i have a huge number of one task machines. drill, chain saw, jig saw, circular saw, big chain saw, big drill, computer, automoble, dump truck, shot gun, 22 caliber rifle, pistol, color printer, b&w printer, corkscrew. could do it all with a screwdriver and a bmf hammer. for cooking,coffee maker, waffle iron, grill, toaster, oven could do it all with just fire from sticks.

since the breadmaker saves an hour of time a day, have a bread maker.

I get where you're coming from.
I was given my breadmachine by my parents because I was living somewhere without an oven. in that context it was great. But standard bread isn't that delicious with a breadmaker and it isn't every day we have leftover grains and beans or vegetables to make bread with so once we moved to a house with an oven the breadmaker started to get used less and less. However. it was because I've found this additional use for it (as a mochi maker, something impossible to make with my own efforts) the breadmaker has gained a place on the kitchen workshop.
For me, the breadmaker isn't a unitasker and that's why I keep it to hand even though I don't use it daily for making bread.

It's different with the rice machine, the key to that is it keeps the rice hot for several hours. For those of us who rinse the rice in several changes of water first, then leave it to drain for an hour, then soak for an hour and THEN cook it there is a tremendous benefit in only doing this once a day. Our main problem is that it isn't a unitasker but we find it difficult to give up the rice function in order to use it as a slowcooker. So that's the predicament of getting a useful unitasking machine with multitasking options. We're seriously considering getting a second rice cooker to free up the first and allow us to use the alternative functions (slowcooking, yoghurt making, rice sprouting, etc)

Bowing to my family's bread preferences I've now found another use for our breadmaker. Its very good at making dough for breads made with the yudane (or tangzhong) method. I definitely wouldn't have the patience to make this kind of dough by hand as it's particularly laborious compared to other breads - lots of gluten, so particularly light and fluffy. I shape and cook the finished dough in a regular oven.

I guess out breadmaker fulfills the role of a KitchenAid in other homes. I prefer it as it has considerably more grunt than this kind of mixer. The cooking feature has become a bonus rather than the primary function for us.

My wife bought a bread maker a year ago......it's never been out of the cupboard for the last 9 months. :rolleyes:

Yes it made very nice bread (when she did it right) but so does the baker down the road. If you have one I say support your local baker.....not only will it be quicker and cheaper but the walk will do you good as well. ^

Hope bread is cheap where you are. The artisanal bakeries in my area are charging CAD 4-6 a loaf and you can only eat so much before it goes stale.

Most important thing in a breadmaker is one that pre-warms ingredients. A former colleague of my partner has a B&D machine (she uses it for mixing and kneading only) will knead and raise the dough twice before my partner's Hitachi(!) can raise it once, both started at the same time but the B&D waits to prewarm.

Or you could warm the bread bin up yourself and/or alter the temperature of the wet ingredients to approximate the 80F/28C you'll be after. Very simple.
I always make sure my bread bin is piping hot by pouring in boiling water, emptying and drying it before adding mochi rice.
Too many features could get in the way and hinder what I decide I need my breadmaker for, rather than what a focus group assumes I will want.

And to HIDDY - good luck getting Japanese style bread quickly and cheaply. All the Japanese people I've been feeding lately prefer what I've been baking than what they remember from Japan. I worked out that the cost of a loaf for us is about 60p each and the yudane element means it stays fresh for at least three days. The only way to get better milk bread than mine is to pay US$4.80/£3 a loaf (a small one) in Tokyo.

For years I had a DAK bread machine and loved it. The DAK was round and squat so naturally the kids named it the R2D2 bread maker. Unfortunately the loaves came out round, too - not quite like loaves we're used to from the store, but still quite tasty. The kids, though, just didn't want to take sandwiches to school made with round slices, so had to buy traditional bread just for them.

Eventually the Dak died, as all good appliances must do. I miss it, but have never replaced it, largely because I no longer have space in my kitchen to put a breadmaker. But for those who do have a breadmaker, half the fun is experimenting with non-traditional ingredients. I had my share of real disasters that way, but also some real winners.

Silly I know....but I never imagined that the Japanese ate bread.

