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It seems Panasonic has a factory outlet.
Whoops.
A YR2540 arrives next week. What do I need to know? Should I go stock up on strong bread flour? Bread mix for a foolproof first attempt?
Moreover, anyone have any favourite recipes they'd care to share?
Cheers.
Not entirely sure what advantage you'd get from using a bread mix as it's a fairly simple recipe. Here's a few thoughts from my experience:
- go for whatever yeast you find in the supermarket that sounds like it'll be easiest to use. It'll be called something like easy-bake or instant-action or suchllke. Maybe the other stuff might taste diferent or whatever but it's something to experiment with further down the line.
- Weighing water is much easier than using the wee plastic measuring jug.
- The bigger loaf sizes just mean a taller loaf. If you plan on toasting the bread this is not advantageous unless you also happen to have a toaster that can accommodate such slices.
- try and keep the salt/yeast apart in the mix when it first goes in. High salt concentrations can mess with the yeast so dumping them both in together can sometimes result in disappointing bread.
My standard recipe (add ingredients to pan in this order:
- 280g water
- 1tbsp oil
- a sachet of yeast (or a teaspoon and a bit)
- 200-300g string white flour
- make up to 400g total with AN other wholesome bready flour
- 7g salt
Pop it on the wholemeal setting overnight.
We've had a Panasonic for years (decades now).
Im generally pretty boring and just do plain loaves, nowt fancy.(don't thing the seed dispenser has ever dispensed seeds in the 15+ years!).
Absolutely as per stevieus, keep the salt and yeast separate. Usual method is yeast in 1st, then all the flour, then the other stuff (butter, salt, sugar) last before adding the water. That way they are kept separate until mixing, and then the yeast doesn't get overwhelmed by the salt.
Ive found over the years I can get away with less salt - I find the full normal recipe too salty - lovely, but too salty - like commercial bread Smith all the hidden salt.
Always found thr pre-mix a tad disappointing compared to just doing it myself for some reason.
Happy bread making.
One final thing you'll find is that if you don't eat it within 2 or 3 days it can go off / get moldy quicker - as it's not bunged full of chamical preservatives unlike shop bought bread.
- go for whatever yeast you find in the supermarket that sounds like it'll be easiest to use. It'll be called something like easy-bake or instant-action or suchllke.
Nicely, ta. I bought a tub which said "suitable for bread makers"? (I think it might be 'easy bake' yes.) This model has a yeast dispenser, if that makes any difference to anything.
I like the idea of a 'best of both'-a-like. Following (don't ask) government regulation changes, we're trying to wean the Smalls onto wholemeal bread and brown rice/pasta. That might be a useful stepping-stone.
Ive found over the years I can get away with less salt
I'll probably be using "LoSalt," if that matters?
I used to use doves malthouse flour, it made such a nice loaf that I could easily go through a loaf and a pack of butter in a day.
I didn't have my breadmaker for long as it was a clear health hazard for me.
We have had a similar Panasonic bread maker for a couple of years.
The instructions have a bunch of recipes that work perfectly. The basic bread has you put the yeast in first then flour then salt, I've never thought about why until now.
The only loaves that haven't worked
I used cold water- needs to be half boiled half tap water
My wife forgot the water- we have small kids and someone was screaming about something
We often add walnuts and honey
The tall loaves get cut in half before toasting so the XL lasts twice as long as the medium
It's my favourite kitchen gadget 🙂
Slightly off topic but get a bread bag to help extend the shelf life of your bread.
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/73441/lakeland-drawstring-bread-storage-bag-36-x-46cm
Works a treat on keeping my sourdough loaves fresh, especially as they have no oil/fat in them.
In terms of nice bread flours, sainsburys do one which is lovely, experiment with the quantity that you use and mix it with strong white flour. Anything by Doves Farm is also good.
Enjoy, I bake bread twice a week. No bread maker but I do have a kitchen mixer with a dough hook attachment. I get my yeast from Amazon, it's called fermipan red and is 500g. Once open, I keep it in the fridge and it lasts for ages.
I might be rubbish at biscuits and cakes but bread I can do 🙂
I wouldn't worry about the salt content, the amount per slice is tiny. We find that good quality stone ground flour rises better.
We chuck in the basic loaf mix (small scoop yeast, 400g flour, big scoop sugar, small scoop salt, 20g butter, 280g water) on a Friday evening delay start to 3am wake to fresh bread Saturday, loaf gone Sunday.
I use less salt than the recipe not for health reasons but because you can taste it and Mrs 100th complained of thirst. Weighing the water simplifies things too.
