Last week I went to a local boot fair, and was aimlessly strolling round with no real idea of what to purchase. I was mainly looking for things / ideas for the house and some good books to read. However for the most part it was full of tack! However I spied a Kenwood BM 200 Breadmaker (similar to the BM250 here) for just £10. It was in a very good condition (though missing the measuring spoon) so I broke an unwritten rule and bought an electrical item at a boot fair. I had been wanting to try a breadmaker for a while but felt unwilling to spend out on a machine and find I only use it once!
The Breadmaker
My first loaf
I thought I would start simple with a “regular white loaf”. My only memory of making bread was creating one in the shape of a hedgehog when I was in Primary school, nothing so advanced this time, just a simple loaf! I was actually surprised at how few ingredients are used and how cheaply you can bake your own bread. I measured out all the ingredients and put them in the bread maker.
The Mix
Then I switched it to setting one, regular white loaf and pressed start. The baking process from start to finish was 2 hrs 45 mins. To start off I watched it spin round kneading and mixing the ingredients together. At first I thought that the materials in the corner were being missed but all looked well when I came back 5 minutes later. Midway through the rising process I snuck a peek through the viewing window and saw the mixture had risen to an inch off the top of the loaf tin, infact I wondered if I had chosen the large load would it have overflowed? Minutes later I looked back in and was disappointed to see that it had dropped back down, I guess it was one big bubble? Does anyone know if this is normal or were my measurements a bit off? Leave a comment!
The last 45 minutes are the actual baking time, the machine got very hot and there is now a freshly baked smell through the house. Once the baking had ended I removed the tin from the machine, you can see below where the bread dropped back down.
Finished Baking
Removing the bread from the tin wasn’t as easy as I hoped, The bread didn’t stick at all, the kneading blade did, and the tin needed a swift whack to remove the bread. So here is the final loaf.
The Bread
I expected it to stand a bit taller, and also to be a bit more “bubbly” (I’m sure that’s a technical breadmaking term). But actually I put some butter on the still warm bread and it tasted just as good if not better than the supermarket varieties. I think next I will have to try a large loaf next so that it’s tall enough for sandwiches and then maybe experiment with wholemeal and seeds.
Does anyone else use a breadmaker? What are your favourite recipes?
Related posts:
- Breadmaker Day 2 After yesterday’s average attempt at making bread I tried again...
