UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Craft and Cooking (Recipes)
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In praise of the breadmaker
Vanessa wrote: "It finished at 9pm and it's turned out perfect. I let it cool for half an hour and have just had a slice with strawberry jam and it was lovely.
Just worked out how much it cost roughly and I rec..."
Thats brilliant!
Vanessa wrote: "It finished at 9pm and it's turned out perfect. I let it cool for half an hour and have just had a slice with strawberry jam and it was lovely.
Just worked out how much it cost roughly and I rec..."
Long term, the machine will pay for itself...unless it breaks down!
My bread maker has just packed up,it was about 10 years old,can't remember how much i paid for it tho,but it would probably equate to pennies per week.
I've always been a bit "gnehh" when people try to justify having nice things for themselves. It's a terribly British thing to do, no French cook would make excuses for investing on a nice bit of kit for the kitchen but we always do, maybe it's a knock on effect of rationing, and the way our parents who lived through it raised us with the "oh no I shouldn't really" when really they should guilt thing. My daughter will read this later so this bit is for her, even the maths, she likes maths.
Because during and after the war there was a shortage of food in Britain people were given little books called "ration books", and in them there were stamps for food. You used to have to give the man in the shop your stamp as well as your pennies to get your food item. This way everyone got the same amount of food and prices didn't go through the roof. You used to have to be careful with your stamps because if you made too many cakes at the start of the week you could not get any more butter until the next week even if you had the money for them.
Because of rationing, and other reasons it was very hard to get exotic foods from foreign lands in 1954.
Where as we can pick up a 2lb bunch from the market for £1.50, (which when you factor in inflation would have been 7p/1s 5d) in 1954 they paid the equivalent of £4.68 (21p/4s 3d) in today's money, and that's if you could even find any.
So you see, to you and I a banana is just a banana but if granddad had been given one when he was your age in 1958 it would have been "OH MY GOD!!A BANANA!!!!!" and he would have eaten all the bruised bits without whining about it.
The Panasonic ones seem to last for years looking at the reviews, and when they do pack up most people seem to buy another Panasonic.Got to say it's very easy to use...just dump all the ingredients into it in order, choose a programme and switch it on. The mixing blade came out clean of the loaf and only left a tiny hole and it's so easy to clean. Really impressed.
My mum told me about the rationing and about powdered eggs, she used to like them.I always made cakes and biscuits after I got married but there was a bread strike shortly after and that's when I started to make my own bread by hand and I never stopped after the strikes were over. Since I've been on my own again I've stopped doing all the baking because I'd end up putting too much weight on.
Just had my weekly email from Amazon plugging "Artisan Bread Making" - does anyone else get this email repeatedly?
No haven't had that Grace. But I've not looked for anything similar so I suppose they won't send me that.I've eaten two thirds of my loaf and it's lovely. Just got to get the knack of cutting it. I seem to go too thin or cut it like door steps lol.
Hey Simon how are you doing with your bread?
Yep. Did a large white loaf last night. Came out perfect. The crusts seem a bit crunchy. The paddle comes out perfect. The one I had years ago left a crater.
I find that the rapid-bake programs make a softer crust. I'm not for hard crusts, so much better for me :)Although now I'm using wholemeal and it's hard crust galore anyway :(
I put it on the medium colour crust setting and it is quite a soft crust and very even all over. What setting did you have yours on and when you say large loaf do you mean the middle size? My paddle came out perfect as well, only a very small hole in the base barely noticeable.Are you still using the bread mixes or doing your own now?
Doves Farm make a bread improver for those who like to add a lot of extra bits to their loaves. It lightens the bread if you've got lots of seeds, fruit or nuts. I got a tub from Lakeland and it's lasted ages.
I've read on a forum somewhere that the English flour this year from some mills isn't that good because the harvest has been poor. There was an extra note put in with my instruction book saying it might be best to use Canadian or American flour.Hovis were having some problems with theirs and they advised people that phoned them complaining to add some lemon juice to the flour.
I got that note too. I have used hovis bread mix on large, medium crust. Might try something new next time. It takes me a few days to get through a loaf which is annoying because I want to play.
What is in the bread improver Lynne?
I don't think you usually use it with our flour as I think it's already in it.
Thanks for that link Simon - if you got to the bottom of that page on the full side there's a link to Lakeland and my stuff is Claybrooke Mill. It contains organic wheat flour, flour treatment agent E300, ascorbic acid, enzymes and vegetable oil. Basically it lightens bread especially wholemeal, or those with lots of seeds, fruit cheese etc. it does make it lighter but as Vanessa says there is some in flour its just a bit more when you need it. Its only a teaspoonful to a pound of flour so it goes a long way.
Ok its time to up the ante. Let's see your loaves in the flesh. I just happen to have this picture of one I took today. It's made with poppy and pumpkin seed, oats and malted flour:
The book is just for scale ;-)
Can you beat that?
Best machine has got to be the Panasonic SD2501 (Amazon sells it) - I make around 5 loaves a week using the recipe book that comes with it - every loaf I've made has been perfect and of course is so much healthier. Don't bother with breadmixes - most of them aren't up to much in my opinion. I use olive oil rather than butter and would advise to get good quality bread flour. Fantastic to have the house filled with the smell of fresh bread...
Yeah I've got the Panasonic SD2501.This is a picture of my first loaf.
http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/...
Vanessa wrote: "Yeah I've got the Panasonic SD2501.This is a picture of my first loaf.
http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/..."
Thats looks nice and light and fluffy - I can imagine it toasted with butter melting on it...
Your loaf looks lovely Rob. I'm just doing another loaf now. This time it's a Sundried tomato and Parmesan loaf. Should be ready in about 20 minutes.