Never used a pre-mix don't see the point the recipies work so well.
Just realised i should hev use it to make the dough for my chelsea buns which were a disaster.
Don't try and dig the paddle out of the loaf with a metal knife, non stick coatings are delicate. Obvious really, but still...
Don't try and dig the paddle out of the loaf with a metal knife, non stick coatings are delicate. Obvious really, but still...
Or force the paddle off the spindle, soak in water first and gently pull before washing and use a cloth for that job not a brush.
Ours came with a recipe book, seems to mostly work fine until we absent mindedly forget an ingredient, no problems with using cold water, but yeast is dispensed separately so guess that might be a reason.
Makes great pizza dough but pretty noisy in doing so.
Just follow the instructions to the letter first time with an ordinary loaf.
I tend to swap the butter in the standard recipe for sunflower oil and use less salt than it says without and significant I'll effect.
The loaf sized 'ciabatta' recipe in the Panasonic book is worth trying. Not ciabatta by any stretch but a good crusty loaf.
Olive and seeded bread are good.
Never tried any of the cake recipes in the book.
Yeast that's been open a long time doesn't work well. As I don't use ours so regularly any more I buy yeast in sachets not tubs to reduce this issue.
Is the bread made with these things suitable for freezing?
You can also get seeded bread flour, there are loads, enjoy. In the booklet there was a recipe for Chelsea buns, the machine does the doh mix you do the rest, trouble is they taste so good fresh, so you need to eat in 24 hrs, hence not so healthy;)
Doves quick yeast for me.
50:50 strong white and strong wholemeal.
Warm water helps too, especially if doing the Quick loaf recipe.
Freezes fine - if it lasts that long.
I've stopped adding seeds after I found that they were scratching the non-stick of the tin
Hardly ever buy bread from the shops anymore, this is so much nicer and healthier.
Is the bread made with these things suitable for freezing?
Absolutely. From my experience it’s best to slice it before you freeze it and post-freezer it’s much better toasted than soft.
Don't try and dig the paddle out of the loaf with a metal knife, non stick coatings are delicate. Obvious really, but still...
We have a special pair of needle nose pliers for this scenario. Knipex obviously 😀
We buy our flour from Shipton Mill. Vast range, but we usually get a 25Kg of Organic wholemeal and a 25Kg of white, plus a malted grain type one. Bread is a mix. Sometimes 300g wholemeal and 200g white. Other times 400g wholemeal and 100g white. I rarely make 100% wholemeal.
Machine is a Panasonic, Van is T5 and coffee machine is a Bravilor filter (+an Aeropress). Not sure if that makes me a fully qualified STW member?
TTIUWP
As a result of this I am now going to be looking at bread makers… presumably they’re cheaper than coffee machines….😬
In terms of nice bread flours, sainsburys do one which is lovely, experiment with the quantity that you use and mix it with strong white flour.
Wait, "strong" flour and "bread" flour are different things?
As a result of this I am now going to be looking at bread makers… presumably they’re cheaper than coffee machines….
I paid £160 for the top-of-the-range model (strangely, the YR2540 is the model up from the YR2550). It lists the RRP on the outlet store as £199 which is the same as the 'discounted' price on John Lewis, and it's £240 on the main Panasonic site.
Try not to forget to replace the stirrer after cleaning it. The resulting bread is quite disappointing.
I have a stick blender with a mash attachment. My partner lent it to her daughter one time, came back "it's rubbish." She'd neglected to include the blade...
I paid £160 for the top-of-the-range model (strangely, the YR2540 is the model up from the YR2550).
Very reasonable. I noticed the oddness in the model number. The 50 has one more program by the looks of it - 32 instead of 31 or something…
Have had the same Panasonic for a couple years
Bread Flour (fresh) yeast and 5 seed mix comes from Skipton in bulk - store the 16kg flour in a blue barrel . We do 6-8 loafs a week (family of 5)
380g water (weigh it far more accurate than. Jug and water content makes or breaks your bread)
550g bread flour
40g of butter OR olive oil
Tsp of rock salt
Half a tbs of sugar
7 TBS of 5 seed mix in the seed dispenser.
Setting 4 XL and go. -then wonder if you have an intruder in an hour's time when the seed tray goes wild.
Buy a decent bread knife if you don't already have one.
Does surprisingly good jam using frozen wonky fruit following the recipe on the pectin bottle.
pizza dough works well in it too. I just use my standard recipe from staedler calc
Not many things are game changers these days. but the bread machine has been for us - gets far more use than the "air" fryer it replaced on the counter top ever did..... Gave that shite away.
