Have just started making bread again regularly now I have space in the kitchen. This has all proved too much for my 7 year old bread maker which keeled over last night half way through the knead cycle.
Since we weren't sure when we originally got it that we were going to use it we just got a cheap one from Asda. Now I know we'll use it I might consider getting a better one.
So, any recommendations?
Panasonic
Hands & oven!
panasonic ;D
LOL! I got a cheap ASDA one too about four years ago. Ive been waiting for it to break down so that I can buy a new more expensive one....but it keeps on baking!!
ASDA electricals at the time has such a bad reputation that I thought I would be buying a new one in a matter of weeks but thought it would be a good way of seeing if a bread machine would be used or if it would live in a cupboard and never come out!!. When I bought it it cost £18.99 on special offer ~Bargain considering it is still going strong!!
Duke :)
Have a double whisky before you check the price.
Panasonic.
Morphy richards
ok i'll third the panasonic, and it's my second one. There are five of us and i never buy bread :)
4th for Panasonic
Panasonic here too - well worth the scary price! (Pixmania has 'em for £68 inc vat!) think postage bout a fiver...
6th for Panasonic.
Although of late I've started making 4 loaves a time by hand with mixed results .I have to say I'm getting better and I think the texture is much nicer than machine.
I find that hand made bread is less 'cakey' than machine bread.
Quote from: dtw on November 20, 2010, 23:29:14
I find that hand made bread is less 'cakey' than machine bread.
absolutely
Am planning to hint at my mum that it's nearly christmas ;D
We had guests coming so I just left the nearly mixed dough in the pan & only remembered the next morning. Banged the dough mix in the oven & it was much lighter than anything done completely in the machine (although it had been rising for about 18 hours!). Did consider doing them all in the future by hand but little one won't let me in the kitchen when I need to so i think we're going to have to get another machine.
Cheers folks!
"Hands and oven!"
My father started baking it in the 1940s, I took over in the 1960s, my friends (many), sisters(4) and husbands (2) have done the same after minor persuasion, I have unwillingly, on request, given 2 daughters and their friends bread machines, and they have all given up on them eventually.
Made 30 rolls and 4 loaves yesterday for a party. No trouble, just like making a salad or frying bacon. Mix it, leave it to rise, put it in tins, cook it, eat it.
Agree. Why use a machine? The washing-up bit takes longer than the rest of it.
I've always done it by hand. So has my son. So have my grand-daughters - aged 10 & 7 - and all of my brother-in-law's family (3 generations). Easy-peasy!!
can't knead, arthritic hands, shoulder and neck, hence the machine, I do make dough in there for rolls though :)
In that case, use the machine to do the mixing, but let it rise manually and bake it in the oven. (That's what a 79-year-old friend of mine does.)
still have to knock it back, plus, i can leave mine to bake a fresh loaf during the night, I used to make all my bread by hand, my machine bread is fine :)
Morphy Richards, on our 2nd, latest one is quieter (Important if over night) , the pans do give up if used a lot , but their after-sales service is marvellous. I think its the flour that makes the difference , try Wessex Mill ( Clarks of Wantage ) the Wessex Cober is great.
My brother used to deliver flour for Clarkes..... Actually I'm interested in getting into baking bread but living on my own I'd need a small method..... I'd only want a small wholemeal loaf every other day, plus something slightly poncier for the weekends
Going to give hand doing a try this week since I'm without machine and I'm a bit intrigued to see whether it does work out better after the last loaf. Have tried it before years ago and it was a disaster, but I think I'm a better cook now! However, I may yet be proved wrong ::)
Will probably end up getting machine anyway as it's handy to do overnight / during the day when we're out and about but will also try using it for dough & doing the final rise & baking by hand as it were.
I do tend to just get the bog standard supermarket flour for ease of shopping. Where do you get yours from picman?
Baking bread for the first time this week so I'm using one of the ready mixed flours, but rather than make a loaf I will be making barm cakes (baps) for my bacon butties this weekend, :)
Barm cakes -not heard that since I went out with a lad from lancashire! any ideas how they got the name? :) Anne
Mrs G , we do a big 30Kg mail order to the Wantage mill every 6 Months or so (cheaper that way), I guess that would be a little excessive for you, we bake a large loaf every two or three days, Home made bread does not keep much longer, lord knows what the 'factory' made loaves have in them to keep 'fresh' for a week. Some specialist food shops (in uk ) do keep stocks of wessex mill flour give them a call ( 01235 768991) they will perhaps give you a local supplier, expect to pay £2 ish a 1.5Kg , enjoy ! I can smell it from here !
Anyone dipping their toe in the water could do a lot worse than Sainsburys run of the mill ::) strong white flour. About 70p for 1.5kg & great results every time. I know, not organic, not wholemeal, but very hard to mess up & infinitely better than any ready made bread you buy in the supermarket.
Cheers Picman, will add that to my already bulging list of people to ring ;D
It's only once you start making stuff yourself that you realise how many preservatives must be stuffed into the ready made stuff you buy in the supermarket. At the moment we're getting through a loaf every couple of days, but then it's still a bit of a novelty to have nice fresh bread again. Once we get used to it production may slow a little ;D
In our breadmaker we have used Alinson's strong bread flour and the much cheaper Lidl's own bread flour. All other ingredients being the same, the Lidl flour made a better, higher loaf, the Alinson's was denser. Probably has less gluten in it and would have needed more yeast?
Now that the kitchen is cold in the mornings when the breadmachine is being started, it is better to use warm water. There is supposedly a warming cycle before the mixing starts, but it isn't long enough to cope with the colder ingredients. With slightly warm water our bread rises better in winter.
Quote from: pumpkinlover on November 22, 2010, 21:10:39
Barm cakes -not heard that since I went out with a lad from lancashire! any ideas how they got the name? :) Anne
No idea how they got there name but you can't beat a bacon or chip barm cake, :)
Definiably not!!!! :)
I haven't made bread or done much else for that matter in well over a year but reading this thread has given me the urge to try to get the strong white out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barm_cake
Oven bottoms ;D ;D ;D. A market stall in Knutsford used to sell them.
Not heard that for a long time :D
anyone remember milk loaves?
;DSainsburys still sell oven bottoms and milk roll yummy!!
Yes, milk rolls, I haven't done that for years and I know I still have the opening tins..off to play XX Jeannine
milk loaves............. qahtan
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/qahtan/102_0197.jpg)
Lovely - I can smell them!
Quote from: pumpkinlover on November 22, 2010, 21:10:39
Barm cakes -not heard that since I went out with a lad from lancashire! any ideas how they got the name? :) Anne
I'm from Lancashire and have no idea where the name came from... :-\
What a great forum I will cook the bacon nice thick slices I can smell the bread stomach is calling
Quote from: saddad on February 02, 2011, 22:04:58
Quote from: pumpkinlover on November 22, 2010, 21:10:39
Barm cakes -not heard that since I went out with a lad from lancashire! any ideas how they got the name? :) Anne
I'm from Lancashire and have no idea where the name came from... :-\
Saddad- See reply 31 :)
Qahtan -they look great-just how I remember them from the "beer-off" down the road! :D