| Product: |
Morphy Richards 48280 Fast Bake |
| Date: |
04/10/06 (1670 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: makes nice bread
Disadvantages: it's big
We were given this breadmaker as a wedding present. My brother actually works for a chain of high street hardware shops, so he asked the guy who deals with the returned goods which bread maker had the least problems. This one was his recommendation. It's selling on Amazon at the moment for £34.99.
First impressions... it's big! We had trouble finding a location for it in our kitchen. It's too heavy to be put in a cupboard if it's going to be taken out and used regularly so we decided to keep it out. If it was on the work top and under the wall unit, the lid couldn't be opened properly as it hit the cupboard above it. After rearranging the kitchen twice we eventually found it a home.
There are 12 programs:
Basic (small & large)
French (small & large)
Wholewheat (small & large)
Quick
Sweet (small & large)
Fastbake small
Fastbake large
Dough
Jam
Cake
Sandwich (small & large)
Bake
It comes with an A4 black and white instruction booklet which gives clear instructions, information about different types of flour, details of all the programs and recipes for various types of bread. It has a two year guarantee and there is an "0845" helpline for UK customers.
A measuring cup and spoons are provided. The instructions stress the need for acurate measuring a number of times, so my usual "that looks about right" method of cooking had to fall by the wayside.
It makes either a 1.5lb or 2lb loaf, although the 1.5lb setting can be used to make a 1lb loaf for some of the recipes. This breadmaker also has a timer which can delay the start of baking for up to 13 hours, so it would be possible to get up in the morning to the smell of freshly baked bread.
We read the booklet and got started.
Our first attempt was a 1lb wholemeal loaf, following the recipe given. One of the tips in the booklet was to place all the ingredients in the baking pan so that the yeast is not touching any liquid. We put the water and oil in first, then all the dry ingredients, and the yeast on top.
We pressed the required buttons and off it went. 3 1/2 hours later the bread maker beeped to tell us it was ready. It does have a "keep warm" facility so you don't have to take it out immediately the program finishes, but we were keen to see the results. Oops! It was small (hadn't risen much) and it was doughy in the middle, but it did taste alright! I don't know exactly what went wrong, but we have tried to be extra careful when measuring the ingredients since the instructions do stress this.
We have since used it a lot, at least once or twice a week and our efforts improve all the time. We made a 1lb loaf to start off with, but for three of us this loaf is just too small. The 1.5lb and 2lb loaves seem to bake better too. Generally we have baked wholewheat and granary bread.
We used the cake recipe in the booklet, just because we could! The program took 2 hrs 50 minutes, so it would actually have been quicker to mix it in a bowl and bake it in the oven, but the result was good. The trouble was that it produced a rectangular loaf shaped cake. I carefully cut it and put jam in the middle and icing on the top. I tasted just as good as a conventionally baked cake, but I think that due to the time involved I probably wouldn't do it again.
We also used the raisin bread and porrdge oats bread recipes which were really nice.
The manufacturer recommends Allinson flours and yeast, which we did use at first. We have also used a Sainsbury's seeded granary flour which didn't effect the results at all.
There is a "fastbake" option to make a loaf in one hour, but this can only be used to make white bread, which is something we don't generally eat. Otherwise it does take around 3 - 3 1/2 hours to bake a loaf, but apart from the few minutes putting the ingredients carefully into the machine it requires little effort. Just put everything in, press the buttons and go away and leave it.
The bread doesn't keep as well as a shop bought loaf, but it tastes better, and in our house it rarely lasts long enough to go off anyway!
Overall, I'm really glad we were given this.
Summary: well worth the money
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