- go for whatever yeast you find in the supermarket that sounds like it'll be easiest to use. It'll be called something like easy-bake or instant-action or suchllke.
Nicely, ta. I bought a tub which said "suitable for bread makers"? (I think it might be 'easy bake' yes.) This model has a yeast dispenser, if that makes any difference to anything.
I like the idea of a 'best of both'-a-like. Following (don't ask) government regulation changes, we're trying to wean the Smalls onto wholemeal bread and brown rice/pasta. That might be a useful stepping-stone.
It just occurred to me that depending on your rate of bread production you might want to keep an eye on the shelf life of your yeast. When I started dabbling in sourdough the machine saw less action so the little tin would go off before we got to the bottom. You might be fine but worth bearing in mind.
As for the yeast dispenser, I didn’t even know that was a thing but I imagine it’s a mechanism for keeping salt/yeast separate. Would be interested to hear what the instructions of your machine say.
I have an ancient Panasonic, it's indestructible, I use it basically every 2-3 days without fail and have done for years- gluten free stuff here so my recipes'll be no use but it makes a decent loaf, super easily and consistently.
Had a kenwood before and tbh it made just as good a loaf but it was so obviously engineered like a lot of kitchen goods for occasional use, you were supposed to buy it and use it like 5 times excitedly then put it on a shelf, it disintegrated under constant use.
Panasonics are honestly too solid for their own good, I thought about replacing mine last year but it turned out I could get all the small parts to restore it for not much. It could still be going in another decade at this rate.
Buy a decent bread knife if you don't already have one.
I know I'm going to get lynched for this but, I have a left-handed bread knife.
Had a kenwood before and tbh it made just as good a loaf but it was so obviously engineered like a lot of kitchen goods for occasional use, you were supposed to buy it and use it like 5 times excitedly then put it on a shelf, it disintegrated under constant use.
We went to visit The Boy today, his other half was coincidentally just finishing off baking a loaf... in their breadmaker. I thought "this is relevant to my interests" and went for a nosey. Hers is a Kenwood, similar form factor to the one I've just bought. It used to belong to her nan, it's decades old if it's a day. Seemed to turn out a perfectly good loaf, except she had a mare of a job releasing it from the tin.
Gotta be honest, I'm quite excited now. My other half has just made a batch of home-made jam, and prior to any of this I was idly looking at how to make home-made butter one night for little other reason than curiosity.
That's got to be Cool Factor 9, Mr Sulu hasn't it, even if it all turns out a bit crap.
What do I need to know?
Just expect your waist size to expand, the smell of freshly baked bread and the joy of eating it warm, is the reason we did not replace our extremely well used breadmaker when the seals failed (that and a decent local bakery).
Damn £160, they weren't that expensive when we bought ours... we don't need one, we Really Don'T NEED ONE...
Based on this thread, I dug out our ancient Panasonic (natch!) and shall be firing it up with some none stale flour later this week. It must be 15 years old at least. Only used in bursts... so still looks like new.
oh its worth figuring out how to make Rye bread.... the recipe in the book is crap though - But Rye bread is excellent for any sandwiches with sauerkraut
Theres a panasonic facebook group - the recipe section is excellent with recipes that work.
The recipes in the book "work" but are far too sweet/salty for me to be bread - Maybe its what subway use.
This Cinnamon buns recipe always goes down well for a family breakfast treat.
https://www.food.com/recipe/bread-machine-cinnamon-buns-50722
the change borne by the folic acid guidance ? what's the fear here ? - Genuinely curious as my supplier has not done it yet stating they will do it at the last possible moment as they would prefer not to add anything they don't have to to their flour.
I've been doing this as a means to avoid ultra processed food, using an ancient Panasonic one I got for free from FB.
- Allinson's yeast that comes in a little tin. Keep in fridge as if you have a warm kitchen on a hot day it can hurt it.
- 100% wholemeal is really tasty but make sure you add vitamin C as per the recipe. You can get vitamin C powder from bulk.com
- For wholemeal use extra or very strong flour
- Also 10-20ml more water than the recipe for wholemeal if you find it not rising enough or is a weird shape, but this depends on the exact flour you're using
- The L size fits in the toaster and sandwich toaster better. XL is a weird shape. M (the smallest, perversely) doesn't always rise evenly
- You need fewer slices because the bread is more calorie dense and more filling than shop bought.
