RMWeb Bread club

[OnTheBranchline]

With the cost of bread increasing, my wife and I decided to borrow my in laws bread maker to try to see if we could cut costs.

 

this is the first result

Any other bread makers here?

[phil_sutters]

I have had a go at a couple of focaccia recipes. Both worked out pretty well, although I preferred the first recipe to Nigel Slater's, which involved 'proving' the dough in the fridge over night. The problem is finding where I got the first recipe from! 

[Jonboy]

Started using a Russell Hobbs machine since moving to new house over the summer. Having some very good results with the gluten free programs, far better than the store bought loafs.

 

Also had success with some normal loaves, at a recent party it went down very very well with everyone.

 

obviously the lack of preservatives means a very short life or we would have switched over exclusively I suspect.

 

(Prior to that I always found very mixed results with conventional baking that was quite dispiriting, I think the fan oven in our old property had inconsistent heat circulation that affected the outcome)

[Trofimow]

Yes, do most of ours in the breadmaking machine. The choc chip brioche is delicious!

 

Not sure that it's any cheaper though, except possibly when run on the solar generation, of which there ain't a lot this week.

[Torper]

50 minutes ago, Jonboy said:

Started using a Russell Hobbs machine since moving to new house over the summer. Having some very good results with the gluten free programs, far better than the store bought loafs.

 

I've had excellent results with conventional loaves, but using a Panasonic breadmaker my attempts at gluten free (for my wife) have not been successful.  I'd appreciate any advice you can give as to producing a decent gluten free loaf .

 

DT

[Tony_S]

I suppose it may be cheaper than some of the very expensive artisanal bread varieties made with ancient sourdough but it is unlikely to be cheaper than supermarket sliced white. We have had bread machines for about 30 years, replacing the one that died with a newer model of the same make (Panasonic). We make all kinds of loaves from the flour available at the supermarkets who deliver our groceries.. During the early part of the Covid lockdowns we bought flour online from Doves Farm.

Just for a change today we had rye bread. 

If the bread machine failed we would definitely buy a new one. 

[Tony_S]

57 minutes ago, Torper said:

 

I've had excellent results with conventional loaves, but using a Panasonic breadmaker my attempts at gluten free (for my wife) have not been successful.  I'd appreciate any advice you can give as to producing a decent gluten free loaf .

 

DT

We haven’t used any of the gluten free flours in our bread machine. We did get some buckwheat (apparently a rhubarb relative) flour during the first lockdown but we made pancakes with it. Have you tried any of the recipes on the Panasonic website? 

[Fat Controller]

Afraid to say that I don't like the texture of most bread I've tried from these machines; it's too 'cakey' for my liking. I do make most of our bread, using the Kenwood Chef for the mixing: one bowl of dough does 3 1-pound tin loaves. The normal mix I do uses Allison's  50/50 strong white/ very strong brown. with a small amount of Vitamin C powder, and seeds to taste. I generally do 6 loaves at a time, if I've got freezer space available.  One thing I do do is to make foil 'hats' to cover the loaves for the first half of the baking time; these seem to give both a better crust and crumb.

[DavidB-AU]

I've been making my own bread for a long time. Not for cost reasons but because I find it enjoyable and get a chance to experiment. My grandfather was a baker and he taught me to make bread the way he was taught as an apprentice in the 1920s. No machine, all done by hand.

 

Here's a dark rye I made a few months ago using liquid malt extract to feed the yeast. The proving and baking process smells like a cross between a bakery and a brewery!

 

[The White Rabbit]

We've had a bread maker for several years now, not for health or cost reasons, just because we liked the output. Bread and cheese might sound like a basic sort of meal but with fresh bread and good quality cheese it's very pleasant. Other combinations are available...

 

We have a Panasonic - we talked to a couple of other bread makers before buying (they converted us) who had tried different brands and both whole heartedly recommended Panasonic. 

 

I don't know what the cost of power is, we can't measure it but on materials alone, it's cheaper for us to buy a mix than to buy a standard sliced loaf. By the time you factor in power and a share in the capital cost, it's probably about even or maybe even a bit more. 

 

In our experience, loaves rise better if you leave them in the maker for an hour or so after the baking is officially over. Ours will also mix and bake some savoury loaf and cake mixtures. 

[Jonboy]

19 hours ago, Torper said:

 

I've had excellent results with conventional loaves, but using a Panasonic breadmaker my attempts at gluten free (for my wife) have not been successful.  I'd appreciate any advice you can give as to producing a decent gluten free loaf .

 

DT

I have just started by following the recipes in the manual for our machine, https://uk.russellhobbs.com/amfile/file/download/file/623/product/98/ and running the dedicated GF program.
I have started buying powered egg white instead of separating eggs out every time, but no other changes to the core ingredients.

 

I am using the Dove Farms gluten free bread flour (not mix!).
 

(Also now making tweaks to the flavouring and herbs but that is based on whatever I have in stock).

 

[spikey]

On 07/11/2022 at 10:32, The White Rabbit said:

I don't know what the cost of power is ...

FWIW baking a 2lb spelt loaf in our Morphy Richards "FastBake" takes 3 hours and at 35.64p/kWh costs us almost exactly 12p.

[J. S. Bach]

On 07/11/2022 at 05:32, The White Rabbit said:

 ...snip... I don't know what the cost of power is, we can't measure it ...snip...

Easy, get one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234259893252

They are available from many suppliers and plug/receptacle configurations.

