First topic message reminder :

Since the recent floods and collapse of local bridges, I havn't been shopping until last night.
What used to be a 10 minute, 5 mile round trip has turned into a 3 hour, 36 mile expedition.
Can't exactly pop out for a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.
So our recently-ordered Christmas pressie to us, a breadmaker, was delivered (early) today.
Of course, having opened it to check it's OK, we decided to try it, using a 500g bag of malt grain flour given to us as a promotion at a craft fair in August and a sachet of Hovis dried yeast 2 years out of date.
Just as an experiment to see if it worked.
Just dump all the ingredients into the container, put it in the machine, press a few buttons, walk away, and 4 hours and a lovely aroma later an alarm tells you it's all been converted into a nice hot loaf.
Don't even need to wash it, it comes out clean.
What a revelation, beautiful, really lovely bread, so easy.

Does anybody use one of these machines?

Actually this same bread maker has been around for a good number of years, I found a Daily Mail write-up from 2008 when the machine still from Argos was priced at £23.99. (Currently £39.99)

Although I think the author was a bit prejudiced against some of the machines she reviewed, especially this one.
I also notice the price of flour has rocketed since then I wonder if that has anything to do with people buying their own bread maker and now being exploited.
Read more: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... z2hZ3Fh389

I bought it for 99 Lev for my husband's 60th birthday (he's the cook in here)

Just a bit of a update.
Fortunately this may not be relevant to people living in BG!

Although I did have what I now know was only a fairly decent loaf and one half of a very good loaf (it sank at one end), I have had failure after failure. (But at least any failure goes to a good home, the birds loved them)

So, last night I got to searching the internet only to find regardless of what brand of bread maker it may be because some people were thinking it was their machine that was faulty, apparently there is a very large amount of people suffering and searching for a answer to the same or similar problem, however this problems mainly seems to be when using British grown wheat/Flour.
But it also has to be said this problem is not just confined to the UK but also in some other countries such as the USA.

Some of the excuses, mainly from people such as Hovis and a couple of others is that the flour is actually not up-to their usual high quality due to the last couple of years of not having a very good wheat crop.

Basically there is a enzyme deficiency in the wheat which the yeast needs to be able to properly activate.
(Vitamin C or something similar)

1)
However all is not lost, out of a few recommendations, one of which is a product from eBay:
600g FARMHOUSE BREAD MAKER IMPROVER/ENHANCER 4 MACHINE £11.49
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... 0520509382

2)
Juice of a squeezed Orange.

3) (Always save the best till last)
Today I tried the recommendation that a lot of people on at least 3 forums had said:-
'thanks worked perfect and seems to have solved the problem 'was"
2 teaspoons of LEMON JUICE"

And yes, I think I just created my first truly perfect loaf, and no, no taste of lemon, not that it would have been noticed amongst the Walnuts and at £1.00 for 250ml (enough for 30 loaves) you can guess which one I will be staying with.

But just to summarize a point, it seems that suppliers are and have been well aware of this problem for at least a couple of years but are not really saying very much.

Full marks for persistence Phil. Most people would have relegated the machine to the back of the cupboard!

Sara

One of the other main problems at the moment is the extra weight I have put on during the last 2 weeks (well I have to sample the goods before resigning it to the bird table), but hopefully that should settle back down once the novelty has worn off.

Phil-H wrote:

One of the other main problems at the moment is the extra weight I have put on during the last 2 weeks (well I have to sample the goods before resigning it to the bird table), but hopefully that should settle back down once the novelty has worn off.

Ah yes. But enjoy while you are learning, the novelty will wear of a bit after a while (maybe) and we don't want you too thin going in to winter! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I have been making bread one way or another for years and still have some disasters. In fact only today I poured all the water in at once but hadn't really measured it, so have a couple of pancake loaves as the dough was too soft and spread all over the place. It pays to concentrate! :Very funny 2:However, the flavour should be good as the cooler temperature in the kitchen means a slower rise, the slower the rise the better the flavour.

To illustrate the above post. The loaves on the left are the ones which were too wet. Apart from that, the recipe was identical but we have two pancakes with a totally different crust and colour. Both will be yummy in their own way.
[url=http:
//s673.
photobucket.
com/user/tosca100-dog/media/dustbathbread011_zps5e07500e.
jpg.
html:1zxadka1][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/url:1zxadka1]

[url=http:
//s673.
photobucket.
com/user/tosca100-dog/media/dustbathbread012_zps823b061f.
jpg.
html:1zxadka1][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/url:1zxadka1]

Sara

I have always added crushed vit C tablets to bread to make it softer and to make it rise more I also add baking powder, it needs to be the duel action type such as doctor oatker so it rises when cooking and when the yeast is left to rise, the std stuff doesnt work anywere near as well

will666
Maybe you were suffering the same problem as other people were/are by having 'sub-standard' flour which is why it needs the extra vitamin C?

The other thing that maybe people need to be reminded of is that these bread making machines are very finicky and have to have the exact ingredients as prescribed or else loaves will be prone to failure, basically because we can't regulate any of the settings as oven bake people can.
Although I have strayed slightly with adding nuts and a dash of Olive Oil that were not on my recipe sheet but I don't think they were responsible for my failures.

Adding extra's i have found has a detrimental effect on the yeast, even after adding extra sugar to give an umph. Do you successful bakers pre-prepare the yeast, which i have found helps the rising? I now only use the bread machine for mixing the dough, i bake separately in the oven for better results.

I don't add anything. Just flour, instant yeast, salt and water for basic bread. Obviously if you want flavoured bread you may need oil as well. But any additional flavourings such as cheese, garlic, onions, nuts or fruit need adding after the first prove as they can retard the yeast. I use a tad more yeast if I need a bit more action in these cases.

I don't see the point in using additives when making your own. But in a bread maker you are dictated by the machine. I just give my bread time, I am lucky I can do that, and the Autumn bread is certainly a lot tastier for it. Summer bread was fine, but it proved very fast. We have just had one of yesterday's round crusty cobs with soup and it was so nice I am crunching on a piece now!

Sara

P.S. You will need a bit more yeast if you make enriched dough with eggs and milk as these things slow the yeast down too. But it is great for adding sirene to, or fruit, making rolls or doughnuts.......

Any extras such as nuts, I have been putting in after the first mix (the machine bleeps 8 times to indicate when to put anything else in) then goes into the second mixing stage.

This was the first time I used Walnuts and I'm sure the colour of the bread has much more of a brownish 'and blue' tinge than when just using a usual 2/1 mix.(plain flour and wholemeal flour).

Question:
What would happen if you used too much yeast, as said in a previous post about adding extra yeast, 'how much is extra' at the moment I have been using the recommended amount of 4g which is 11/2tsp.
What if I used the whole pkt of 7g in a 11/2lb loaf?

But my other main concern at the moment is although my loaves have been smaller and gives me less slices, I am now eating twice the weight of bread compared to shop bought bread of I think 800g per large loaf.

I carried out a 'user taste test' on Mrs Eqs bread today..11 out of 10 on all counts!!! Mmmmmmmmmm.