[jay001]

well folk,s i do beleive i have egg on my face  had so many people here today giving me quotes for carpet,s ,blinds and painting and decorating (having a referb ) that i forgot i had not baked today so --- no bread !!! so yes if i had a machine that problem would have been sorted -- so more fool me  i have been looking and reading all the comments and to be honest the hole in your pic grendel is not the end of the world is it!and as mrs b say,s you can just use it on the dough setting and split into two and bake in the oven,i would be interested to hear any results from people using one with a jam setting cos i want to try jam this year so maybe another plus point for the bread maker.

[grendel]

two things strike me, I use a tiny amount (tip of teaspoon) of vitamin c powder with any wholemeal flour, and only ever 1 tsp salt, the salt is there to stop the yeast at the right point, too much salt stops the yeast early, I also put the salt in the middle of the flour (half the flour in, salt in, then the rest of the flour, with the yeast on top. this ensures the salt and yeast dont mix too soon.
Grendel

What does the Vitamin C powder do?

I believe it acts as a flour improver, whatever it does, the bread rises beter.
Grendel

[devonbarmygardener]

two things strike me, I use a tiny amount (tip of teaspoon) of vitamin c powder with any wholemeal flour, and only ever 1 tsp salt, the salt is there to stop the yeast at the right point, too much salt stops the yeast early, I also put the salt in the middle of the flour (half the flour in, salt in, then the rest of the flour, with the yeast on top. this ensures the salt and yeast dont mix too soon.
Grendel

What does the Vitamin C powder do?

I believe it acts as a flour improver, whatever it does, the bread rises beter.
Grendel

Oh. That sounds like it's worth trying.
Thanks

[Mrs Bee]

well folk,s i do beleive i have egg on my face  had so many people here today giving me quotes for carpet,s ,blinds and painting and decorating (having a referb ) that i forgot i had not baked today so --- no bread !!! so yes if i had a machine that problem would have been sorted -- so more fool me  i have been looking and reading all the comments and to be honest the hole in your pic grendel is not the end of the world is it!and as mrs b say,s you can just use it on the dough setting and split into two and bake in the oven,i would be interested to hear any results from people using one with a jam setting cos i want to try jam this year so maybe another plus point for the bread maker.

Ah, jam making Jay. I wouldn't use a bread maker for this. I know a bit about jam. I make and sell it. For jam you really need a jam pan with a wide top for evaporation. Lakeland make a jam making machine but that is a waste of the pennies.
For bread and jam....... breadmaker and jam pan.

[mrsbean]

i have panasonic machine, just taken out a ready mixed pkt chocolate fudge cake.just added  water,veg oil. smelt lovely baking,moist,light waiting for it to cool to try.not used pkt  before.went into the makers web site for instructions for panasonic machine.

[jay001]

i have panasonic machine, just taken out a ready mixed pkt chocolate fudge cake.just added  water,veg oil. smelt lovely baking,moist,light waiting for it to cool to try.not used pkt  before.went into the makers web site for instructions for panasonic machine.

ooh chrikey we have 2 mrs b,s  think i have spoken to you both on the preserving chanell ? about piccalilli,but the more i follow grendels thread here on the subject of breadmakers the more i find myself confused,so many things i want to try and never enough time :Dbig change from a few months ago before i found this site -- hope that wasnnt patranising  i have been on several looking at breadmakers lots of different extras on the expensive models but the jam making appeals to me cos even though i was a pro head chef i now have forgotton lot,s (stroke ) and have never made jam so if a breadmaker claims it can do it then it gives me a starting point and as the other mrs b say,s i can still use it on the dough setting to mix and rise and then bake in the oven,but if they are no good for jam and i just use it for mixing and raising then the cheapest on the market will do wont it  --- what have you started here grendel 

[Mrs Bee]

Hi Jay. Really sorry you had the stroke. My dad had one 12 years ago and lost the use of the right side of his body. His memory is OK now so I am sure things will come back to you eventually. You sound in better shape then my dad so that's good


I have 3 panasonic bread makers with the auto feed. WHich means that you can program it to add stuff like raisins at the right time so they don't get blitzed. Very useful.

You can make cakes in it, but I am a purist with cakes and use the Kenwood and oven.