Yes I now realise that not everyone is as fortunate as me to have a baker round the corner who still uses a wood fired oven. Most people here still buy bread twice a day so it's always fresh and is also pretty cheap. Unfortunately that will likely change in the years to come as the supermarkets take over.

A bread maker is certainly a good idea if you don't have close access to a decent bakers. Ours makes a decent pizza dough as well IIRC.

i had 3 kind of bread machines, 2 of them really old and brandless, the last one is a Kenwood, i am happy with it, but i think no matter what machine you buy, they do the same delicious bread, if you succeed to know it, and love it. Use your own recipes, because the recipes which come with the machines, are disgusting.

I have a US-market Zojirushi but our Japanese friends say that only the Japanese-market breadmakers do the job (and they say Panasonic is the best).

I've been trying to bake white bread for ages but nothing I do ever comes close to the retail Yamazaki white bread in Japan and the US (Yamazaki also sells in my neighborhood in the DC area under the Vie de France label). I'd be interested in your recipe for replicating Japanese bread.

InThailand
 

Took ours to www.baanyanuiseaview.com. Fresh bread for guests every day. Impressed my inlaws easy n fun ten mins of prep 3hrs later great bread I know of some real estate agents that run them to give show homes that homely feel When I feel the need to kneed I kneed but not that needy@:-)

It's this one:
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010...ese-style.html

I follow the blogger's suggestion of having the bread maker knead through a cycle to then reset the machine and have it go through the cycle again.

Also, I make the yudane/tangzhong with just full fat milk and flour - makes a stiffer tangzhong than with flour and water.
I've substituted the 86grams of caster sugar with 60gms of honey with good results. My next experiment will be substitute the sugar with condensed milk, especially as I can't get hold of milk essence or full fat milk powder. (I think I can get away with substituting more liquid ingredients as the tangzhong made with milk is less runny than the flour+water roux)

Yesterday I made the bread with just the all milk tangzhong modification and then brushed caramel onto the dough each time I folded it before rolling it all up. I ended up with a milky bread which only rose a very little less than the other batch I made without the caramel. As a result we had a bread with very pretty caramel swirls inside. (caramel was made by melting sugar and adding milk and a touch of butter once golden to then reduce a little). It was a big hit with my family.
I'd never say that this recipe yielded Hokkaido milk breads as good as these:
http://mont-thabor.jp/pan/pan00.html
But it is better than most of the milk breads from Japanese bakeries.

Thanks LapLap - had to google what tangzhong was but can't wait to try it out

OMNI Bread Baking Clinic
 

Like many (apparently) I have once again taken up bread baking. It's on hold for now until I can find some flour...everyone is sold out. Yesterday I made my first loaf from my new bread book ( ) and am once again disappointed. It tastes good but the interior structure is too many tiny bubbles and it's not the light, airy creation the book shows.

I know the problem is I really don't understand how to shape the loaf without squishing all the bubbles out of it. The book (and everything else I've read) talks about folding the dough and making it have a tight surface that seals in the gases and helps it hold its shape but I just can't manage it and have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I'd love to take a bread class and have someone who knows what they're doing show me how to do it, or watch me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. The pictures in the book make it look so neat and tidy, like with just a few folds you create this neat, tidy, perfect little ball of dough.

Also the book has you bake the bread in a Dutch oven, so the steam from the dough collects to provide a nice crust. I didn't know how to get the dough in the pot (the book just says "carefully") so I wound up turning the proofing bowl upside down over the pot. I didn't want to burn myself - the pot was preheating in a 475F oven after all. That "splat!" probably didn't help my efforts.

Anyone like baking bread and have any pointers? I won't even start on my many attempts to make a sourdough starter (after several days and feedings there has never been any sign of activity and I've thrown the whole thing out).

Simple thing for getting bread to be crusty is to put a small pie pan of hot water in the oven while baking it.

Alternatively, if you want a soft crust (a la wonderbread) brush the crust with some milk before baking.

My favorite bread book is Elizabeth David’s English Bread and Yeast Cookery, by the way.


As for where you started with questions, what flour are you using?

I also think most people try to get their dough to rise too fast. A longer rise at a lower temperature works best.