- Get a bread box - we got a Tupperware bread-specific one, works a treat.
- Eat lots of toast because like all fresh bread it loses its crusty fluffiness after about 24hrs but makes perfect toast for a week.
Update.
Delivery delayed. Boo! Should be here tomorrow.
My local (generally a bit crap) Tesco has a bewildering array of flour. I picked up one each of Hovis white and wholemeal, I figured that's gotta be a baseline. Then I can work out from there whether it's worth spending money on organic artisan ground wheat or not bothering and sticking to Tesco. It's all just flour, right?
WTF is "very" strong flour? That's a new one on me.
It's all just flour, right?
Not IME but if the cheaper stuff works for you then you may as well take the saving.
WTF is "very" strong flour? That's a new one on me.
More protein per gramme than not-so-strong flour? Not 100% sure but it has helped me make a decent loaf in the machine using a mix of that and some left-over plain (i.e. not bread and/or strong) white flour.
WTF is "very" strong flour? That's a new one on me.
"Strong" flour has a higher protein and gluten content which is good for bread but not for lighter, more delicate baking like cakes. The gluten helps the dough form the right "stickiness" (technical term) and structure during kneading to allow it to rise properly whilst proving without collapsing.
It's all just flour, right?
Ummm... not really - as you will find out!
I buy a massive bag [malted seeded] from Wessex Seedmills - lasts ages and works out much cheaper than going to the supermarket (plus you'll almost never run out just when you want to make a loaf).
Oven FTW by the way 😉
Ummm... not really - as you will find out!
Hence wanting to set a baseline first. I figured Hovis was a reasonable compromise. This is what I was faced with:
The strength of flour means how much gluten is in it. When you make bread, whilst you knead it and let it rise, the gluten is absorbing water and 'developing' into thick gooiness. Then the yeast starts to grow and make bubbles. The more elastic the dough, the bigger the bubbles can get. If you let it rise too much the bubbles start to burst and merge and it will deflate. The more elastic the dough, the less this will happen. More gluten means more risen fluffier bread, but too much and it can get chewy.
With wholemeal bread the roughage gets in the way of the gluten being elastic (think sawdust in Bluetac) so you need to use extra strong wholemeal. You can also add vitamin C which helps the gluten develop (this is what the 'flour improver' evil additive is in shop bread btw).
Slightly off topic but get a bread bag to help extend the shelf life of your bread.
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/73441/lakeland-drawstring-bread-storage-bag-36-x-46cm
Works a treat on keeping my sourdough loaves fresh, especially as they have no oil/fat in them.
In terms of nice bread flours, sainsburys do one which is lovely, experiment with the quantity that you use and mix it with strong white flour. Anything by Doves Farm is also good.
Enjoy, I bake bread twice a week. No bread maker but I do have a kitchen mixer with a dough hook attachment. I get my yeast from Amazon, it's called fermipan red and is 500g. Once open, I keep it in the fridge and it lasts for ages.
I might be rubbish at biscuits and cakes but bread I can do 🙂
100% on the breadbag - far better than a tupperwear box - bread sweats bag breaths . the tupperwear box i found encouraged mould.
Thanks to you Cougar I've just blown £179 on the YR2540 (direct from Panasonic) and I'll hold you personally responsible if it disnae work out 😎
🤣
It's here. It's larger than I anticipated!
I have to go out now. Botheration.
Do those bread bags work better than a normal ziplock? I'd never heard of them before now
They breath. Zip locks don't.
Bread sweats even when fully cooled .
Moisture trapped causes mould.
Cougar, you should be able to bake one loaf over night, we'll all expect a slice in the morning 😉
100% on the breadbag - far better than a tupperwear box
Mine is a bread specific one and has a breathable bit in the top. It's working pretty well so far.
Cougar, you should be able to bake one loaf over night, we'll all expect a slice in the morning
I have something of a busy few days.
To whet your appetite, it came with a QR code which links to here:
https://experience-fresh.panasonic.eu/
Now just going down a rabbit hole....thanks;)
I think I must be alone in this but this all seems like a lot of effort to make something when you could buy a really decent one from the bakers! Are they really worth this much effort? Cant believe the cost is that much better either.
Mind you I'm equally as bemused by the pizza oven thread - I bought one but never used it as was just too much hassle to cook a couple of pizzas where are home made ones are perfectly adequate in the oven and ready in 8 mins.
Think both might have to wait until I'm retired and need some more hobbies.
