[Closed] Breadmaking machines.. worth it? Experiences?

Where do you buy these big bags of flour that other posts have mentioned? We bought ours as we thought supermarket bread, especially wholemeal has gone downhill recently.

You can order direct from suppliers, for example:
http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/flour-and-ingredients//organic-strong-stoneground-wholemeal-25kg/
http://www.gilchesters.com/products/15
http://www.shipton-mill.com/flour-direct-shop/flour

We have the "normal" panasonic; it does the trick, but I actually preferred the old Russell Hobbs one we had before as it made the same loaf in three hours instead of four, so I had more time to make one, let it cool and make sandwiches the same evening. Alas that one died when the paddle spindle fell out of the bottom of the tin; the panasonic one has been faultless for longer.

The fruit and nut dispenser thing does mean that you can make cheese and bacon bread, mind. I could eat that until I exploded... 🙂

Leftyboy asked about a making gluten-free bread.

I have found Doves gluten free white bread flour blend in Morrisons and Sainsbury's. There is a recipe on the packet that makes a reasonable gluten-free loaf in a Panasonic SD0206 or a Delta Kitchen 40924 (Lidl or Aldi I think). It uses a couple of eggs to help bind instead of the gluten, texture is somewhere between bread and cake, and doesn't keep very well, but has that lovely fresh baked smell for a while.

As for gluten-free bread in general, the most bread-like I have found is the Newburn Bakehouse gluten free white farmhouse loaf sold in Sainsbury's: seems a lot more bready than the Genius gluten free white sandwich loaf that Morrisons sell, and better value too. The ds gluen free white ciabatta rolls that Morrisons sell seem ok, and are fairly long life (about a couple of months), but two quid for four seems expensive, so they only get bought as a stand-by, and eaten as a treat when they are getting close to the use-by date.

I thought about a bread maker then someone bought me "Brilliant Bread" by James Morton.
Each recipe has time spent in kitchen (typically 15 mins for most recipes) and time proving which is variable to fit in with your day. A couple of months on and I bake various reliable sourdough loaves twice weekly. Ingredients just flour (different types depending on what I fancy), water and salt, that's it. The loaves keep really well and also freeze well. A thread on piston heads about home baking sourdough got me interested to start with.

If you have a Kenwood type mixer with a dough hook its ridiculously easy to make bread.
Chuck all the ingredients in and turn on for 5-10 minutes on a low setting, let it prove (covered in the bowl) till its doubled in size. turn out and shape for a tin or tray, let it prove again till its the size you want and bake for about 30 minutes at 200c.

I've been using this method for all sorts of breads over the last 2 years and it gives a consistently good loaf of whatever I'm making.

I love the smell of fresh bread in the morning!

I was unsure at first but glad we got one.

Curses, was going to buy one of these last night, failed 🙁 If anyone ordered one and gets buyer remorse, let me know, I'll take it off you! My Kenwood's dying, it's been dying for a year mind.

For gluten free, I can massively recommend the glutafin select multipurpose mix- it makes a slightly spongey bread, the texture's slightly off but it tastes right, it toasts right, it fries brilliantly... It's just bread, basically. (and available on prescription if you live in civilisation)

They do bread mixes too which I really ought to try

Oh and re shop bought the genius white is underwhelming but the seeded one is ace imo, by far the breadiest gluten free bread. Though, slightly grey! Newburn is a kind of sad story, Warburtons made a huge point of saying "We wouldn't sell it under the Warburtons name if we didn't think it was great", then as soon as it started getting reviews, changed the name. It's not terrible but it's pretty flavourless.

bake for about 30 minutes at 200c.

Not to try to teach grandma to suck eggs but have you tried a harder bake than that? Unless you're making tiny loaves that's a fairly short bake at a low temperature. The method I use takes about an hour at up to 245c (depending on the loaf) for a 2lb loaf - you get a nice crust and it adds quite a lot of flavour.

To defend the hand bakers, money spent on a mixer or food processor makes the process a doddle and the bread looks so much better out of the oven.

As a side I found out recently that most british sold flour has roundup applied to the wheat to speed up drying. Not a nice thought.

As a side I found out recently that most british sold flour has roundup applied to the wheat to speed up drying. Not a nice thought.

The River Cottage bread book sourdough receipe got me hooked. It's a faff, and you have to be organised timewise but I generally 'work' from home so I fit it around my day. A decent mixer is worth having to take the grind away form kneading the dough.

Yeah it seems like it costs more per loaf - I'm reckoning about £1.20 a for a big loaf but I only use organic flours. But ... if you were to go and buy a proper organic sourdough loaf it's about £3 a pop.

If I didn't have the time I'd get a bread machine.

lemonysam - Member

[i]bake for about 30 minutes at 200c.[/i]

Not to try to teach grandma to suck eggs but have you tried a harder bake than that?

Sorry I should have qualified that as I generally make 1lb loafs as the smaller size slices are easier for my wife to hold as her hands don't work so well.
Though I have experimented with harder bakes & steam which also seem to work.
Having a free supply of 72 different types of flour does allow me to experiment 🙂

Having a free supply of 72 different types of flour does allow me to experiment

I'm trying to think of 72 different types of flour now...

*jealous*

@Nemesis Veda bread requires the commercial mix to make it properly. The only place I could find it was in Ulster (Andrews Ingredients) and minimum purchase was 250kg!!I did find a [url= http://teandwheatenbread.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/malt-loaf-veda-bread.html ]close approximation[/url] on-line which needs some tweeking before the taste is right, texture is spot on mind. The roasted barley flour in the recipe is a bit much giving a bit of a burnt flavour to the finished loaf. The mermaid tin mentioned is no longer available to buy as they went bust last year.

