Which is the best home breadmaker?

Kirri

gettingready wrote: »

Oh - here you all are, bread making specialists

Will you find a space in the corner for a beginner? Proud owner of a little Cookworks Signature which I bought at Argos for £35 last week:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4229399/Trail/searchtext%3EBREADMAKER.htm

Treis a few receipes from the enclosed booklet but the bread feel a bit hmmm rubbery kind of? Followed the receipes exactly, waited for my bread for those nearly 4 hours (how much electric does it take? :eek:) and was nto that great really...

Is it the breadmaker? Are those the receipes? Or is is me?
:rolleyes:

Also worth experimenting with different types of flour as some really affect the consistency of the bread, even if it is a strong flour, some definitely make better bread than others

Merrywidow

Hi getting ready - I am a great one for "what if", so I bought a bag of BM ready multi seed mix, for emergencies. I have the BM450 and its cookbook says you can use all the ready mixes as well as making your own from scratch. Have only had my machine a week and very much a BM novice.

What I would really like to know from other more experienced BM'ers - what do you understand from "artisan" bread as described in the BM450 book. It has a longer (5 hour) cycle but the recipe is a bit vague.

karen1234_2

gettingready - I bought that bread maker a few weeks ago and it's made lovely bread so far. The best recipe seems to be the wholemeal one - I sometimes add about 60g of mixed seeds to it too (when the beeps go off). I don't leave it in the warm stage just take it out as soon as it's done and leave to cool on a rack. The plain white recipe wasn't very nice but the 'traditional white' was ok. I've also found doing the smaller loaf to be better (might be a slightly different ratio of ingredients).

Chuzzle

I have also posted this on the Christmas & Special occasions board but thought you guys might have some ideas as well seeing as you are the breadmaking kings and queens of this site!

My 11yo nephew has requested a bread maker from his parents and I thought what a fab idea it'd be to make him a hamper of ingredients and books to go with this present. I've got a max of £10 to spend on him. I was thinking of two or 3 different types of flour in the small bags but my supermarkets only sell the 1.5kg size (I think I'm thinking of about 500g size) does anyone know where I might be able to get this size from and what else would you put in the hamper - can anyone recommend a good book?

Kirri

Chuzzle wrote: »

I have also posted this on the Christmas & Special occasions board but thought you guys might have some ideas as well seeing as you are the breadmaking kings and queens of this site!

My 11yo nephew has requested a bread maker from his parents and I thought what a fab idea it'd be to make him a hamper of ingredients and books to go with this present. I've got a max of £10 to spend on him. I was thinking of two or 3 different types of flour in the small bags but my supermarkets only sell the 1.5kg size (I think I'm thinking of about 500g size) does anyone know where I might be able to get this size from and what else would you put in the hamper - can anyone recommend a good book?

You might like to put in one of the orange packet Doves Farm yeast, it's about £1 ish I think, Waitrose sell it, not sure where else, maybe Tescos. Very good yeast product and lasts ages.

What about some packets of seeds, like pumpkin and sunflower too?

Sorry can't help on the flour as I only buy the 1.5kg ones. Most breadmakers come with a book specific to each machine, but I haven't read any others so can't comment.

Lovely idea for a present though, would be happy to receive that myself!

gettingready

Thank you ladies

I have just chocked in multigrain Allison seeds and grains and put the wholemeal programme on - let's see what happens?

Does not look good as big part of the flour seems to be stuck to the sides outside of the "ball".. Hmmmmm

Has anyone ever caculated how much does it cost in electric to use the breadmaker?

I know steamer is not bad as only few minutes really but got a slow cooker recently too and that takes longer than a breadmaker so a bit concerned about my electric bill going up a lot?

Thanks again
(scratching head)

Love experimenting but with the time it takes to make a bread (3.5 hour on wholemeal for 1.5lb loaf) - it is a bit long to wait and see .. what if? LOL

Well, whatever comes out - will have it. Dear Daughter away from Xmas so just me, dog and cat - the dog will have ANY toast so will share with her

Also, ordered a book with receipes for bread making from Amazon, should be here today.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716021544/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Only £3.97 and got some good reviews, maybe good for that Hamper for the 11 yo?



EDIT: 7:45 am

My experiment bread came out looking weird (very small, kind of round too .....not like it normally does from this bread maker) BUT tastes lovelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Munching on a slice now

Putting another one in as this was a 1.5lb loaf but quite "not fluffy" so quite small.

Sui_Generis

Tried to make a 2lb loaf instead of the usual 1.5 and it came out exactly the same size but denser - is that indicative of too little yeast? I used the the recipe quantity so I'm wondering if it needs more?

gettingready

Sui - I would think that if you increase the amount of flour from planning a 1.5lb loaf to 2lb loaf then yes, you have to adjust all the other ingridients (including yeast) accordingly.

*************

I am still in love with my little Argos Cookworks Signature Breadmaker:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4229399/Trail/searchtext%3EBREADMAKER.htm

- which I got on sale

Great for a beginner like me, have been experimenting mixing various flour as I like brown wholemeal or white mixed with brown seed flour or even combining 3 different flours and it is absolutely great

A total bread making addict now and have neighbours coming for a slice or two now LOL

Which flour does everyone else use?

I use Hovis and Allisons so far...

But I do not seem to be able to find "normal" dry yeast in shops, all are marked as "fast" Hmmmm

Also, if a flour is marked "strong" - does it still need yeast?

Thnks

Sui_Generis

gettingready wrote: »

Sui - I would think that if you increase the amount of flour from planning a 1.5lb loaf to 2lb loaf then yes, you have to adjust all the other ingridients (including yeast) accordingly.

*************

I am still in love with my little Argos Cookworks Signature Breadmaker:

That's the one I use too. All the ingredients were increased as per the recipe.

Also a couple of times recently I've had top collapse slightly, is this to be expected?

I use Sainsbury white and Dove's organic granary. Wish they'd sell in bags larger than 1.5Kg.

Kirri

I use Sainsburys strong white most of the time, which is good. Mixing in 10% of strong wholemeal gives the bread a nice colour without making it too dense.
I've used Carrs strong which is also good.
Morrisons organic Strong is great but Morrisons non-org strong produced poorer results.

Has anyone tried Tescos own strong, think it's in a pink packet? I think it's only about 68p for 1.5kg so cheaper than Sainsburys own strong but I wasn't sure if the quality would be so good?