Following on from James bread recipes, our bread machine is dead - well, missing a paddle since OH threw it out with the bread! What bread machine in France, would folks recommend and why?
Note, ours was a cheapie from Aldi so not worth replacing the paddle (20€) would rather invest in something better now I know we use it.
We use a cheap bread maker made by Delonghi. Set the time and fresh bread is there in the early morning before going off to the kennels,; this suits our working life style. However, for a special bread and on my Sunday off, then it's hand made. M and I have been watching the TV series on bread making and are about to try some of the receipes.
You're dead right Jane, I made that mistake once, now I stick everything on timer and ensure the bread will be ready to take out when we get up.
The bread is better if it is taken out of the machine as soon as it is finished,so stick with the dishwasher and the yoghurt maker, but find a more convenient time to make the bread.
Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. Interestingly Panasonic is one brand I hadn't considered as I've been browsing Le Bon Coin and so on and they are never for sale - presumably this is because they are so good. Have found this one at a reasonable price on Amazon UK (good idea about checking Italy and Germany - never thought of that) with reasonable delivery here.
Don't need/want to make fancy bread so dispenser totally not necessary. As for making bread by hand, as a working mum of kids who are only 6 and 8, time saving devices are what I need. Bunging it in at night, along with the washing, the dishwasher and the yoghurt maker, it takes longer to switch all the machines on than to take my make up off (ha ha) before I go to bed.
Hi Tracy.
The best bread machine are your hands. Theres a lot of mystique surrounding the making of bread. I've been baking for about 10 years and bake on average 2 times a week. It takes 15 minutes to put a bread together. If you have a timer on your oven you can set it to cook the bread so you will have fresh bread for breakfast
One golden rule is use good flour Good flour= good bread cheap flour=, well you already know the answer
gary
I have used a Morphy Richards Fast Bake for two years and it works well. I find, however that when you bake a loaf and then eat it often the end and sometimes the top crust get waisted or it goes stale, especially with two of us, so I started just making the dough then dividing it into about 10 rolls, leaving them to rise in the warm till double in size then popping them in the oven for 20 mins. When cold I could then wrap the rolls in cling film to last for a few days. No bread was wasted and they went down well with guests.
Hi, This is my first post on SFN but I just wanted to share a tip regarding amazon. If you are buying any electrical goods from amazon check out the other European sites eg Italy, Germany and France of course. After Christmas I managed to buy a K Mix stand mixer from the Italian site with free postage to France, saving £90 plus postage, so it's always worth doing a bit of research.
Exactly my thoughts (@ Danny) - & there's something satisfying about thumping the dough around to knock it back ....
AND you know whatever brick eventually comes out is by your own fair efforts :)
& as long as you have a boulangerie not too far away, you'll not starve - eat cake!
Yes but you will have spent ages preparing the bread and cleaning up afterwards. Bread machines give decent results in far less time. Make it by hand if you have the luxury of having the time.
I have used Panasonic for years and it's great. Not the cheapest bbut the best as far as I am concerned.
I just use my breadmaker for mixing and kneading, I have arthritis in my hands, and then cook in a bread tin or as rolls on a baking sheet. I never liked the shape of breadmaker loaves and was constantly forgetting the metal bit stuck in the bottom of the loaf.
Paul Hollywood, he is the best bread maker
I agree with Steve, we have had our Panasonic bread maker for 9 years and it is fabulous and so versitile, doesn't do the hoovering yet though!
Panasonic, Excellent machines!
We've had an Anthony Worrall Thompson Machine for about 12 years, i don't make an awful lot of bread but i do make pizza dough EVERY week, everyone assures me that they're the best pizza's they ever had.
Hi, I bought a rather expensive Kenwood a couple of years ago and regret doing so mainly because the recipes all correspond to American flour which obviously can't be bought in France. I've finally found a wonderful French ready-mix that I have to go miles out of my way to buy because I got tired of having to experiment every time I wanted to use a different flour. I buy about 20 kilos at a time. I had a problem with the paddle which my husband was fortunately able to fix. When we move next year and will be too far from the chain of supermarkets that sell the flour, I think I might invest in a Panasonic since everyone seems to like it a lot.
Which? recommends Panasonic 2501 which we recommended to my bro-in-law and he is very, very happy with it. I saw this same question on another site and Panasonic was hands down the winner. Happy bread baking and breaking!
Ditch the bread-maker and embrace real bread-making, the results are so much more impressive, in my humble opinion bien sûr. The Kitchen-Aid / Robo can help with the initial mix but there's nothing quite like getting your hands dirty.
Follow some simple recipes from someone like Dan Lepard and it's not even more time-consuming. You'll be creating your own sourdough masterpiece before you know it. And with the money you save on the bread-maker you can invest in some fancy-pants flours.
Panasonic every time. You do not need to the more expensive model which automatically adds dried fruit, nuts etc.