| Product: |
Morphy Richards 48280 Fast Bake |
| Date: |
24.08.03 (1757 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: fresh bread when you need it
Disadvantages: time it takes
Last Christmas, I bought my mother a bread making machine for a gift. She was so delighted with it, and kept on commenting about it, so I went out, and got one for myself in the January sales.
The one I bought mum cost £39.99, but the one I bought for myself cost £29.99, sale price, what a bargain. You can buy them in all sorts of places; Argos, Currys, Dixsons, your local electric appliance store, to name but a few.
It measures 14.5 inches long x 10 inches across x 12 inches high, so it won?t take up too much space in the kitchen. When cooking the walls and bottom stay cool, so if like me, you can?t stand clutter in the kitchen, you can keep it else where, such as, on the side board in the dinning room like I do.
It is an attractive shape, and quite nice to look at. It?s white, with a little window in the lid, so you can keep an eye on what?s happening.
The controls have size selection, and you can even choose how brown you like your loaf, and it also has a timer.
It comes complete with an easy to understand instruction book, with quite a number of recipes for different types of bread. I have tried most of them. You must measure every thing properly to get the right textures. They do include a measuring cup in the box. You need to buy yeast, and the right type of flour. I have to admit I didn?t like it very much, the basic bread mix seemed too sweet and had a heavy texture, although it was very crusty.
I have found that you can buy ready-made dry mixes, for many types of bread in the supermarkets. These are absolutely lovely. The bread has a perfect texture, is crusty, and is so easy to use. All you do is put water in the pan, put in the dry mixture, put it in the machine, set the time and press start. The bread maker does it all. First it mixes, then it kneads the dough, then lets it rise, then kneads it some more, and finally it lets it rise a last time, before it bakes it for you, while you can do others things. <
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The mixes come in bags of different flavours and types of bread, even to make Hovis bread. Mixes usually contain 500grams, which is enough to make two small loaves. Most cost around 75p ?89p.You can get a larger bag of plain white mix, which cost about £1.45, depending where you buy it and most supermarkets stock them. You can also buy lots of different sachets, containing different things to add to the basic mix, costing approximately 59p. My favourite is mixed seeds and it comes out just like a granary loaf, but you can also get, sun ripened tomato and herbs, cheese & onion, and lots of different ones.
The machine gives you some warning beeps when its time to put in the added ingredients, like seeds and things, then it beeps when the loaf is ready. It takes about 3 hours to bake a loaf from start to finish, and it will keep the bread warm for up to an hour, so you can pop out to the shops and not worry too much about getting back on time.
The best thing of all is that you never run out of bread. The mixes have a much longer shelf life than even the finest shop bought loaf. It is very handy to have one or two in the cupboard for emergencies.
Now for the bit we all hate, cleaning it.
Not a problem, as the out side and the inside of the machine just need a wipe with a damp cloth. Some times a few crumbs fall down under the element, but the hover nozzle takes care of them easily. The pan the bread is baked in is very easy to remove, and like the paddle, also easy to remove from the pan. It is non-stick, and can be washed with ease.
The only downside is, that the paddle that mixes the dough often stays in the loaf, and can sometimes be difficult to remove, but this is a small price to pay for such a handy, useful item.
I use mine constantly; it?s well worth the money.
Oh, and by the way it also makes jam, which I haven?t done yet, as I have been too busy making bread.
Would I recommend it
to any one? Well lets just say, I have never used any other make, but since I bought my Morphy Richards in January, and its now august, its been used constantly, with no problems at all.
Would I buy another? I wouldn?t be without it.
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