Bread Makers

[Felix]

Ours is redundant in the spare room as there is a shop at the end of the street. Nah it stopped getting used since i was diagnosed as Coeliac. Few attempts of GF bread then gave up as they turned out shite.

[Count Steer]

I have made pizza dough/bases but, again, I found if I buy a good, but basic M&S one - mozzarella and basil - then primp it with Serrano ham and Kalamata olives it's a) less bother and b) quite nice. (They've revised the recipe and added the basil, you used to be able to freeze them but, I guess, the fresh basil has kiboshed that. Not that it matters, shop on Thursday, pizza night Thursday ).

[Mr. Dazzle]

Pizza is all about the bread though. People are always amazed by my home made pizza and I always tell em the same thing...make good bread and you're 99% of the way there!

[MingtheMerciless]

Ours is redundant in the spare room as there is a shop at the end of the street. Nah it stopped getting used since i was diagnosed as Coeliac. Few attempts of GF bread then gave up as they turned out shite.

Same here, GF bread seems to always turn out with a dodgy Madeira cake consistency.

[mangocrazy]

Isn't it the gluten in dough that gives it its stretchability and elasticity?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Isn't it the gluten in dough that gives it its stretchability and elasticity?

AIUI it's basically rhe difference between bread and cake.

Still....could be worse, it could be an egg free omelette

[Taipan]

We bought one recently, a cheap 2nd hand Panasonic one for £15 to see how we got on with it. My wife hasn't bought bread from the shop since! She was using Allisons wholemeal flour but bought Lidl wholemeal flour and has now settled on that as it makes a much lighter loaf.

[mangocrazy]

Some years back I bought a cheapie Lidl/Aldi breadmaker and used it for a while. The big annoyance for me was having to stop the machine halfway through its program (after the kneading stage) and remove the paddles from the loaf's arse. If you didn't they stayed there and got baked into the loaf. Even with the paddles removed you still had two holes where the paddle spindles went, so in the end I reverted to doing it by hand.

I really don't understand people's reluctance to get their hands into a bowl of flour, water, salt and yeast and get stuck in. It's really quite therapeutic.

[Taipan]

Some years back I bought a cheapie Lidl/Aldi breadmaker and used it for a while. The big annoyance for me was having to stop the machine halfway through its program (after the kneading stage) and remove the paddles from the loaf's arse. If you didn't they stayed there and got baked into the loaf. Even with the paddles removed you still had two holes where the paddle spindles went, so in the end I reverted to doing it by hand.

I really don't understand people's reluctance to get their hands into a bowl of flour, water, salt and yeast and get stuck in. It's really quite therapeutic.

For you it might be, but its not for us. We've tried it and its a messy past time with a lot of clearing up etc. This is simplicity itself and the wife chucks the 4 ingrediants in whilst waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa. She sets it on timer and we awake to the small of fresh baked bread with almost zero clean up. That suits us just fine!

[Count Steer]

Some years back I bought a cheapie Lidl/Aldi breadmaker and used it for a while. The big annoyance for me was having to stop the machine halfway through its program (after the kneading stage) and remove the paddles from the loaf's arse. If you didn't they stayed there and got baked into the loaf. Even with the paddles removed you still had two holes where the paddle spindles went, so in the end I reverted to doing it by hand.

I really don't understand people's reluctance to get their hands into a bowl of flour, water, salt and yeast and get stuck in. It's really quite therapeutic.

Friends tell me that the delight is in using the timer setting so that they have fresh, warm bread in the morning. How the paddles get removed in the night is a mystery to me. (They probably toast the bread anyway ).

It's a gadget I've successfully resisted.

(I did however buy an industrial strength mixer I wanted a Hobart but that was waaaay too spendy ).

[mangocrazy]

Some years back I bought a cheapie Lidl/Aldi breadmaker and used it for a while. The big annoyance for me was having to stop the machine halfway through its program (after the kneading stage) and remove the paddles from the loaf's arse. If you didn't they stayed there and got baked into the loaf. Even with the paddles removed you still had two holes where the paddle spindles went, so in the end I reverted to doing it by hand.

I really don't understand people's reluctance to get their hands into a bowl of flour, water, salt and yeast and get stuck in. It's really quite therapeutic.

For you it might be, but its not for us. We've tried it and its a messy past time with a lot of clearing up etc. This is simplicity itself and the wife chucks the 4 ingrediants in whilst waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa. She sets it on timer and we awake to the small of fresh baked bread with almost zero clean up. That suits us just fine!

So cleaning a bread making machine with associated paddles and bread tin is less messy than cleaning a mixing bowl?

[Taipan]

Some years back I bought a cheapie Lidl/Aldi breadmaker and used it for a while. The big annoyance for me was having to stop the machine halfway through its program (after the kneading stage) and remove the paddles from the loaf's arse. If you didn't they stayed there and got baked into the loaf. Even with the paddles removed you still had two holes where the paddle spindles went, so in the end I reverted to doing it by hand.

I really don't understand people's reluctance to get their hands into a bowl of flour, water, salt and yeast and get stuck in. It's really quite therapeutic.

For you it might be, but its not for us. We've tried it and its a messy past time with a lot of clearing up etc. This is simplicity itself and the wife chucks the 4 ingrediants in whilst waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa. She sets it on timer and we awake to the small of fresh baked bread with almost zero clean up. That suits us just fine!

So cleaning a bread making machine with associated paddles and bread tin is less messy than cleaning a mixing bowl?

Yes. The bowl and paddle clean in minutes, but when making bread there the mess on the side with flour from kneading as well as cleaning the bowl. Plus its the time messing about with proving etc. Its a lot of faff for a loaf of bread.

[mangocrazy]

For you it might be, but its not for us. We've tried it and its a messy past time with a lot of clearing up etc. This is simplicity itself and the wife chucks the 4 ingrediants in whilst waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa. She sets it on timer and we awake to the small of fresh baked bread with almost zero clean up. That suits us just fine!

So cleaning a bread making machine with associated paddles and bread tin is less messy than cleaning a mixing bowl?

Yes. The bowl and paddle clean in minutes, but when making bread there the mess on the side with flour from kneading as well as cleaning the bowl. Plus its the time messing about with proving etc. Its a lot of faff for a loaf of bread.

'Mess on the side'? The contents of my bowl stay in the bowl; perhaps you need a bigger bowl? And I put the bowl in the sink, put in warm/hot water and ten seconds with a scotchbrite pad and it's clean. Time spent proving is not dead time; you can do anything you like with the time in between. The bread mix does the heavy lifting - you're free to do whatever you like. I found using a bread maker was more of a faff - it's why I reverted to doing it manually.

[weeksy]

Like Pietin, I find it effortless in a bread maker. I've never considered making bread manually.
Perfect bread every time.

Yes it leaves a small hole in the bottom, but it's not a boat, it's a loaf, I slice it.

[mangocrazy]

Like Pietin, I find it effortless in a bread maker. I've never considered making bread manually.
Perfect bread every time.

Yes it leaves a small hole in the bottom, but it's not a boat, it's a loaf, I slice it.

Have bread makers moved on so that the paddles retract into the body of the machine? Having to remove the paddles from the gloop after kneading was a real pain. If that has been circumvented it would go a long way to making a bread machine more Mango-friendly...

[Yorick]

How remiss of me. I started this thread and didn't put what I'd bought.
Mrs Y loves this bread maker and loves experimenting.
.

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[MrLongbeard]

I dug my bread maker out yesterday, it's slightly less high tech than y'alls

[Horse]

Like Pietin, I find it effortless in a bread maker. I've never considered making bread manually.
Perfect bread every time.

Yes it leaves a small hole in the bottom, but it's not a boat, it's a loaf, I slice it.

Have bread makers moved on so that the paddles retract into the body of the machine? Having to remove the paddles from the gloop after kneading was a real pain. If that has been circumvented it would go a long way to making a bread machine more Mango-friendly...

We bought one years ago. It had two paddles. It wasn't much good.

We bought another a couple of years ago. Panasonic, I think (but CBA to check ). Single paddle, which doesn't get embedded and stuck in the loaf during baking. It's a totally different experience to the first machine.

If we want bread the next day, we put the ingredients in, set the timer and smell fresh bread the following morning.

No two stage process. If we want extra ingredients (fruit, etc.), stick them in a container and the machine drops them in at the appropriate time.

Cleaning? Soak the tin and paddle for a few minutes, wash, leave to dry.


FWIW, our oven has a 'prove' setting. We (very) occasionally make certain breads too

[mangocrazy]

Have bread makers moved on so that the paddles retract into the body of the machine? Having to remove the paddles from the gloop after kneading was a real pain. If that has been circumvented it would go a long way to making a bread machine more Mango-friendly...

We bought one years ago. It had two paddles. It wasn't much good.

We bought another a couple of years ago. Panasonic, I think (but CBA to check ). Single paddle, which doesn't get embedded and stuck in the loaf during baking. It's a totally different experience to the first machine.

I'd definitely like more info on that. If by some witchcraft you don't have to dig the paddle(s) out of the loaf after baking, then that would be something of a game-changer. That would remove my single biggest objection to bread making machines.

If we want bread the next day, we put the ingredients in, set the timer and smell fresh bread the following morning.

No two stage process. If we want extra ingredients (fruit, etc.), stick them in a container and the machine drops them in at the appropriate time.

Cleaning? Soak the tin and paddle for a few minutes, wash, leave to dry.


FWIW, our oven has a 'prove' setting. We (very) occasionally make certain breads too

Yes, washing up after bread making whether manual or machine is just washing up - so what. The Zanussi electric oven we have in France will go down to (I think) 30 deg C. so can be used as a proving oven.

[weeksy]

Like Pietin, I find it effortless in a bread maker. I've never considered making bread manually.
Perfect bread every time.

Yes it leaves a small hole in the bottom, but it's not a boat, it's a loaf, I slice it.

Have bread makers moved on so that the paddles retract into the body of the machine? Having to remove the paddles from the gloop after kneading was a real pain. If that has been circumvented it would go a long way to making a bread machine more Mango-friendly...

Ours has a really small paddle, it stays in throughout the process. After baking it takes a quick wiggle to get loaf out. Paddle thing remains in situ.