Club Breadmakers

[Figaro]

Hi silk magic


I just bought a Takada bread maker last week and would like to exchange notes... It came with a hook... do you know what that's for?

Second, in the recipes in the instructions manual, the basic white bread and the soft grain bread look exactly the same?

Lastly, when I make basic white bread, it is slightly brownish inside, not like the commercial white bread. I wonder if you or any others have a similar experience?

Thanks much in advance!

silk magic:

WCW:

Does carrefour still selling it?

Should be since my colleague just bought it last week.

Here is how it looks
http://i52.tinypic.com/r2npt2.jpg\">

[straffan23]

Hello all. I have been reading on bread-making and bread-makers for a few days now. Really tempted to join your club! I am thinking of getting the Z-mini but I do wonder if members here might have any recommendation for a newbie?


Also, is it difficult for a beginner to use a mixer to kneed and then an oven to bake the bread? Use existing gadgets before investing in new gadget, that is!

Thanking everyone in advance for their guidance and comments!!

[Flowermonaster]

straffan23:

Hello all. I have been reading on bread-making and bread-makers for a few days now. Really tempted to join your club! I am thinking of getting the Z-mini but I do wonder if members here might have any recommendation for a newbie?


Also, is it difficult for a beginner to use a mixer to kneed and then an oven to bake the bread? Use existing gadgets before investing in new gadget, that is!

Thanking everyone in advance for their guidance and comments!!

Hi Straffan23, I personally think it's better to use mixer to knead if your mixer can knead dough & then use oven to bake. I currently use my Zmachine to knead only. I alway use oven to bake my bread as I prefer varieties. Bread machine can only bake loaf bread & not buns. Baking loaf in bread machine is not as good as using oven, just my personal opinion.

[Figaro]

Hi Straffab23 - am happy to share with you my experience as well. I have a Kenwood Classic Chef and a smaller Philip cake mixer. I bought a very basic Takada bread maker about a month ago and have stopped buying commercial bread.


Before I bought the breadmaker, I found it a hassle to make bread dough with my Kenwood Classic Chef even though it is perfect for the job, being very heavy duty, as kneading well for 15 mins is essential to make good bread. The Kenwood Chef is too heavy, and it's a hassle to take it in and out of my cupboard. It isn't practical for me to leave it on the kitchen top since it takes up a lot of space and will gather dust. The Philips cake mixer is too light weight to make bread dough. In addition, it takes you half a day to make bread dough as you'll need to do proofing and rising etc. These steps are rather disruptive if your schedule is tight.

On the other hand, the bread maker is all covered up and I can leave it on the kitchen top. After experimenting with several recipes, I think the bread maker is better for making bread dough. After it has been proved in the bread maker, you can take it out, shape it, leave to rise and then put in the oven to bake. You can also add egg wash etc. You get better control and results this way. The bread maker loaf doesn't taste as nice. In addition, many recipes (eg. from allrecipes.com) are not optimised for our type of weather, and I find the bread dough is too sticky and not malleable... So need to add more flour after the proofing stage. On the other hand, the recipes provided by other forummers on this thread are very good and optimized for our local weather. U should check those out.

I looked at many bread makers before buying the Takada from Gmarket. Mainly the price... it's the cheapest out there. I think it's a good buy esp if you're going to use it mainly for making dough.

Another piece of advice. If you're into making bread, it'll be useful to get a digital scale as well. You can put the bread tin on top, tare the reading, and then add in the ingredients step by step without having to measure the ingredients in separate containers.

Hope this helps... enjoy...

straffan23:

Hello all. I have been reading on bread-making and bread-makers for a few days now. Really tempted to join your club! I am thinking of getting the Z-mini but I do wonder if members here might have any recommendation for a newbie?

Also, is it difficult for a beginner to use a mixer to kneed and then an oven to bake the bread? Use existing gadgets before investing in new gadget, that is!

Thanking everyone in advance for their guidance and comments!!

[georicky]

Hi Straffab23-my personal advice is currently use your existing gadgets, mixer & oven. then slowly look around for breadmaker. If u have the heavy duty mixer, dough is very different compared to breadmaker’s dough. I agree with BrownBelt as breadmaker can only make loaf bread but not spread your creativity to others like buns, croissants, pizza, etc etc. But for beginner, test out using your current gadgets, save time & $ while experiencing the joy of baking…

[Flowermonaster]

georicky:

Hi Straffab23-my personal advice is currently use your existing gadgets, mixer & oven. then slowly look around for breadmaker. If u have the heavy duty mixer, dough is very different compared to breadmaker's dough. I agree with BrownBelt as breadmaker can only make loaf bread but not spread your creativity to others like buns, croissants, pizza, etc etc. But for beginner, test out using your current gadgets, save time & $ while experiencing the joy of baking...

Georicky, my nick is Flowermonster not brownbelt lah. :rotflmao:

[straffan23]

Thanks for sharing! I think I’ll get some ingredients this weekend and give it a try first before investing in a machine. My idea about the machine is that I can just put in the ingredients, wash my hand, and wait for the bread to appear! I am tired of eating plain white bread and toast all the time! And bread seem to be a much healtier choice compared to cakes!!

[georicky]

Sorry Flowermonaster, was caught with the icon & the name.


Straffan23 - even with BM, u still need to monitor & adjust here & there abit like add oil if too dry or add flour if too moist. Happy trying

[Flowermonaster]

straffan23:

Thanks for sharing! I think I'll get some ingredients this weekend and give it a try first before investing in a machine. My idea about the machine is that I can just put in the ingredients, wash my hand, and wait for the bread to appear! I am tired of eating plain white bread and toast all the time! And bread seem to be a much healtier choice compared to cakes!!

Straffan23, you might want to try this recipe.
140ml milk
1 egg
1/4tsp salt
30g fine sugar
30g cake flour
270g bread flour
3/4tsp yeast
Mix them together & knead well (bread machine around 8min)
Add 30g butter (cut into small pieces)
Knead until the dough is elastic & when pull won't break. Cover dough with clinging wrap.
Then proof for 1hr or until double in size. press out the air from the dough.
Shape the dough into bun (I normally split them into 10 equal size)
To make plain bun I roll the small dough 4 times
If you wan to put in filling u can do so.
Then proof the buns for another 60min cover in clogging wrap
Preheat oven in 180oC. Egg wash the bread before putting them into oven
If you want you can decorate your buns with white sesame seeds.
Baking time 20min plus minus depend on oven.

[straffan23]

Flowermonaster: So, I diligently (okay, maybe not so diligently) copied down the recipe from this forum on Friday evening before leaving the office. Asked my maid to buy instant yeast. And Saturday morning happily took out all the ingrediants and the recipe.... Then, I realised - Alamak!! Missed a line - how come didn't say need how much flour?? Surely need flour to make bread, right?


Found another pre-printed recipe instead for Brioche. So, I tried that instead. And it turned out pretty well! Baked a dozen of mini brioche on my chwee-kueh's trays, and a small loaf for my niece, and another loaf for breakfast this morning. I am hooked :boogie: