Smell that bread! (Kenwood Breadmaker BM200)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Kenwood Breadmaker BM200
Date:	13/12/03 (2692 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works well, Easy to use, Fresh bread

Disadvantages: None so far

For my birthday I had a new breadmaker, yes I know I only had my other one for a couple of years but it had become unusable.

I did have a Morphy Richards Essential Breadmaker at a cost of just £39.99 from Sainsbury's. Well I got what I paid for. It worked well at first but after a while the bread began to stick and eventually I couldn't get it out at all!

I wrote to Morphy Richards to see if I could purchase a new baking pan, but never received a reply.

So I eventually decided to go for a new one and chose the Kenwood Breadmaker BM200, costing about £65.

The first thing that I noticed about my new toy was the fact that the outer dimensions are smaller than my previous breadmaker, thus making it look neater and or course it takes up less room in the kitchen.

The instruction book is all in English, which pleased me, as I can't be doing with searching through all manner of languages trying to find the relevant one! It seems obvious to me to enclose the instructions for a product written in the language of the country where it is to be sold.

The front of the booklet explains the guarantee, next are all the necessary safeguards for the use of electrical appliances and then on to the business of bread making.

There are clear diagrams of the breadmaker, although these are hardly necessary as it is so straightforward and simple it is pretty much idiot proof.

The recipes are many and varied ranging from the basic white, brown and wholemeal loaves to all sorts of speciality breads such as cheese bread, tomato bread and even walnut bread which sounds interesting. The basic recipes are given in two sizes - for a large or a medium sized loaf.

There are also recipes for various dough based 'breads' such as croissants, doughnuts, bread rolls, etc. For these the breadmaker just kneads the dough and then you shape it by hand and cook it in the oven or the deep fat fryer depending o
n what you?re making.

Sadly there aren't any recipes too for those who experience gluten intolerance, so I must try and find the recipe book to my old breadmaker for those!

At the back of the booklet there is a troubleshooting guide for any problems that crop up.

Now let's get on with talking about the breadmaker which, incidentally, is very easy to use. The instruction booklet advises you to try and make a standard white loaf to start with, just to get you used to the equipment, so that is what I did.

For basic white bread all I had to do was this:

Open the lid of the breadmaker and remove the baking pan and make sure the paddle is fitted onto the spindle in the bottom - it is easier to load the ingredients with the baking pan out of the breadmaker and you don't spill flour down the sides and on to the element!

Using your kitchen scales and the plastic cup and measuring spoon provided with the breadmaker you put in the following ingredients in the order given, the amount of each depends on the size of loaf you?re making.

Tepid water
Strong white bread flour
Skimmed milk powder
Granulated sugar
Salt
Butter
Yeast

The reason that the ingredients have to be put into the breadmaker in this order is to keep the water and the yeast apart until the mixing process begins or else the fermentation will begin before the mixture is ready.

You then put the baking pan back into the breadmaker, pushing it down until it locks in position, close the lid and set the machine to number 1.

All you have to do now is switch the machine on and wait for about three hours and there's the loaf!

What happens next will depend on the setting you choose. On setting number one the machine begins immediately. It starts by kneading in small short bursts before moving onto a constant knead.

On some of the other settings the first thing it does is rest
for 15 minutes. Now, this would be worrying, were it not for the fact that the instruction booklet gives a table of every setting showing exactly what happens during the cooking cycle, in which order and for how long. Now that IS a good idea! I would have been worried that I had broken the thing had I now known that it should be doing nothing!

The mixture is then kneaded and left to prove for about ten minutes before being kneaded again. At the end of the second period of kneading the machine beeps. This is because some of the speciality breads require further ingredients to be added at this stage.

When cooking is complete the machine beeps to alert you that the loaf is ready so that it can be removed from the machine. The machine will keep the bread warm for a further hour, just in case you're not around to remove the loaf as soon as it is cooked. After an hour it will switch off and the bread will cool with the machine and go soggy as it does so.

To remove the loaf from the breadmaker just pull out the baking pan, which does take a bit of force so don?t worry that you?re going to break it and remember to use oven gloves as it will be extremely hot at this stage, and emptying the loaf out on to a cooling rack.

The paddle may stick in the bread at this stage but a firm shake of the pan soon dislodges it.

So there you have it a perfect loaf, with a small hole in the bottom where the paddle was I grant you but who cares when it tastes this good?

The baking pan just needs wiping with a damp cloth to clean it and that's that. I told you it was simple didn't I?

So far I have made white bread, which is gorgeous, wholemeal bread and granary bread, but I am looking forward to trying out the other settings. I even intend to have a go at making jam!

So there you are, bread making made simple, and no more worrying if I've bought enough bread to last over Christmas!

Another big adva
ntage as far as I am concerned is the fact that the instruction booklet also gives you an address to contact if ever you need to buy a new baking pan for your breadmaker, so that?s that problem covered before it even occurs!

Oh, I almost forgot, the smell is divine!

Summary: