Bread Maker

[Macaroon]

I bought this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390985452584?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT machine last week, and it arrived on Friday afternoon last.
I like to eat good bread, preferably sourdough as I eat a lot of it and I have a family starter that's 96 yrs old this year that makes just the best bread I've ever eaten. Like many here, I rarely have the time to plan and bake by hand so as to have bread ready at the times I need to have it; this hasn't been such a problem up until a couple of years ago when the local 'real' bakery changed hands. I'd always been able to get decent sourdough bread from there delivered by the milkman twice a week, but since the new owners took over it's gone downhill badly.
There's a Waitrose about seven miles from me, and they sell aan artisan sourdough that's very good but it costs four quid a loaf and a fourteen mile round trip to have it - and many times I've called in only to find them sold out.

So I took the plunge and got the above and have made three different loaves since it arrived. They've each been more than acceptable, one was a sourdough made to their method and on the sourdough programme on the machine, six and a half hours that takes which is overnight for me - perfect! Quite a bit better than I can buy and a good deal cheaper....

The big advantage, though, is that it's possible to use the thing manually. I can make up any bread I like up to a 1 Kilo loaf, and using the 'dough' setting I can knead it exactly as I like without being commited to anything else, remove the dough and let it rise for as long as I like, ( I like to rise mine for up to twelve hours as my place isn't the warmest house), then put it into a 'bake' cycle which I can tailor to exactly what I want it to be like. I've had really excellent bread this way.

All in all, I'm very happy with it; it looks good, works well and is very easy to get to grips with. How many kitchens do you know where thirty per cent or more of the storage is taken up with Gajjits that never see the light of day? That'll never happen to this thing

 

[santaman2000]

Plus 1 for the kitchen gadgets. It's good to see you get real use out of this one. Mine would be my rice cooker. Am I understanding your post correctly about milk and bread delivery though? I loved that when I was stationed there but I thought it had stopped; is it still available?

 

[Macaroon]

Plus 1 for the kitchen gadgets. It's good to see you get real use out of this one. Mine would be my rice cooker. Am I understanding your post correctly about milk and bread delivery though? I loved that when I was stationed there but I thought it had stopped; is it still available?

Yes, still available in some parts although nothing like as widespread as it once was; I'm very rural, and still get my milk deivered in pint bottles, and I can order bread, locally produced eggs, cheese and smoked cheese made about two miles away, newspapers and anything else that's needed by the local people if there's enough demand to make it viable, almost all of it local and good quality.

The lady that runs the business has been doing so for many years and has never been known to miss a day; four years ago when we had very cold temperatures she loaded the van at 04.30 and it failed to start, she rang me and I hitched a horse to the front of the van and pulled her all the way around, took ten hours instead of seven with an hour's rest for the horse

 

[Robson Valley]

That bread machine is cheap! What a bargain. I've made my own bread by hand for no more than 20 years now.
Used to be what I did after work on Fridays to unwind. Lots of yeast, fairly quick rise times = bread for the week.

In retirement, I'll do that any time needed to be kneaded! Have a couple of baking books that I'll mess with from time to time.
Kitchen gadgets? #1 Cordless automatic glass kettle. #2 600W Hamilton Beach Mixer. #3 Imperia pasta machine. #4 Hand-crank coffee bean grinder.

I have a great big microwave oven as company expect me to have one. Same with a steam iron for pressing clothes.

I remember that we had milk delivered in a horse-drawn van when I was a kid. The road-apples, the "pomme de rue"
made simple frozen winter substitutes for Canadian hockey pucks. Rule was they had to be left at the edge of the school property!

 

[santaman2000]

Yes, still available in some parts although nothing like as widespread as it once was; I'm very rural, and still get my milk deivered in pint bottles, and I can order bread, locally produced eggs, cheese and smoked cheese made about two miles away, newspapers and anything else that's needed by the local people if there's enough demand to make it viable, almost all of it local and good quality.

The lady that runs the business has been doing so for many years and has never been known to miss a day; four years ago when we had very cold temperatures she loaded the van at 04.30 and it failed to start, she rang me and I hitched a horse to the front of the van and pulled her all the way around, took ten hours instead of seven with an hour's rest for the horse

Good on you for the good deed! it's good to hear the old things I remember haven't died out.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks Macaroon. I remember those things, old and abandoned to me now.
Do you get to put in an order each week for the quantities?

I get a Sunday email list of produce, certified organic.
I pick what I want to make up the $15 order before Tuesday PM and it's delivered to my house on Friday.
Nice choices of vegetables, extremely clean and the servings are small enough that I waste nothing.

 

[Toddy]

Our breadmaker gets a lot of use, and it's ancient now really.
I still like slow risen hand made bread, but gluten's an issue at times sod's law.
I hope it's fun Mac
96 year old sourdough starter though; that must be near a record ?

We had a fellow at the door last week, youngish, early twenties, smartly dressed, local accent, etc., He said he and his brother were setting up a new milk round, and they'd do eggs, potatoes and morning rolls too. It seems that folks still want their papers delivered and the milk etc., too

M

 

[Macaroon]

Our breadmaker gets a lot of use, and it's ancient now really.
I still like slow risen hand made bread, but gluten's an issue at times sod's law.
I hope it's fun Mac
96 year old sourdough starter though; that must be near a record ?