Machine arrived earlier today.. Already had some yeast and white bread flour so the timer is set for the first loaf tomorrow.... Surprised at how much salt actually goes into a loaf (used lo-salt)

lemonysam - Member
I'm trying to think of 72 different types of flour now...
*jealous*

TBH some of the differences are tiny (tweaked to suit a particular baker) I think there are around 400 different flour specifications in use in the UK at the moment.

My favorite flour we make at the moment is our strong ciabatta 13.8% protein.

cloudnine - Member

Surprised at how much salt actually goes into a loaf (used lo-salt)

Depending on the loaf type I use 1/2-1 tsp per 800g loaf

We use ours every day - bread, pizza base, naans, pitta bread etc.

I tend not to use as much salt as the recipe says as I was under the impression it's more for making the bread 'last longer' than for taste?

Salt is for taste (I use 7g in 500g of flour), adding butter (about 20-25g) will help the loaf last longer.

Mine has arrived... 🙂

What else do I need then on the way home tonight so the wife can have her first loaf in the morning ?

I go past Sainsburys on the way home for ingredients.

Flour
Baker's yeast

... and that's about it. Assuming you have salt, water, and optionally sugar at home already 🙂

I thought about a bread maker then someone bought me "Brilliant Bread" by James Morton.

Superb book. I make two sourdoughs a week, and one other. the last two weeks it has been revival bread, essentially a normal bread mixture, but with your leftover bread from your last loaf soaked in water overnight and added to the mix. I've bastardised that to make a sourdough revival bread, it's lush.

also his rye and raisin loaf is a cracker, great for cheese on toast...

mogrim - Member

Flour

ANy particular type/supplier etc ? Does it want to be 'bread flour' or....

Don't leave the salt out completely... I forgot once and I have never tasted a loaf that was so... [i]grey[/i]! You could have had a brick dust sandwich and the dust would have been the tastiest thing you've ever had in comparison.

Strong [white/wholemeal/malted, etc] bread flour. Should be able to get it any pretty much any supermarket, about £1 - 2.50/1.5kg bag.

I would strongly recommend getting digital scales for weighing the ingredients and water. Too much salt will slow/kill the yeast so it doesn't rise properly.

We've got a very old Panasonic thing. Gets used about twice a week for gluten free loaves using doves farm flours. Very good results and no faff.

@Jingle thanks was sure that gluten free would be less successful than 'normal' bread. As lots of people are saying main issues is making fresh bread makes you eat more I might think again as I'm trying to eat less bread!

Oh bollox !

I've just given the wife her surprise...

She's got the same one arriving tomorrow !

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I think Northwind was after one

And if Northwind doesn't want it, I might take it off your hands...

Using ours to make Pizza Dough as we speak.
Should be just about ready.

A few people have mentioned Vitamin C tablet added to the mix for wholemeal. Silly question but does it matter if the tablet contains other things i.e. zinc.

Wouldnt have thought so.. just maybe not use the orange flavoured ones.
The machine is a bit noisy when mixing dough

Sorry guys, the wife sold to someone at work.

Just doing my first ever loaf! I've already ballsed it up by putting yeast in now. We'll see what happens. Lol

Update..! havent brought bread since the machine arrived.
Simply brilliant.
Ordered a nice selection of organic flour from Dove farm online and can really recommend the malthouse flour mixed 50/50 with the white organic and some poppy and sesame seeds. Even the kids happily eat it.

Just made a 50:50 with pecan and raisins. Yumm.

Paid full price for our machine but bread this nice and so simple I don't mind at all.

leftyboy - Member Thinking of getting a bread maker so I can make gluten free bread. Any recipes/advice for making gluten free bread?

How did you get on with gluten free recipes ?

I got one of those panasonics, it's very good. I do gluten free with glutafin select multipurpose mix, it's the best gf flour substitute I've found. It makes for a slightly foamy/spnogy bread and it only really keeps for 2 days at most, but it's very tasty, and very easy. Much better than any shop bought gf bread. Most manufacturers seem to tailor their recipes for the Panasonic machines and settings so it's as simple as reading the box. (just put one on, it has a GF setting but glutafin recommend one of the normal bread settings)

It makes [i]epic[/i] fried bread btw. Soaks up fat like you wouldn't believe.

I used to have a Kenwood, it was alright but the settings didn't really work with my recipe so I ended up having to do a manual intervention- bake for an hour and a half on one setting then override and put it into another. That was a pain in the arse. But mostly, it just wasn't up for regular use, it was obviously catering for the "make bread about 3 times then lose interest" market whereas the Pan is up for daily home use.

(the glutafin select isn't 100% gluten free but it's codex approved so should be fine for most coeliacs etc. But I know some people require a 100% gluten free not just the very-nearly-gluten-free of the codex alimentarius (*), so ymmv. But I think we've tried them all, and it's the best white mix by far imo)

(* which always makes me think of warhammer.)

Thread resurrection!

Anyway...I have the Panasonic one. One day I realised I was eating an obscene amount of bread/calories so it now just gets brought out for 'special occasions', pizza dough etc.

Mine has the dispenser for nuts etc, rarely use that feature.

Thanks Northwind , we'll try that recipe and see how MrsbeanZ gets on with the glutafin select .