(And yes, this is partly just an attempt for someone to convince me I need a new gadget 😄)
I think I must be alone in this but this all seems like a lot of effort to make something when you could buy a really decent one from the bakers! Are they really worth this much effort? Cant believe the cost is that much better either.
Mind you I'm equally as bemused by the pizza oven thread - I bought one but never used it as was just too much hassle to cook a couple of pizzas where are home made ones are perfectly adequate in the oven and ready in 8 mins.
Think both might have to wait until I'm retired and need some more hobbies.
(And yes, this is partly just an attempt for someone to convince me I need a new gadget 😄)
it’s really not much effort though, i just chuck the ingredients in the breadmaker before bed put a delay timer on it and bingo fresh bread in the morning which is much nicer than the supermarket stuff. Not counting the cost of the breadmaker itself its much less per loaf than anything but the cheapest stuff from a supermarket and much nicer.
I think I must be alone in this but this all seems like a lot of effort to make something when you could buy a really decent one from the bakers! Are they really worth this much effort? Cant believe the cost is that much better either.
It's significantly less hassle than going to a bakery. Even if you live next door to one.
Like many similar things there's a bit of a faff barrier at the start while you figure out what's what, but once you're over that it's about 2 mins of activity to set up a bread machine. As good as or better than 95% of bought bread, and over time you can change the recipe to suit yourself.
something when you could buy a really decent one from the bakers!
Maybe if you live in a town or a village with a decent/any bakers. - Last time i ventured to the bread guy it was 7 quid for a loaf.
16kilos of Canadian strong bread flour 19 quid
Yeast - 6.40
1.4Kg of butter = 10 quid
1kg of 5 seed mix = 6 quid
Salt - <1 quid
Sugar <1 quid
= 1.35 a loaf. + 4-6 pence of electric and between 5 minutes prep.
the smell of fresh baked bread when you wake. - priceless.
Could be cheaper if i compromised on ingredients or had more storage - ie 25Kg of flour is cheaper, Dried yeast not fresh organic
We started for more control over what goes into our foods following listening to the BBC sliced bread podcast last year about what all goes into your average shop loaf and ISNT listed on the ingredients - and our kids eat a lot of bread - lunch times + jam sandwiches + with soup etc etc.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13670278 - condensed version of the podcast really - but beware its a fair rabbit hole - watch your sources lots of vested in non chorleywood process protagonists writing "facts"
MY family are also predisposed to late mid life coeliac and there's a train of thought that the chorleywood process has a high correlation to gut biome dysregulation so I'm trying to pre-empt that to some extent.
Any yes i still drink beer - but i drink less beer than I eat bread and pizza
Mind you I'm equally as bemused by the pizza oven thread - I bought one but never used it as was just too much hassle to cook a couple of pizzas where are home made ones are perfectly adequate in the oven and ready in 8 mins.
Path of least resistance then?
Home made bread and pizza's [can] both taste much better than those from a shop. Sometimes you have to put some effort in.
(I use a mixer and an oven to do my bread as I think it gives better results than a machine - but I believe the latter is barely any harder than making a cup of tea)
It was briefly mentioned above, but what chance would there be of turning out a good gluten free loaf from one of these?
yes we used to do alot for my old man .
xanthan gum and gluten free flour - with Milk and eggs.
i have NEVER had good results from a prepackaged mix - i tried a few and always ended up with solid lumps of "bread" you could kill someone with.
I used to use the below based on a recommendation from my dad who made his own bread as shop bought gluten free bread was always awful unless toasted.
https://www.sparklesintheeveryday.com/2015/02/gluten-free-bread-made-in-a-bread-machine.html
I can eat that bread it actually feels normal.
Be sure to clean up fastidiously if your making bread for a coeliac - if your doing it regular you really want a dedicated machine just for it as even residual cross contamination can be a major issue for some coeliacs.
A couple of suggestions on the added ingredients; we use 3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil instead of butter in our Panasonic, plus use dark brown sugar to feed the yeast, instead of white. Sometimes a couple of tablespoons of oats will go in; other times, it might be a cup or two of spelt or 1/2 a one of rye flours. it's fun to tray changes, once you've got the basics dialled in.
You can also use the machine to make a rich fruit loaf very easily, with chopped apricots, dates, sultanas....oats and loads of oil & dark brown sugar. It ain't bread but it's fabulous eating.
Need to get ours out - I'll have a crack at the ciabatta recipe. Thanks @slowol
Anyone successfully made soda or corn bread in theirs? Or used sourdough starter?
we use 3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil instead of butter in our Panasonic, plus use dark brown sugar to feed the yeast, instead of white.
The butter/oil is purely there to help the loaf last a bit longer - doesn't matter which you use (I use rapeseed oil too). I never use sugar, instant yeast is fine without it.
(My bible is the very good Paul Holywood "How to Bake" book - no sugar in his bread recipes.)
I might try brown sugar actually, could be interesting with wholemeal flour.
I never use sugar, instant yeast is fine without it.
(My bible is the very good Paul Holywood "How to Bake" book - no sugar in his bread recipes.)
Actually maybe you need it* for a bread machine because everything is timed and the dough 'has' to be risen in a certain timeframe - so the yeast is fed artificially to make it work within the given timeframe. 🤷♂️
Making bread by hand gives more flexibility in the timing.
* see what I did there?
I might try brown sugar actually, could be interesting with wholemeal flour.
Or use a malted flour (my fave).
(I use a mixer and an oven to do my bread as I think it gives better results than a machine - but I believe the latter is barely any harder than making a cup of tea)
I'm working on the principle that the best camera is the one you have with you. I could use a mixer and our dying oven to potentially make better bread, but the truth of the matter is that I won't.
what chance would there be of turning out a good gluten free loaf from one of these?
There is a section on gluten free bread in the book that comes with it. Whether they're any good remains to be seen. There are caveats about rise &c but I suppose that's true of all GF bread?
Be sure to clean up fastidiously if your making bread for a coeliac - if your doing it regular you really want a dedicated machine just for it
You can probably just get a second baking tin & paddle rather than a whole new machine.
Now trying to remember if I usually put sugar in (it's been a while since I've used it...). Brown sugar a good tip and we have a massive bag acquired during the pandemic that's going down too slowly...
AIUI you have to put some sugar in it for the yeast to eat.
AIUI you have to put some sugar in it for the yeast to eat.
No you don't - the yeast uses the starches in the flour.
But, as I said before, if you're using a machine (rather than really making the bread 😉) then I guess you have to be sure that the dough has risen before the machine starts its next cycle ..... so sugar is added to artificially speed up the process.
But, as I said before, if you're using a machine (rather than really making the bread
) then I guess you have to be sure that the dough has risen before the machine starts its next cycle ..... so sugar is added to artificially speed up the process.
I think it varies with which programme it's on. There's 'quick' programmes which don't have a rest and then longer cycles that do.
You can probably just get a second baking tin & paddle rather than a whole new machine.
The coeliacs I know would run a mile from that "solution" - there's far too much risk of crumbs in the machine, however careful you are taking the tin out.
FWIW I ended up giving my breadmaker away - the bread was fine, but I don't really eat enough of the stuff and the machine was gathering dust in a cupboard. Having read the thread I am feeling vaguely inspired to make some by hand, though 🙂
The coeliacs I know would run a mile from that "solution" - there's far too much risk of crumbs in the machine, however careful you are taking the tin out.
Fair. I know several gluten-intolerant people but no actual full-blown Coeliacs so I wouldn't know.
No you don't - the yeast uses the starches in the flour.
Do let us know when you get a machine and try it out.
Our new machine arrived this morning and was immediately put to use. Thought it best to go with the basic bread recipe for starters, went for a small loaf with medium crust, only change from the recipe was reducing the sugar from 1 tablespoon to 1 teaspoon (as some reviews mentioned). Only problem was keeping my paws off it for half an hour when it had finished baking to let it cool, then stuffed our faces with a couple of slices with just butter yummeeeeeee. Then bacon sarnies for tea. On the scoffability index I reckon 10/10. Just need to get another set up on the timer now ready for tomorrow morning.
I forgot to add sugar once and it made no difference so I stopped bothering.
This is with some type of whole meal in there and using the longer wholemeal program so you may get different results with white only.
No you don't - the yeast uses the starches in the flour.
Do let us know when you get a machine and try it out.
I've got a machine (somewhere)... I don't use it as I find the bread I make by hand is nicer as I can give it a longer proving time allowing flavour to develop.
I also like a dark and crispy crust so I go for higher temperatures and use steam in the oven.
Maybe you could make a loaf without sugar and see how it goes? I believe the sugar also helps the loaf get colour at the lower temperature a bread machine bakes at.
But I do know that you don't need to add sugar for bread baked in the oven.
But I do know that you don't need to add sugar for bread baked in the oven.
indeed. But the thread is about breadmakers . Not bread makers.
Making bread In the oven is time consuming and the machine means it gets done more often. I still do my sour dough in the oven without sugar funnily enough.