We had a fellow at the door last week, youngish, early twenties, smartly dressed, local accent, etc., He said he and his brother were setting up a new milk round, and they'd do eggs, potatoes and morning rolls too. It seems that folks still want their papers delivered and the milk etc., too

M

My maternal grandmother started a sourdough on the day of the birth of each of her children and this is my mother's one. She passed on in August at ninety six, and as the eldest it fell to me to take it on and make sure it's kept alive. I've recently propagated twenty six one-cup divisions of it and sent them to various members of the family so it'll be safely preserved. I think there are many folk who have cultures much older than this one, it's a very simple thing to keep going and each one of the oft-used versions will be augmented by the yeasts it accumulates from the locale in which it is fed and used; not available to folk in times past, but nyou can also smear the culture onto greaseproof paper, dry it off and then freeze it. In this state it will last indefinitely as far as I know and only takes a couple of days to reconstitute, at which point you still have the original.

Mary, the gluten thing is greatly lessened by long risen dough made with best flour and leavened with natural yeast; although I don't have an intolerance to gluten I really don't feel comfortable with any other sort of bread, but the naturally leavened and slow risen loaves sit very well in my system.

@RV
We get our delivery every morning, 364 days a year, and if I leave a note with the empty bottle for something I need it'll be there next morning. I leave the cash wrapped in a plastic bag with the empties on a Monday morning.

One of the nicest things is that all the bottles go back to the dairy, onto a washing machine and will be reused 'till damage or wear dictates otherwise.

 

[Macaroon]

I should also thank British Red, as my choice of machine was influence by a review he did some time ago of a machine of the same make; I also have a dehydrator by them which has give, and continues to give, very good service.

 

[santaman2000]

Unfortunately to eliminate gluten you have to abandon wheat flour altogether. Wheat and a few other grains as well as any otherwise gluten free products that are milled, processed, or cooked in the same facility as glutenous products.. Doctors here also advise celiacs to toss out all their old pots, pans, and dishes and start over with new to avoid cross contamination. Sadly my daughter is one of those patients.

That's the reason I originally opened this thread; we're considering getting a new bread machine as store bought GF bread is expensive.

 

[bigbear]

Yes, I also got one of these after BR posted about it, it makes good bread in a decent sized loaf. On my to do list is start a batch of starter, if you se what I mean, maybe over Christmas....
I like the flexibility to make so many breads with it. Used to all my bread by hand but never seem to have the time now, so this is a real boost.

 

[bigbear]

Well Andrew James have gone down a notch for me, the pan on mine has got slightly dented so its really hard to get loaves out. They claim to have none in stock and no forseeable date when they will have, sounds like they want folk to buy new rather than supply spares, if so its a shame in this throwaway world.

 

[Robson Valley]

Six months since I last posted to this thread.
Local village woman has usurped my weekly bread-making. Many different tastes, too.
Breads, bagels, biscotti, baguettes and many other things.
Sadly, I "grew" a couple of inches this winter past as a result.

Must get back to making the time to make my own. The food need has nothing to do with the experience part.

Gluten is the most common of 50-60 or more proteins in bread wheat flour.
Some current research thinking here is that sensitivities are a "group" thing
to proteins other than gluten.

 

[Janne]

OTE=Robson Valley;1819701]Six months since I last posted to this thread.
Local village woman has usurped my weekly bread-making. Many different tastes, too.
Breads, bagels, biscotti, baguettes and many other things.
Sadly, I "grew" a couple of inches this winter past as a result.

Must get back to making the time to make my own. The food need has nothing to do with the experience part.

Gluten is the most common of 50-60 or more proteins in bread wheat flour.
Some current research thinking here is that sensitivities are a "group" thing
to proteins other than gluten.[/QUOTE]

 

[Silkhi]

Bread making is high on my to do list after visiting bakers & trying a few "artisan" breads. My only worry is those extra couple of inches mentioned...

 

[Robson Valley]

No such opportunity. She turned up in the market with big wicker baskets of several kinds of bready things.
Seems it doesn't matter how much or what she bakes. Normally sells out every day.
I'd planned to learn to make bagels. Bought some ingredients. Gave her everything. Can't beat quality for my experiments!

Coincidentally, it's her family who usually pick my grape crop. She gives me lots of garden vegetables.

Bread machines = Are they noisy? Never heard one operating.

 

[underground]

Revelation! I use either the Richard Bertinet or Dan Lepard instructions for my sourdough and find it messy and time consuming. I'll try the bread Maker!

 

[Janne]

Ommmmmmmmmmm

 

[Robson Valley]

My kids gave me Bertinet's book: "Dough." Fantastic read, if you make bread in a stand mixer of just a big bowl and a stick.
7,000+ years of experience can't be all wrong.
BUT, I can't find the time to spend parts of 2 days to get it done. Still, for ideas for make up like epi and bread stars, really fun.
You're just as well off with Gisslen's "Professional Baking" textbook for culinary arts schools. My 5th edition seems new enough for me.
I developed my own bread formula:
20 minutes for assembly. 35 minutes first rise. Scale and 35 minutes second rise. 43 minutes bake time @ 360F = 2 good loaves for the week.
There's a surprising Zen-thing in kneading the dough. The developing gluten fights back to snap me out of whereever my head goes.

 

[Janne]

Ommmmmmmmmmm