Breadmakers???

Nicki

I've also consigned my BM to the garage, on the basis the quality of the bread was not great, even using highly recommended recipies on here. It was fine when fresh out of the BM but not so good once it had cooled down.

I still make my own bread, but using a mixer or food processor to mix the ingredients and knead the dough. All I then have to do is put the kneaded dough into the bread tins and leave it to rise, then bake. I can make several loaves at once, and freeze the extra, and it takes very little extra time to do. The resulting bread is much nicer, and keeps much better (and no paddle-hole!)

I'd only go back to the BM now if I really couldn't find the extra 15 mins it takes to put the dough in mixer, wait 10 mins, tip into loaf tins, and transfer to the oven after it has risen. When you take into account the fact that you can bulk bake (which you can't with a BM) the extra time is negligible.

Clutterfree

Thanks Nicki!
I *think* I may have some bread dough attachments for my mixer somewhere at the back of my cupboard. Will have a look at the weekend.
It may be a good way of trying it out and see if HM bread making is for me before paying out for another gadget!

Nicki

Clutterfree wrote: »

Thanks Nicki!
I *think* I may have some bread dough attachments for my mixer somewhere at the back of my cupboard. Will have a look at the weekend.
It may be a good way of trying it out and see if HM bread making is for me before paying out for another gadget!

Don't forget you'll need a few loaf tins as well if you want to bulk bake! If you have a Kenwood- type mixer you can just use the K-beater if you can't find the dough hook but a food processor will be better with a hook rather than a blade.

If you need recipies, let me know. I use a wholemeal one from this site, which works like a dream (all previous attempts at wholemeal bread with and without BM turned out like bricks but this one is foolproof) and a white one from the New England cook book, which I sometimes modify by coating the top with either poppy seeds or sesame seeds depending on how I'm feeling (and again this always works well)

spud30

My breadmaker is just about worn out - cant get the pan out of the machine any more and the paddle struggled to go round this afternoon.

Looking for a bargain if possible - is the SD253 available at £69.97 in all Currys, or was the bargain a one off?

nell2

It's 89.99 on their website so not a huge reduction!

meanmarie

I found that the breadmaker I have (a gift, can't remember brand) was unsatisfactory as the finished loaf was small and the paddle hole irritated me too. I now use it just to make dough and I then make either rolls or loaves. To help to bulk bake and save on my electricity I sometimes freeze the dough freshly out of the bm and then defrost it when I make more....my small oven doesn't work so turning on the big oven for one loaf is very wasteful IMO. Not sure that I would buy one if it died.

Marie

debtworrier

squeaky wrote: »

My fastbake is brilliant. I haven't had a failure yet - though I have had a loaf or two sink at the top.

The cause for that is normally too high a water to flour ratio - so a touch less water or a touch more flour will easily sort that out for a next loaf.
(snipped)

If you do still get failures - no need to bin them. Unless they are like rocks they'll still taste nice; otherwise they'll work perfectly well in a bread pudding or can be used to make a batch of breadcrumbs.

I'd add that the "cold weather failures" where the dough hasn't risen still taste fine, and I think of heavy bread like that as "slimming" - why? Well, because the loaf hasn't risen, the size of the slice is smaller. That means it takes less spread/filling to cover the slice - and it's the sugar and fat that really push up the calorie count.

So when you're chewing your heavy bread, think about your waistline and :T!

debtworrier

Nicki wrote: »

I've also consigned my BM to the garage, on the basis the quality of the bread was not great, even using highly recommended recipies on here. It was fine when fresh out of the BM but not so good once it had cooled down.

I still make my own bread, but using a mixer or food processor to mix the ingredients and knead the dough. All I then have to do is put the kneaded dough into the bread tins and leave it to rise, then bake. I can make several loaves at once, and freeze the extra, and it takes very little extra time to do. The resulting bread is much nicer, and keeps much better (and no paddle-hole!)

I'd only go back to the BM now if I really couldn't find the extra 15 mins it takes to put the dough in mixer, wait 10 mins, tip into loaf tins, and transfer to the oven after it has risen. When you take into account the fact that you can bulk bake (which you can't with a BM) the extra time is negligible.

I'm cursed with an ancient electric oven that needs an hour to get up to cooking temperature and simply drinks electricity when it's running. The BM is much cheaper for me.