,sorry cant remember who posted it,but they said Which report stated Kenwood Bm450 was the best machine ever tested(i dont have access to which results to confirm this tho)But i can confirm it is fantastic,I bought one and its honestly the closest ive tasted to oven baked,quicker than the panny,and makes larger loaves,more expensive tho,but its £96 in lakeland just now(rrp £137),makes the whitest bread ive ever saw from a BM.most others seem to have a yellow/beige tinge,dunno why that is when using same ingredients..maybe the convection fan??
ive been making 2 loaves a day for weeks now,never failed once,kids werent too keen on panny bread but they love the kenwood bread.
Found it,it was merrywidows reply on whats the best breadmaker topic,
""

Merrywidow wrote: »

:T The latest Which reports says that the Kenwood BM450 is the best bread machine by a mile that it has ever tested. I wonder what Pansonic will do to beat this?

Merrywidow wrote: »

Amazon has just reduced the price of their Kenwood BM450 to £75.

""
PS,dunno if its still £75 in amazon tho

milosmum59

I too use the sachets. I think the yeast needs to be really fresh or it doesn't work well.
If you usually use a tablespoon of butter use a tablespoon of Olive oil. I find it much easier to use oil - it just gets stirred in.

Cat72

Thanks for that cooking mama im away to have a look at it. :T

Kimitatsu

Cat72 wrote: »

For some reason my Panasonic isnt that great at making Brown bread so I have gave up on that -I tried adding vitamin c but a lot of the time it doesn rise properily- Im wondering if my Panasonic is not heating correctily and is very scratched inside.

Cat I found that my wholemeal bread was very dense, it was rising properly but it was just really solid! Lakeland does a dough improver for £7.99 for a tub but you use a teaspoon at a time so lasts for aaaages and it makes the brown bread gorgeous!