Bread makers

When we moved here we brought with us a cheap bread maker from (I think) Asda (it was a present). We used it regularly for a few years before it gave up. We then found one here (in Italy) exactly the same and have been using it for about 3 years! I use it to make bread for toast as it's almost impossible to find decent "toast bread" here and home made is much better anyway! We also use it for pizza dough as although we can go out for pizza, again , home made is better! I have also made hot cross bun dough and brioche style bread! I wouldn't be without one now!

If you are having trouble with your bread can I suggest that you keep your yeast in the freezer once you have opened it. It goes off very quickly and you can use it straight out the freezer.

Which reminds me, you can freeze dough too and it still works. I used to make big batches (by hand, can't do that now!) bake some and freeze the rest.
When you take it out of the freezer it needs to thaw very slowly , then leave to rise slowly.
But I never found pre-frozen dough quite as springy as freshly made dough.

Also a Panasonic fan, used 2 or 3 times a week. Tesco dried yeast. I prefer the slower timing, so wholemeal/granary takes 5 hours, but delayed timer means it can bake overnight, up to 13 hours ahead. Recipe is so simple it takes no time to prepare. Had to stop making white bread, as it was just too irresistible to have a slice of fresh bread with jam. I buy locally milled granary flour by the sack, and decant into plastic boxes, Easier than going shopping for bags of flour.

I've got a Panasonic and it's great. I used to have a Morphy Richards which was ok but the Panasonic blew me away with how much better the bread was. I like to experiment with different bread flours and the low gluten rye flour mixes used to come out like bricks in my old machine but they're much nicer in the Panasonic one.

If you want to make a quick bread without using a machine, soda bread is unbelievably easy and fast to make. You use ordinary plain or wholemeal flour not bread flour, add buttermilk and bicarbonate of soda, pinch of salt, mix together loosely with your fingers (no kneading), shape and bake. It's lovely with soup and stews for winter.

I have seen breadmakers advertised on ebay which are not new, but are reconditioned. I think Lakeland Ltd have them and of course they are much cheaper. Worth a try perhaps?

I have a trusty Panasonic which must be going on for 10 years old! I did speak to P's Test Kitchen ladies some years ago when I had a spell of unreliable results. Their advice was to only ever use 'Very Strong' bread flour, ignoring the merely 'Strong' sort. Problem solved.

I buy a lovely fresh yeast from Ocado (freezes well and I use it from frozen), and was delighted recently to notice (after a mere ten years!!) a recipe in the Panasonic handbook for a 'Fresh Yeast White Loaf'. The programme takes 4 hours to do a really great 500g loaf. It can be done on the timer too, so I set it to have fresh crusty bread for our favourite Boxing Day sandwiches this year. Quietly pleased with self!

Agree with Skullduggery re wheaten (soda) bread! So simple and fast. I use 8oz coarse wholemeal flour, 4oz plain flour, 1 heaped tsp bicarb of soda, pinch salt, small handful sugar and a small 50p carton supermarket buttermilk. Mix dry ingreds in largeish bowl. Add buttermilk and mix to a damp dough with a spatula, adding a drop of ordinary milk if needed. To avoid messy hands, just tip it in to a buttered and floured 2lb loaf tin and press flat. Bake at 200C for 35-40mins. Fab with butter and cheddar. Apologies for last-century weights!

My breadmaker is a Panasonic which I bought when I was asked by one of my regular publishers to write a breadmaker recipe book. Previously I had always made bread by hand, although not hugely frequently, and I still prefer both the process – kneading dough is major stress relief – and the taste and texture of the results. However, it is convenient because it just gets on with it and you don't have to keep going back to see if the dough has risen, etc. Probably the major pain is that even a small breadmaker is quite unwieldy and takes up quite a lot of space in a kitchen cupboard.

By the way, the manufacturers' handbooks include recipes and there are lots of good recipe books on the market (not just mine , which, in any case, is probably out of print by now).

Final tip: Unlike making bread by hand, when you can tell how the dough is working by its feel, it is important to measure the ingredients exactly and follow the instructions precisely in a machine.

I have a Panasonic too. It's nearly as old as Minibags and still working fine. It makes fabulous bread. Everyone who has tasted my bread says it is the best they've ever tasted and also that the texture is wonderful. So I guess I'm disagreeing about hand-kneaded bread being better, absent. I don't follow the machine's (or any other) recipes exactly. For instance, I always add a heaped tablespoonful of ground linseed and I use a mixture of lard and salted butter, variable knobs of which I hack off a block and chuck in unmeasured except by my eye. Maybe that's what makes the difference.

Patpat I have a Panasonic which has a special gluten free programme. I use the recipe on the bag of gluten free flour and it comes out fine, according to my SiL. I don't eat it myself.

I've experimented with the recipe, making cheese and herb bread, spiced fruit bread etc and it's always been successful. Unlike my attempts at gluten free biscuits!

There is no special virtue in hand-made bread! You don't get extra points...

