Breadmaker
In the days when I wasn't so busy, I used to enjoy making bread.
All that kneading and leaving it to rise and kneading again and leaving it to rise and baking - - ah, lovely.
Then the pace of my life speeded up and I just stopped doing it. Then ten years ago, or so, I met some people who lived on a narrowboat on the canal, and they had a clever machine to bake bread.
Immediately I knew I wanted one - I had never seen one before.
Soon afterwards, I bought one - I think it was about twice the price that they are now.
They really are extremely easy to use. You put all the ingredients in the deep pan - - so bread flour, water, butter or olive oil, salt, sugar - - and then you make a little pocket in the flour and add the dried yeast.
Then you press "start" and the machine mixes it all together, and then it rises, and then the machine bakes it, all in the same pan.
It makes a wonderful smell. You can set it on a timer, if you wish, so that it's ready when you get up in the morning or whatever.
I used it lots and lots and lots but eventually it died of old age. It took me a while to get around to buying a new one, but on Sunday, there I was in Comet, and Stephen was buying a cable, and I'm not much interested in cables - - but I am in breadmakers.
The new one is smaller but seems just as good as the old one. Here's the first loaf, still in the pan:
and here it is once we'd taken it out and sliced it a bit:
Of course, it's all gone now. I'll be trying a wholemeal one next. Yippee!
All that kneading and leaving it to rise and kneading again and leaving it to rise and baking - - ah, lovely.
Then the pace of my life speeded up and I just stopped doing it. Then ten years ago, or so, I met some people who lived on a narrowboat on the canal, and they had a clever machine to bake bread.
Immediately I knew I wanted one - I had never seen one before.
Soon afterwards, I bought one - I think it was about twice the price that they are now.
They really are extremely easy to use. You put all the ingredients in the deep pan - - so bread flour, water, butter or olive oil, salt, sugar - - and then you make a little pocket in the flour and add the dried yeast.
Then you press "start" and the machine mixes it all together, and then it rises, and then the machine bakes it, all in the same pan.
It makes a wonderful smell. You can set it on a timer, if you wish, so that it's ready when you get up in the morning or whatever.
I used it lots and lots and lots but eventually it died of old age. It took me a while to get around to buying a new one, but on Sunday, there I was in Comet, and Stephen was buying a cable, and I'm not much interested in cables - - but I am in breadmakers.
The new one is smaller but seems just as good as the old one. Here's the first loaf, still in the pan:
and here it is once we'd taken it out and sliced it a bit:
Of course, it's all gone now. I'll be trying a wholemeal one next. Yippee!
posted by Daphne at 6:32 pm
6 Comments:
OMG I love bread! Have always, always wanted a bread-maker, just never got round to getting one. Absolutely love freshly baked bread! You're inspiring me!
Please may I have some of your home baked bread? I too used to make my own and loved it but have never bought a machine, partly cos I rarely eat bread at home now. In fact, I usually only eat bread when I am doing corporate jobs who provide sandwiches for lunch or when I am at your house - yours is much nicer than what I get on corporate jobs and is bound to be even nicer still when it's home baked!
I made my own bread during the strikes of the early 80's. It was either that or queue for hours with three small children. No contest, really!
I love the smell of freshly made bread in the morning....
Oh Daphne, I salivated there! That looked just lovely. I'd love a slice with the delicious butter you have over there.
I tend to put more cold butter on my hot bread than there is bread. I shudder to think how long I'd have to run on the treadmill to work that off. I'm thinking it would be worth it though!!!
Great job for a first loaf in a new machine! It took me about 5 failures.
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