Making Bread with a Bread Making Machine

We’re all concerned about what we’re putting into our small people these days. But so often, the ‘good’ stuff costs so much more, you have to make compromise between your food morals and your budget.

Bread is one of those things that we all love to eat, but either have to spend a regular chunk of food budget on purchasing the good ones, or else close our eyes to the ingredients list. And before you say ‘yes, yes, yes, but who has the TIME?’  Let me tell you that I run a house, 4 children, a business – and am seriously allergic to anything which is dull and chore-like. Yet I haven’t bought a loaf of bread for 2 months (I used to go through 6 shop loaves a week feeding The Four) – and have no intention of ever doing so again.

To be honest I started this review expecting the novelty to wear off and to be back buying bread within 3 weeks, keeping the special home baked loaves for weekend treats. I also admit that I expected it to not really work out any cheaper than shop bread by the time I worked it all out properly.

I am SO converted!

It takes me 1 minute 32 secs to put a loaf in the Panasonic SD-YD250 Bread Maker (I know, I timed it!).  I do it as I go to bed most nights, and wake up to a beautiful fresh baked loaf every morning. If I use a mix, the prep time is halved.

The cost of the bread you make can vary enormously – at the moment I’m using a sack of organic flour from a very handy local flour mill.  Each loaf costs me 49p. Use a mix and the cost goes up, but never anywhere near the price of shop loaves - the highest priced loaf I made was 85p, and I was spending £1.12 on shop loaves.

I started off using Carrs mixes which Lakeland provided with the Panasonic SD-YD250 Bread Maker, and have to admit they have given by far the best loaves I have made – with no nasty ingredients they are the ultimate in breadmaking convenience.  I had a job keeping any bread at all in the bread bin – small boys seemed to materialize from nowhere, using a sixth sense to spot when fresh bread had arrived (beware, your household usage of butter,  jam and chocolate spread will rise in direct proportion to the amount of bread you make).

Once I moved away from the mixes (which you don’t have to ever if that’s what you like, but in all honesty why wouldn’t you want to explore?) I have found this bread making machine is so versatile – and utterly reliable. I now make pizza on a regular basis, simply because the dough is so simple. I have made French bread (mmmm…),  shaped rolls for lunchboxes  (“oh, cool!” was the verdict),  some really lush savoury flavoured breads (onion, cheese and herb & tomato were all huge hits) and seeded breads (just for me - make, slice and freeze, then defrost as you want a slice or two), and I can even now regularly make rye bread for the man of the house who has a wheat allergy.

I would say that my routine of making at bedtime probably isn’t the most practical, actually – fresh bread is amazing to wake up to, but hugely annoying to try and slice for lunchboxes when it’s still warm. If  I were a sensible grown up, I would make my loaves in the day, so that in the morning when I need them they are perfect for slicing. But I just can’t seem to let go of the fresh-baked-bread-in-the-morning smell. Besides, who wants to be a grown up?

Whilst I’m on the subject of lunchboxes, I have to say that as these loaves are very tall, I find one slice of bread, folded in half, makes perfect amount of sandwiches for my 5 and 7 yr old - no longer do I get a heap of crusts or leftover bread in the lunchbox! And 2 slices is enough to fill up my almost-10 yr old bottomless pit.

My only niggle is the measuring beaker - why did Panasonic decide in their wisdom to make it measure up to 310ml, when a basic white loaf uses 360ml, and there is more than enough room in the beaker for that much (I have measured and marked mine myself).

The  Panasonic SD-YD250 Bread Maker really is a foolproof bread maker. I know there are many on the market, and I also know this one isn’t the cheapest by a long way. But I worked out that financially I would have made back the cost of the machine inside 6 months – that’s a very short payback to me.  And from talking to owners of other (inferior!) breadmakers, this model really is worth every penny.