Finally, after 2 weeks of researching I ordered a bread maker and after eagerly anticipating its arrival it turned up last night! After much soul searching (well not really!) I decided to buy the Panasonic 254 from Amazon for £67. I didn’t think the automatic nut sensor was worth paying the extra £30 they were asking and as both machines are essentially the same I was very pleased.
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to set it up last night and so this morning I wandered eagerly into the kitchen to prepare for my first loaf! Well boxed and supported by foam inserts the machine was pristine and looked so inviting! For my first attempt I decided to keep things simple and not attempt anything too adventurous – a basic white loaf!
Allison’s provided me with the main ingredient (Strong White Flour) and Yeast (Sachet). I’ll run through costings later but let’s just say the bread was a fraction of the cost in the supermarket. As you can see from the picture I chose to use butter (1oz) for the basic loaf – Welsh Cadog butter (Menyn Cymreig) and combined with 320ml of water and a teaspoon of salt and yeast that’s all it took!
Decided on the full 4 hour programme rather than the super speedy 1 hour 55 minute programme (I may be tempted to revert to speed in the future) for the inaugural bake and I have to say I was not disappointed! The machine started slowly and apart from when the mixer kicked it was silent throughout its operation. The beautiful smell of bread making filled the house in the 3rd hour of baking and it wasn’t long before I was pacing the kitchen floor in anticipation!
The timer moved around to zero and beeped, prompting me to open the lid and empty the bread onto a cooling tray and what came out was a thing of magic – I was hoping for a nice looking loaf but it surpassed all expectations! The hard thing now was to wait a couple of hours for the bread to cool sufficiently to cut without making too much of a mess! Torture!
Eventually the time came when the sharp blade fell on the poor defenceless white bread – there was only one winner!!! The taste testing was sensational and if every loaf turns out like this then I for one will never buy another loaf from the supermarket!
Cost
Yeast – 7p, Water – Free, Flour - 25p, Salt – Free, Sugar – Free, Butter – 7p
Total Cost (excluding electricity) 39p
(Free = negligible costs) – There are three sizes available, M, L or XL – the one above is Large!!!
lovely looking loaf warnie, we have a bread maker and love the bread it makes the only problem is because it is so fresh and tasty[ the way bread used to taste ]it didn’t last long in our house, you wait till you can spread it with your own homemade jam [your next project...lol] you will think you are in heaven. Lesley