[J. S. Bach]

On 06/11/2022 at 16:30, OnTheBranchline said:

With the cost of bread increasing, my wife and I decided to borrow my in laws bread maker to try to see if we could cut costs.

 

this is the first result

Any other bread makers here?

Hmmm, I forgot to ask: Was it edible? 🙀

[grandadbob]

I've got one of these:

 

 

Haven't used it for some some but the last few times have tended to just do the proving and kneading in the machine and then finish it off in the oven.

I think this was the last loaf I made sometime last year:

 

 

All this has made me think maybe it's time I got baking again.   😀

[tomparryharry]

Bread Pudding tonight. My gran, mother & sister all used to make it, and it was bl**dy marvellous. One of the best recipes is on YouTube; Dave's Tiny Kitchen.

[pH]

22 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Haven't used it for some some but the last few times have tended to just do the proving and kneading in the machine and then finish it off in the oven.

That’s about what we do. Use the machine till it’s just about to do the second rise. Then manually knead the dough, put it in a tin for the second rise and then bake it in the oven.

 

Leaving it in the machine for the whole process produces a ‘fluffier’ loaf than we like, plus there’s the hole in the bottom of the loaf made by the paddle.

[OnTheBranchline]

1 hour ago, pH said:

That’s about what we do. Use the machine till it’s just about to do the second rise. Then manually knead the dough, put it in a tin for the second rise and then bake it in the oven.

 

Leaving it in the machine for the whole process produces a ‘fluffier’ loaf than we like, plus there’s the hole in the bottom of the loaf made by the paddle.

The hole is for the clotted cream and jam injection.

[OnTheBranchline]

We have a Sunbeam bread maker but we are thinking of upgrading (not by much but to a slightly nicer brand). 

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

 

I make my own bread buns using the bread machine to make the dough as the bought buns give me stomach ache (could be the preservatives they add).

 

Ours is a Panasonic SD-254 which we’ve had for years.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[zarniwhoop]

Before the pandemic started, I used to frequently make wholemeal sourdough ("artisanal", i.e. not the sort of thing people would want to buy 😊 ) with a well-overbaked crust so that the crust would remain for a week if the loaf lasted that long. Mainly for eating with my dinner. During the pandemic I could not get my normal Doves flour at some times (I only have storage for small amounts) and my results varied. Then in recent months, first with the summer heat and then with "show willing by reducing the amount of electricity used" I baked much less frequently. Small loaves, usually about 330gm, and more of a bâtard than any other shape - or sometimes pain polka.

 

Tried refreshing my starter (kept in a sealed plastic container in the fridge between use), but I could not persuade it to work. Started afresh about a week ago, got it working (a nice fresh taste in the (stiff) levain), baked two loaves early this morning (economy 7). Rather underweight and not wonderful expansion, but good crumb and holes, thick crunchy crust with some burning, which is how I like it, and the wonderful flavour I had almost forgotten.

 

I think I'm back in business!  Now to decide what to do for (very) sour wholegrain rye - in the past I've made german pumpernickel-style (only a small amount of rye grain, or flakes) loaves with bread spices and sometimes with other grains, but I don't think I can justify running my small over at 80° for 15 hours or more, which is a pity - the house did smell good after that.

[Michael Hodgson]

I have been using a Russell Hobbs machine for well over a decade and been very happy with its results (most of the time, though I do sometimes measure the ingredients wrongly)  It finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago, and to my surprise I was able to replace it with the same model !  

 

The fault with the machine is that the pivot hole through which the mixing blade rotates was leaking and of course that meant the element getting all gunged up and it became impossible to clean.  Apparently that is the way most of these machines fail.

 

I only use the standard white or wholemeal loaf options - I'm not interested in making cakes etc.  The bread tastes much better than factory produced "soap bread" from the supermarkets, although their in-store bakery departments can be good, depending on the individual baker, and nobody seems quite as good as the traditional boulangerie once found in every French village.  Leaving the machine on overnight on a timer so that I wake up to the smell of fresh bread helps me overcome my back trouble - reluctance to lift it off the bed in the morning!  The two downsides to making my own bread are - it doesn't keep as long as the the commercial stuff which is full of preservatives etc and the fact that I tend to want rather more of it than Slimming World says I should eat!

 

[ikks]

I made some buns once!!, ended up painting 'em red and selling them to the local cricket club, probably would have lasted a couple of seasons and broken a few bats!!☹️☹️. 

Mike

[Jonboy]

11 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

 

I think I'm back in business!  Now to decide what to do for (very) sour wholegrain rye - in the past I've made german pumpernickel-style (only a small amount of rye grain, or flakes) loaves with bread spices and sometimes with other grains, but I don't think I can justify running my small over at 80° for 15 hours or more, which is a pity - the house did smell good after that.

 

 

You could try baking it in a slow cooker if you have one.

[zarniwhoop]

16 hours ago, Jonboy said:

 

 

You could try baking it in a slow cooker if you have one.

Thanks.  I don't have one (I'm a veggie and retired, slow cookers are not useful for my normal meals). Google finds some 'crock pot' recipes taking 2½ to 3 hours (with yeast) which is neither here nor there (I'm willing to do a couple of hours in the oven, but I won't get a maillard reaction so not pumpernickel). A quick look suggests that 'low' on a slow cooker may be in the upper 80s C, but my 80°C oven setting is because my ovens run hot. In theory I should be steaming the sourdough, and I'm not sure that 80°C would do that - they only seem to come with slow|medium|hot settings.