If you have never made jam you would be much better off using a very large saucepan which will give enough space for a full rolling boil without errupting all over your stove

Or if you intend to do a lot of preserving, a brilliant pass time and good way of making pin money, you could invest in a preserving pan, stainless steel so you can make chutney in it too. You can get a really good quality one on Amazon for £25. Far cheaper than the shops.

Hope you are making a good recovery. A friend of mine was a chef he had a heart attack and gave up the cheffing to be a gardener.

[lettice]

Ive been using breadmakers for many years and my fullproof recipe for white/wholemeal is, my favourite for fine cut sandwiches;
Put ingredients into breadmaker in this order;

1 1/3 cups cold water
2 cups strong white bread flour
2 cups strong wholemeal bread flour
2 tbsp olive oil or melted butter
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp yeast
Choose basic white setting, 1.5lb, light crust.

Best tip I find for the paddle if it gets stuck, is to let the bread cool in kitchen on rack for 20 mins, then remove the kneading blade from the loaf, it should just slide out easily then. with just a small slit. Doesnt really bother me as I will freeze any poor broken slices for  frozen breadcrumbs.

I use this recipe in a Morphy Richards at the moment.
I use Waitrose or Asda own brand strong flours and allinson easy bake yeast.

[jay001]

going to look at amazon again for bread makers and the £25 pan mrs b thankyou and everyone else for the help and special thank,s to grendel for starting this thread ---- even though i fear it,s going to end up reducing my bank balance by a fair bit !!! 

[Aidy]

well folk,s i do beleive i have egg on my face  had so many people here today giving me quotes for carpet,s ,blinds and painting and decorating (having a referb ) that i forgot i had not baked today so --- no bread !!! so yes if i had a machine that problem would have been sorted -- so more fool me  i have been looking and reading all the comments and to be honest the hole in your pic grendel is not the end of the world is it!and as mrs b say,s you can just use it on the dough setting and split into two and bake in the oven,i would be interested to hear any results from people using one with a jam setting cos i want to try jam this year so maybe another plus point for the bread maker.

Ah, jam making Jay. I wouldn't use a bread maker for this. I know a bit about jam. I make and sell it. For jam you really need a jam pan with a wide top for evaporation. Lakeland make a jam making machine but that is a waste of the pennies.
For bread and jam....... breadmaker and jam pan.

I will agree Mrs Ball, tried a few times with mine and I found it easier and quicker to do the old way, as I dont need fresh jam for I awake from my sweet dreams I will stick to the old jam pan and spoon.

[devonbarmygardener]

well folk,s i do beleive i have egg on my face  had so many people here today giving me quotes for carpet,s ,blinds and painting and decorating (having a referb ) that i forgot i had not baked today so --- no bread !!! so yes if i had a machine that problem would have been sorted -- so more fool me  i have been looking and reading all the comments and to be honest the hole in your pic grendel is not the end of the world is it!and as mrs b say,s you can just use it on the dough setting and split into two and bake in the oven,i would be interested to hear any results from people using one with a jam setting cos i want to try jam this year so maybe another plus point for the bread maker.

Ah, jam making Jay. I wouldn't use a bread maker for this. I know a bit about jam. I make and sell it. For jam you really need a jam pan with a wide top for evaporation. Lakeland make a jam making machine but that is a waste of the pennies.
For bread and jam....... breadmaker and jam pan.

Agreed. For jam, a large deep pan is perfectly adequate and simple.

[snowdrops]

todays wholemeal offering.
Grendel

That looks great Grendel,can you post the recipe please

[grendel]

totally from memory in the order it goes in the pan.......
1 2/3 cups warm water
1 tablespoon milk powder
1 level tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup wholemeal bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup white bread flour
1 cup wholemeal bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 tip of a teaspoon (1/4 teaspoon) vitamin c powder

and I cook on the full size loaf sandwich setting (3 hours)
the water can vary a little depending upon the flour from 1 1/2 cups to 1 3/4 cups, if it rises then drops back slightly, reduce the water, if its uneven on top increase the water slightly.

Grendel

[snowdrops]

Thank you I'll get some milk powder & try it. At the moment I only use mixes but want to be able not to rely on them, but when I did try a brown loaf I could have used it as a long range missile if I could throw it that far

[grendel]

if you want a lighter loaf use 2 cups of white and 1 of wholemeal, for white I use 3 cups of white, and get a taller loaf.
Grendel