Bought a bread maker

Early hours yet, CL1, but fab timing. In another hour you should be inhaling the delights of a home baked loaf and positively drooling!

Top tip: *If* it should rise so much that it is in danger of hitting the top of the lid of the BM, take a cocktail stick and prick the dough to prevent it hitting the roof and getting "stuck"

 

How long does it take to cook?

 

Depends on the setting, Fern. Could take an hour and a half or up to 3hrs.

 

Top Tip #2 - If your first attempt tastes awful, check whether the breadmaker paddle has been left in the bottom of the loaf before chucking it to the ducks.

 

Its not filling the house with the smell of baking just yet. I've set it off on 'basic' mode, which according to the destructions, is the mode for making a 'standard white loaf'.

Basic mode takes nearly 3 hours I think, it should be somewhere near ready by bed time (I set it off at about 8PM).

Thanks for all the tips by the way, and Scrungee, I'll try to remember not eat the metal paddle thingy

 

We've got a breadmaker - ME!

Nowadays I cheat by using a kenwood chef to to the dough mixing.

I wouldn't worry too much about your waistline if your house is anything like ours, I bake a loaf, take the dogs out for a walk, come back and it's almost gone, Carol and Rebekka love warm bread!

 

Its been on for about an hour and a half now.

Is this normal. It started off by mixing all the ingredients. Then it stopped and just waited for a while. I figured it was letting the dough rise. Then it started mixing again, then stopped again. I looked through its window and I could see that the dough ball was bigger than it was, but still got some rising to do. Then it starting mixing for a third time. I can't hear it now so maybe the baking stage has started?

Fascinating stuff. The wonders of modern technology eh?

 

That's normal

It will "beep" when it is 'done' ( but, you will smell it before that ensuring you are salivating appropriately, in anticipation )

 

well clueless1 how are you getting on with your new toy?

i have a breadmaker here too & i lurve's it my bro got it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago you can make really healthy breads that are soooo tasty

here's one i made this morning...wholemeal honey raisin bread...yum!

 

We haven't bought a loaf of bread since we started using the bread maker. I knew I'd appreciate it but I was a bit unsure about the missus, who is considerably less fussy than me. She remarked just last night, while tucking into a massive doorstep of bread, "this is gorgeous this isn't it".

So far we've only done the 'Basic White Loaf' recipe and program, but I think I'm ready to try something a bit more adventurous.

 

Lob some Poppy seeds in, gives it a really nice flavour.

 

So will it work out cheaper then buying bread? How much is the ingredients please?

 

£1.50 for a good loaf round this way.

 

I've worked it out and its cheaper, but not much cheaper, and if the supermarkets are having an offer on with the fresh bread, they are probably cheaper. Its early days yet though so I haven't got accurate figures, but here goes.

The ingredient you use most of is flour. So the rest of the ingredients work out at almost negligible price per loaf.

You get about 4 loaves out of one bag of flour, which costs about £1.10.

I'd say you therefore spend about 30p on ingredients per loaf.

power consumption is the tricky one. My bread maker is rated at 600W, so that means over the 3 hours it would cost about 23p if it uses 600W for the entire cycle but I don't think it does.

So worst case, a loaf costs me about 53p to make. Its smaller than a shop loaf, which I'd say is about 1.5 times the length, so 53x1.5 = about 80p.

But, a significant chunk of the cycle is the kneeding/rising phase, which I would guess uses hardly any power, so lets say the average power consumption over the cycle is only 300W, then that means the electric cost is more like 12p, making the cost of one of my loaves more like 12+30 = 42p, x 1.5 to make it equivalent to shop size = 63p.

So yes, cheaper than shop bought under normal circumstances, comparable if there's an offer on. Considerably nicer, and you get the added bonus of the smell of baking bread in your house.

 

Thanks clueless. I suppose you save also on the trip to and from the supermarket as your chosen mode of vehicular transport is not laden with the weight of a full sized loaf thus saving on fuel. Interesting...very interesting...