Vanessa wrote: "Your loaf looks lovely Rob. I'm just doing another loaf now. This time it's a Sundried tomato and Parmesan loaf. Should be ready in about 20 minutes."That sounds awesome. Is it your own or a mix?
We are having soup tonight and I was going to make something different. I might just go down to Waitrose and see what mixes they have..
No it's not a mix. It's a recipe that came with the machine.3/4 tsp. yeast
400g strong white flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
50g parmesan cheese
75g sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
270 ml. water
It's out of the machine now and looks lovely...I'm going to give it half hour before I cut into it though. I'll post a photo when I do it.
That recipe looks good - i'll have to give it a try. How long was it in the machine for?I've just got a sun-dried tomato and chilli mix to go with the soup tonight - it's gone in the machine (but now i'll have to wait 2 1/2 hrs).
All this healthy eating is driving me mad - I need to visit the butcher's and order some flame grilled steak! On the subject of bread, crusty bread is good with soup, but bread seems to be getting to crusty these days!
It took 4 1/2 hours but it 'rests' the ingredients for quite a long time before it starts kneading.The programme it's on says it rises for 2 hr 25 min - 3 hrs. Then bakes for 50 mins.
As all you do is bung all the ingredients in the pan and switch it on and forget it. I don't worry about the time it takes.
Well here it is. Just eaten the first slice and it's wonderful. Don't think it's going to last long as it's really nice.http://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/...
This thread is just torture ;)That looks really nice Vanessa *drools* I'm being tortured by roast pork which won't be ready for ages - so hungry!
That looks really tasty. Sun-dried tomatoes are one of my favourite tastes - if only it were a little bit (!) warmer in in the UK and we could reliably grow our own.
Rosemary wrote: "This thread is just torture ;)That looks really nice Vanessa *drools* I'm being tortured by roast pork which won't be ready for ages - so hungry!"
It's not for the feint-hearted.
Vanessa wrote: "I've read on a forum somewhere that the English flour this year from some mills isn't that good because the harvest has been poor...."Yes. 'Bread-making wheat' needs sunshine. The more sunshine, the better the wheat and the better the bread.
This, incidentally, is why French bread-making wheat is, on average, better than English.
However the wheat can be blended, and it is normal for bread-makers to mix in a little American 'hard red'spring wheat (which is probably the best bread-making wheat)
A couple of years ago, because of the summer, the UK was producing better bread-making wheat than the French. Indeed it is now possible for some UK bakers to just use British (Actually English) wheat most years.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SD-...Simon can you put the group tag thing onto this please and I will get one through the group. thanks.
Pat (Scorpio) wrote: "http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SD-...Simon can you put the group tag thing onto this ple..."
It's quite expensive on Amazon Pat. I know Currys had a good offer on and I think Simon got the next model down from that one at a really good price at John Lewis.
It might be interesting to look into the history of breadmaking. The celts here in britain used to have stones to grind their wheat, some of these have been found on the hillside above Otley. Apparently people spent so long each day on their knees that their bones were deformed.I'm sure they added herbs to liven things up, but it was a couple of thousand years before tomatoes and spices were available.
Wonder if there is a book somewhere with ancient recipes?
I've got http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grain-mills-C... which is about flour and milling, but doesn't really do recipies
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-Histor...Can't recommend it because I haven't read it but it looks interesting...Ancient Celtic bread etc...
Vanessa wrote: "Pat (Scorpio) wrote: "http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SD-...Simon can you put the group ..."
Oh, right Vanessa, there is a Currys near me. I'll pop down in the morning and see what they got down here. Thanks.
Rosemary wrote: "http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/anc...who knew, the Celts are online"
Thats a good site Rosemary.
The barley and rich bread look like fun. The challenge is to adapt the recipes for the breadmaker.
Yes I'm afraid amazon isn't the best deal at the moment. I am distressed though.... Did the fresh bread bring on a gout attack? I hope not!
Here's last nights sun dried tomoato and chilli loaf - went very nicely with a minestrone soup:
Rob wrote: "Wonder if there is a book somewhere with ancient recipes"I have a collection of old English cookery books, oldest one is a history of old cooking published in the 1800s (referred to in our house as 1001 things to do with suet and lard). The problem with many really old books is that because they are all converted from people's kitchen notebooks there isn't a lot of uniformity in the measurements. It's all a splash of this or a knob of that, plus it's all in quarts and the general language needs translating. On top of all this you find that in general the earlier you go the larger the quantities because they were either for country houses or contained yeast so you cooked one batch for the whole week.
Bread making up until recently was a pain in the arse because the yeast they used was vastly different to our modern fresh yeast as cooks used to convert brewers yeast - used to taken them half a day to make it usable and then after all this the bread needed 4-5 hours to raise.
The plan is at some point to convert some of these recipes into something a modern cook can understand.
I've got a lovely old cookbook, Cassells shilling cookery, published 1889 It was the price of the book not the price of the recipes and the volumes are amazing. It was also written when one had staff. As with a souffle the final instructions are to tell the maid to run to the table with this dish.The wine section is fabulous, 45 quarts of blackberrries, 10lbs of honey and 26 lbs of sugar, 12 gallons of water etc. To fortify the wine they added 2 quarts of good French brandy. How much would that lot cost?
Has anybody experimented with sour dough? It's surprisingly good to eat. The bread, not the dough!
R.M.F wrote: "Has anybody experimented with sour dough? It's surprisingly good to eat. The bread, not the dough!"I did buy some (ready made) a few months ago but I didn't find it that appetising - perhaps it was just a poor example.
OK I am back with the breadmaker! Lunch now and then to try it out.Only £5 difference in cost between Amazon and Currys but take home from Currys
new bread and jam. With new bread you don't need jam AND butter, one or the other is enough. New Bread, the slimmers friend :-)