I've used a bread-maker since the early 90s - Get a Panasonic, with or without the automatic gadget for dropping fruit in at the right moment.
Incidentally, I noticed that as the years passed, the ingredients lessened. At one time we added Vitamin C - I suppose that found its way into the flour at the mill eventually. Dried milk was another addition that has vanished from the manufacturer's recip. Strange - I couldn't tell any difference without it.

So it's simple; flour (part whole-meal part white), easy-bake Yeast, sugar, salt, butter (I use oil) and good old aqua pura ... 3 - 5 hours later - bread!

I remember experimenting with adding about 5mls of lemon juice as part of the liquid measure - apparently the yeast likes it. Not sure it made much difference.

Hi!

I've had a Panasonic for years (could well be my second Panasonic) and use it most days. I don't like the hole at the bottom where the paddle goes either, so I just make the dough and shape and finish in the oven. I make a small french loaf recipe - but it's large enough to feed our family of four - seems to go further when shaping and baking myself. Love knowing exactly what is going in to my bread rather than shop bought. Still trying to achieve 'real' French bread with that flaky crispness - mine is very crisp as I use steam in the oven whilst cooking - but it still isn't quite French bread. I buy fresh yeast in Sainsbury sometimes (buy from the fresh bread bakers!) and that makes it even more special - and the smell when cooking..........!!!

Strangely, I have never tried freezing my bread - usually gets snapped up as it comes out of the oven and any left-overs go into home-made bread pudding - so a double treat! Will try freezing - thanks for that!

PS - if using fresh yeast - the yeast goes in last. Seems if it is in contact with the salt it won't work so I put salt, sugar then flour, water and yeast in that order. Works fine!

I use a Panasonic with Allison dried yeast going in first. I follow the recipes in the booklet that comes with it. It makes good bread, pizza dough etc and gives you the options of overnight on the timer. A hugh time saver and none of the preservative that the supermarkets put in which make my tummy so uncomfortable. Good luck

I was given a Panasonic when I retired 5 years ago which I've used about 5 times every week since. I use Allinsons strong flour and Allinsons dried yeast (green tin). I've made all types of bread including tea cakes. I couldn't have asked for a better present.

Panasonic-SD2501, Allinson's yeast in a tub, Waitrose or Tesco standard strong flour. Works brilliantly for both bread and dough for rolls, etc. Only thing it doesn't produce (unsurprisingly) is authentic French or Italian bread, though these are still very edible, and I sometimes miss the rather denser wholemeal bread as made by hand. Only problems were when the yeast got a bit old.

Old yeast is useless, and the tins hold more than a sachet so they can be getting elderly without you noticing. Bread made from a new tin is an eye-opener.

Had a Panasonic bread maker for years and although we don't use it lots I wonder why I don't as the bread is delicious but it takes ages (5 hours) to bake a granary loaf - am I missing something.
Tried all makes of dried yeast and they all work ok but the Tesco packets are a little larger.

Get a Panasonic.

We have had a Morphy Richards bread maker for several years and had reasonable results with plain bread but a friend brought some home made ciabatta to a meal and it was superb. A lovely big holey texture on an "Italian" setting.

Last week I bought a used Panasonic 255 on Ebay to see if it was really better. OH got to it first but the wholemeal seeded loaf he made was a much better texture than anything from our old machine. It's my turn to experiment next.
His previous trys at wholemeal bread had left some very tough results .

Gosh there isn't much to beat the Panasonics is there! Now what should I make?

Agree with TriciaF- My Breadmaker is in the loft. Much quicker- much better crumb & much nicer bread if you use a dough hook in your mixer & no silly shaped loaf with a big hole in the bottom.

I put 600g of strong four, 9g Dove Yeast , 7 g salt ,25ml oil & about 310ml water & just let it mix away while I have a coffee. cover bowl & wait until double in size them put in 2lb tin & prove until over the top & bake 3-35 mins on 220.
Perfect every time & I get on with other things. Works with wholemeal & my favourite -half & half & all the lovely flavoured flours you can now get. Hot cross buns, panetonne, pizza dough- you name it!

I would rather spend money on a good mixer that can be used for so many other things than a bread maker. Mmmm- I can smell it now- must be time to get it out of oven.

GrandmaH I would love to try your recipe. How long do you leave the dough in the mixer?
I make the loaf where you leave the mix in fridge overnight and where you do not knead! Next morning turn out into an oven hot la cloche dome . . . back in oven . . . take off dome lid at end to brown for a bit and you get a seriously handsome artisan looking loaf. Fools even me.
I also make the easy sourdough rye again no knead, but you do need a rye starter.
Branching out slowly as never was a bread maker before and enjoying it lots now.

We have an elderly Panasonic that has done sterling service - DH uses it a couple of times a week to make a loaf that might vary (our current favourite is one quarter spelt, one quarter rye and half Canadian strong white, and lots of added seeds) but we do at least know what's going into it.Sliced and quickly frozen, easy to take out what you need when you need it - and it makes divine toast.

Panasonic. Have had it for years and it's brilliant!

Panasonic for me, had it for years, used 3-4 times weekly, various sorts of bread. Would not be without it!