[Poolfield2]

Well done you, looks brilliant, bet it has gone now

[digalotty]

im already contenplating tomorows attempts i may even try the breadmaker out if i have the destructions, if not im creamy crackered

[Aidy]

Mine is an old model that makes 2 small squarish loaves side by side (or only 1 if that's all you need). Because the bread sticks to the paddle and the paddle sticks to the 'post' by the time i get the loaf out I have lost about a quarter of the loaf  
If it was just the paddle left in a large loaf I suppose it wouldn't be as much of a problem

Here is your answer...... If your breadmaker has a keep warm facility on it, as I bleieve most do when they have finished their cycle, leave it for ten mins or so and you should find it drops out no problem with the paddle still in the bread, on the keep warm I assume the bread on the paddle goes a little soft.

[mumofstig]

Ooooh.....anything is worth a try Thank you
I will report back

[wildwitchy]

I have a panasonic which I use most times & a morphy richards breadman pro..I use that sometimes (still good). The best thing I use in my breadmaking is a flour improver (2 tsp per 600g flour) & fresh yeast from Ebay. I buy the yeast in a 1kg block and freeze it in small bits, then get out enough for 1 weeks worth of bread making.. I also buy a 16kg sack of bread flour from the local baker for £9 which lasts some time. The bread always turns out fab.

[Paul Plots]

I just follow the instructions - use dried yeast and always get a 1st class loaf - 3 hours from pushing "Go".

Reliable and easy... 

When I have time, in the holidays, I play with the other recipes and adjust to suit myself.
Mine makes brilliant banana bread, a nice pizza as well as various other breads...

I've given up using bread-mixes altogether as they are not cheap and several have a bit of a tang to them.

[Poolfield2]

I used "improvers" for a while then thought  :wacko:if I want added chemicals I might as well buy bread and the panasonic makes excellent bread without improvers.

[wildwitchy]

The improver that ive bought is based on naturally occuring substances. It doesn't "preserve the bread". When i made wholemeal/brown it was terrible (you could of built a house with it) but with the improver it made it light & fluffy. God knows what i was doing to it before! I find it works for me & if i find a tip works for me, im sure it could help someone else if they wanted it.

[Poolfield2]

I apoplogise, you must have found a different improver than me, it definitely had a long list of ingredients that I didn't recogise as natural

[wildwitchy]

oh, no apology needed  , i wouldnt put any old rubbish in the bread, thats the idea of doing your own but i'll be blowed if i can remember all the ingriedients! I've had a look at the leaflet which says natural ingriedients but i know it said on the packet what they were (Ive chucked it). I think they were vit c,milk powder..... I also bought some sponge cake improver from them which is just soya flour. (got to try that yet). Apparently very good.

[joyfull]

With wholemeal bread to help it rise and make it lighter my breadmaker instructions suggest adding a crushed vitamin c tablet.

[Paul Plots]

With wholemeal bread to help it rise and make it lighter my breadmaker instructions suggest adding a crushed vitamin c tablet.

Mine too.....

[hillfooter]

When we moved into the country we decided to invest in a bread maker and as Panasonic was hands down the most recommended we shelled out the extra cash and bought that.  I must say it was a sound investment.  We use recipies, experiment and use the premixes too and you can't beat the experience of having fresh bread available each day.  We've had the Panasonic for close to 14 years now and it's been used most days and never missed a beat or produced a bad loaf.  It might have been almost twice the cost of the Morphy etal but based on the number of perfect loafs it's produced it must have paid for itself many times over.

Our family have now grown up and left home so we don't need a full loaf everyday so we often just use a half a premix so we always have fresh bread each day.  It still produces a perfect half sized loaf on the rapid programme using half the premix ingredients.

If your really expect to save money though a breadmaker isn't as economic as you might think unless you use ingredients bought in bulk.

I'd definitely go for an auto "extra ingredients" dispenser as unless you baby sit it continuously you always miss the beep to add them manually.  If there's a Panasonic with the blade retract it would be a no contest as far as I'm concerned.  My daughter has an old  MR sitting in the back of her cupboard as it's not reliable.  I've tried to use that in order to sort out what she's doing wrong and although I got it to produce acceptable bread it was no where near as consistent as the Panasonic.  I suspect that these days they've perfected things a bit better but there are still lots of old unreliable non-Panasonic models hardly used on ebay.  Buyer beware!

HF

[wildwitchy]

My panasonic is a oldish one picked up from a charity shop for 10 quid roughly, but its brilliant & does the job. I use the rapid programme & its very good. I use the morphy richards when i do brown at the same time. I think you do have to persevere sometimes with breadmakers because when I had my first breadmaker, some of the loaves I produced were rubbish & thats why many people give up on them. I would recommend to buy the best you can first time because if you get dodo results you tend not to bother again which is a shame.

[Paul Plots]

........We've had the Panasonic for close to 14 years now and it's been used most days and never missed a beat or produced a bad loaf.  It might have been almost twice the cost of the Morphy etal but based on the number of perfect loafs it's produced it must have paid for itself many times over.

...........so we often just use a half a premix so we always have fresh bread each day.  It still produces a perfect half sized loaf on the rapid programme using half the premix ingredients.

.............Buyer beware!

HF

I find the MR perfeck..... always turns out a good loaf and works equally well on rapid bake.... I avoid pre-mix anything... I am pretty sure if you take care to add the exact amount of each ingredient then the results are predictable...

The cycle / knead / rest / rise / heat / cook / times do not vary if you choose the same programme so only thing likely to be influencing whether the bread is successful or not is the ingredients...

Measurer take care