Mmmmmm Smell My Buns!! (Morphy Richards 48221 Breadmaker)

Member Name: kezbomb

Product:	Morphy Richards 48221 Breadmaker
Date:	04/01/02 (1318 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fresh bread when you like, easy to use, the achievement of making your own baked goods

Disadvantages: the weight you may gain from eating all your goodies

To say my husband is now in my good books is an understatement, especially after the wonderful christmas he bought me this christmas.

I never in a million years thought that I would be wanting a breadmaker, but here I now sit the proud owner of a Morphy Richards 48220 series breadmaker in stainless steel.

What made me want one of these machines you might ask! Well all my friends had had one and had been raving on about them for weeks, and even swore never to buy shop bought bread again. I did think it was a load of hassle and probably a lot of mess for something I could just pop up the road to buy for the matter of a few pence.

Well anyway I saw them advertised on TV and immediatley thought how simple they looked to use, all they seemed to do was add the ingredients and press a button and out came a lovely looking fresh loaf, there was also no need for mixing, kneading or even the use for weighing scales. So I started to drop gentle hints, and leaving the Argos and Index books open on the appropriate pages from then until christmas in hope my husband might catch on to what I wanted off Santa.

Well anyway it must of done the trick, because Christmas morning came and there it was just what I wanted, my breadmaker, and even better it was in stainless steel to match all my other little kitchen gadgets.

I wasted no time and immediatley took it to the kitchen and it took pride of place on my worktop ready for use. I then took out the instruction booklet that came with it and took it into the lounge for a good read.
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The instruction booklet starts off with all you need to know before you actually use the unit, like showing you how to assemble the blade and what all the parts and buttons are for.

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The maker comes with a measuring cup and spoon so there is no need for the use of weighing scales. There is also a non-stick
easily removable baking tin for measuring your ingredients into and for making dough and cooking your bread or cakes in.

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There is also a contents page which is easily laid out into 3 sections, which include operating instructions, recipies, and a section on further instructions.

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The breadmaker is so simple to use even a 5 year old could understand how it works.

The settings are all written on the unit itself from no's 1-11 which are all operated using just one button.

no's 1- 3 are for a basic white loaf,
4-6 are for whole wheat bread,
and no's 7-11 are for specialitys such as dough and jam.

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To cook a small basic white loaf takes 2hrs and 45 minutes and this is from when you have put all the ingredients in. This time includes the mixing, kneading, waiting for it to rise and then the cooking. To bake a large loaf only takes 2hrs and 50mins.

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You really cant go wrong when measuring your ingredients into the breadmaker. You measure them in using the cup and spoon included with your unit, and in the order they appear in the recipe.

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In the book you have a whole section on explaining your ingredients, and it tells you the difference between the different types and flour, and the reason for needing to use strong flour or bread flour when baking bread.

When baking bread you need to use strong flour because of the high gluten and protein content which has been treated with special conditioners which give the dough a greater tolerance during the kneading process.

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The breadmaker not only makes bread either, to my husband and daughters delight it also makes the dough for doughnuts.


There are recipies for 27 different types of bread in the booklet that comes with it, such as Raisin bread, french bread, pesto bread, sundried tomato bread, as well as buns and croissants.

You can also set it to make the dough for doughnuts, pizzas and muffins too.

You can also set it to make your own jam and cakes, it really is shocking at the number of different things that you can bake with it.

It really did amaze me at how simple it was to use, and after baking my first loaf is was shocking at how easy it was to clean too, all it takes is a wipe round with a paper towel as the unit is non-stick. Even after making dough all you do is rinse it with warm soapy water.

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The ingredients are'nt hard to come by either, as I managed to pick up all I needed to bake a loaf from my local kwiksave, plus I also found I had a lot of the things I needed already in my cupboard.

Here is an example of the basic white loaf recipe, and all you have to do is place them in your tin in the order they appear in the list.

Water 3/4 cup
Skimmed milk powder 2tbsp
Butter 2 tbsp
Sugar 1 1/4 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Strong white flour 2 cups
Dry yeast 1 tsp

Then you press the select button to number 1

This recipe is for a small white loaf, and as you can see you dont need large quantities, and most things in the list you probably already have.

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Now lets get to the most important part, taste and smell.
Well you unit comes with a delay timer so you can either set it to make your bread immediatley or set it to make it while you're sleeping or while you're out at work so you can wake or come in from work with the gorgeous smell of fresh bread in your kitchen, and it really does smell wonderful and the taste even more wonderful. My children think there is nothing better, and love nothi
ng better than a slice of warm bread with a bit of butter on.

And as for the doughnuts, well what can I say, I think the disappearance of 41 doughnuts in less than a 24hr period speaks for itself really does'nt it! And they definatley taste better than the ones you get at the fair or seaside.

I now just hope that it has a long life span as I dont think I could be without it now. But at least I know it will be with me for at least the next 2 years as it comes with a 2yr guarentee.

I think the only downfall that I can find to it is the extra pounds that me and my family will gain eating all the scrummy food that keeps appearing out of there.

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