OT: New Bread Maker required

My word! Apparently these are the typical ingredients in commercial bread. I assume a lot of these are to help give a loaf a much longer shelf life.

Enriched wheat flour (flour, barley malt, ferrous sulfate (iron), ?B? vitamins (niacin, thaimine mononitrate (B1), riboflavin (B2), folic acid)), water, sweetener (high fructose corn syrup or sugar), yeast, wheat bran, whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, molasses. Contains 2% or less of: soybean oil, salt, sweet dairy whey, butter (cream, salt, enzymes), maltodextrin, honey, corn syrup, calcium sulfate, soy flur, dough conditioners (may contain: dicalcium phosphate, calcium dioxide, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ethoxylated mono and diglycerides, mono and diglycerides, and/or datem), yeast nutrients (may contain: ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, calcium carbonate, monocalcium phosphate, and/or ammonium phosphate), cornstarch, wheat starch, vinegar, natural flavor, beta carotene (color), enzymes, calcium propionate (to retain freshness), soy lecithin.

Reply to
Bod
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We have a Panasonic SD-255W since early 2008 and it is excellent. We even take it on holiday with us (within the UK).

Best bread recipe from th macjine's manual is the sandwich loaf which I modify slightly by having 75g of white flour and 325g of Stoneground wholemeal. The quality of the flour makes a big difference, I use Marriage's organic strong stoneground wholemeal.

For breakfast, make it the evening before, take the loaf out to rest and in the morning it's perfect for either toast or for sanwiches.

- MIke

usual disclaimers

Reply to
Mike

We had a Panasonic. Did yours take 5 hours ish from turning the machine on untill it was finished like ours did? (I know it kneeded and rested during this period as well)

I never ventured into any recipe other than the basic white bread recipe though.

Reply to
Bod

Yes, SWMBO does this for rolls, pizza, and profiteroles.

Reply to
Tim Streater

I tend to keep it really simple - less to go wrong :) Have a look at

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which is very out of date (one day!) and email me if you like.

Almost everything is an overnight sourdough - makes it easy. So bulk up the starter mid-afternoon, knead late evening (e.g. 9pm), then overnight ferment, up at 6-7, weigh/divide/shape/prove, then bake and in the shop for 9:30. the idea is to keep it low-impact... For now ...

I make different stuff for domestic use (and the occasional shop sale), different shapes - baguettes, fougasse, etc. and other things like pizza, focaccia, brioche, chelsea buns, hot x-buns. planning to make several stollens for the shops next month too...

I've made ciabatta a few times - seems ok, but I prefer plain white sourdough!

A local wholefoods shop and another community shop.

Our house smells like that every morning :)

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

I set ours to be ready around 07.00. Get up and get the loaf out onto a cooling rack, go back to bed, get up an hour later and it's ready to scoff down.

Reply to
Tim Streater

The program I do ours on is indeed 5 hours. That's the standard loaf. The french loaf is 4 hours. But overnight, who cares.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Yes - the "new" K-Mix that I suspect was Kenwoods attempt to posh-up the olde-fashioned Chef machine in-light of the Kitchen Aid devices being featured on TV, etc. It was fine for 3-4 years of regular cake, etc. mixing, but when I started bread in it it started to be a bit sad - it still works fine (just waiting to go in for a service), it just sounds a bit rough now - I suspect a bearing or gear being overly worn.

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

Panasonic invariably come top in comparison reviews. Our SD253 has been going strong for 8 years or maybe more. (Got it just after it was launched)

Standard white takes 4 hours and brown / wholemeal 5 hours. There is also a rapid program (2 hours or so) but the results aren't as good. Not sure about the newer models in the range ...

Reply to
Reentrant

Shelf-life and flavour (to make up for low-grade/cheap wheat and the Chorleywood mechanical process flogging any flavour out of it). Also note the number of sweetners in the list above. The vitamins could be the normally invisible ones added into white flour (a legal requirement in this country to replace what's taken out when you extract white flour from wholemeal) but the rest... More sweetner than yeast - added oils and yeast nutrients. I'm guessing that was a supermarket bread made by the Chorleywood process - a process that more than 80% of all UK bread goes through - it's a highly processed and high-speed mechanical mixing method.

Or ... the Chorleywood process, but 10 miutes into the bake, remove, flash-freeze and transport to the shops which have an in-store "bakery" (aka "tanning salon")

Real bread: Flour, water, yeast, salt, and even the yeast can be home-made in sourdough breads.

Even the smaller bakeries who don't use the Chorleywood process often resort to flour improvers, fats, etc. or buy in pre-mix bags - just add water... And these often contain extras to make processing easier.

And don't get me started on "bakers honey" either ...

Bah!

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Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

I found that if I followed the instructions to the letter, the bread came out sort of so so. It took several tweaks with the ingredients to get a really good loaf. Did you find that? (initially)

Reply to
Bod

Yes, the Chorleywood process. Interesting info and thanks.

Reply to
Bod

Do all the Chef's have all metal drive components or are there any that are crappy plastic and so to be avoided? (Thinking Chef and not K-Mix)

Reply to
Tim Watts

Five hours for the Italian bread IIRC, four for ordinary white, six I think for French (although that wasn't much like french bread either!)

I've tried all of the white, brown and wholemeal ones (not the fancy ones with tomato and stuff) and they are all good.

Reply to
Big Les Wade

Ta.

Makes sense. I keep thinking about getting a mother going and giving sourdough, but haven't done anything as yet.

Horses for courses... Pitta with freshly made baba ganoush from home- grown aubergines, or naan with a home-made curry, or focaccio with home- made pasta... But a "proper" loaf with some pate and home-made medlar jelly (that'll have been lunch today, then) or strong cheddar and home- made chutney - yum!

But not when you're still trying to sleep...

Reply to
Adrian

Three guesses where we used to live...

Indeed.

Reply to
Adrian

We've also had a Panasonic for a similar number of years. But we mostly use the rapid (1 hr 55 min) programme and that works well for us. We've hardly bought a single loaf of bread since we had it.

Reply to
Clive Page

No, I've stuck to the recipes in the supplied book and (apart from one sachet of duff supermarket-own-brand yeast) results have been consistently excellent.

We do just stick to white, 50% wholemeal and occasionally naan, which is very good if you've not tried it.

Reply to
Reentrant

I never though of using it for a naan.

Reply to
Bod

Our Panny's standard recipe has sugar (about the same amount as the salt) and 25g of butter. Last time I was leaving the butter out the bread didn't seem to rise very well.

Reply to
Tim Streater

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