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Morphy Richards 48268 Fastbake Breadmaker
by Lydsabug
I really love the smell of fresh bread when i walk down the high street and even more so when you buy some and have it in the kitchen whilst its warm and the smell seems to fill the house. After many, and i mean more than i really want to admit, failed attempts at making my own bread I gave up and accepted that it was never to be. By ... chance, I called upon a neighbour who had a bread maker and although it wasnt the Morphy Richards one, she was raving about using it. I like the idea of something that could make it and bake it and I could maybe pass it off as my own........
I looked around and reviewed a lot of bread makers before settling on the Morphy Richards fast bake as I wanted something that wasnt labouring for hours to produce a tiny loaf that would have the household arguing about for hours! Also, I wanted a chrome bread maker to fit in with my decor (cream and chrome) and this seemed like my ideal item. I orded from Amazon and it arrived within 4 days and I was not disappointed at all.
There were a few parts to fit together but this was a breeze, the outer casing, the inner bread basket and the dough mixer blade which slotted together and we were ready to bake. I just needed to make sure I had all the ingredients for the perfect loaf and off I went to get them. The outer casing itself is very nice to look at and positively professional in its appearance, it stands about 12 - 15 inches tall and has a glass viewing panel on the top. The controls are in black but this doesnt take anything away from its classy look, its quiet when working and I did have to check a few time that it was actually on.
When you choose the loaf you want to make you can indicate how well you want this cooking from light to dark, personal preference I guess as I always choose dark (I like the taste of the darker crust). The bread itself can be a smaller loaf at around 1.5lb or a larger one at 2lb, again, I tend to make the bigger one for the family. The bread doesnt have any added preservatives so one thing to remember is that it isnt going to last beyond a day or two but if like me, you like toast, its great for that after the second day.
There are 12 settings for various options of bread but I usually use the Fastbake 1 or 2 option, you can always make Wholemeal, sweet bread herb bread, in fact absolutely any bread you like and although there are some recipes in the manual you can always use your own. There is a bleep indicator for various stages and to let you know when the bread is ready, controls being very simple to use.
For all the bread recipes in the manual, all the ingredients are put in the basket within the breadmaker together and you then set the machine to go, its really that simple. I like to set the timer to bake the bread for early morning and although this was a great idea to begin with, it woke the dog at 5am who then thought it was time to howl for the family to get up so lesson learnt.......
The basket can be quite hot when the bread is cooked, as you would expect so i would suggest you use heat proof mitts and them tip the bread onto a rack to cool down, if you place it on a ledge or anything solid, the heat turns to condensation and the bread goes a little soggy. The bread itself can take around 3 hours to mix, knead and bake but during the cooking section it will smell wonderful, everything i dreamt it would be. There is always a hole in the underside of the bread where the blade has been but once cut, its not too noticeable and doesnt take anything away from the taste anyway.
I have also let the bread knead and then removed from the maker so i can split into buns and cook in the oven, these are amazing and my husbands favourite without a doubt. Im not overly keen on fruited breads and although you can make these, amongst many others in the machine, I tend to stick to white and wholemeal.
I would recommend this machine to anyone thinking about buying one and would replace this with the exact same if it were to expire, the smell is wonderful and its now part of the family....my own little dough boy!
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Morphy Richards 48281 Fastbake Breadmaker
by theshoes
My wife and I had never thought about getting a bread maker before but when we were given this as a Christmas Present we thought, what the heck let's give it a try.
First of all it is a bit bigger than I expected a bread maker to be (when you look at the size of the loaf tin in comparison to the size of the machine!) but when ... you use it and realise that even in a small kitchen like ours there's no danger of things next to it get getting blasted with heat when it's running then I'm more than happy with the size.
Secondly it's ridiculously straightforward in its construction and really easy to take the tin out and keep the whole machine clean. As some reviewers have said on first use it was a bit smelly when the grease burnt off but most cooking appliances are and it fades really quickly.
Now on to the bread!! I work shifts and my wife works nine to five, so we found we wasted a lot of bread when we bought loaves from the shop. So the smaller loaves you can make in this machine are very handy in that regard and really easy to put together. The instruction manual is basic but easy to follow and comes with all the measuring instruments supplied - just make sure the bread pan is clean (no soap residue as this added ingredient makes dough bricks not bread which I learned the hard way) and makes sure you measure accurately and you're in business.
A superb feature of this machine is the timer - you can bung in all the ingredients at night and set the time to coincide with your alarm clock and wake up to fresh bread and if you've never tried fresh bread and butcher sausage sandwiches on a Saturday morning I can't recommend it enough!
A word of warning though is to shop savvy with your ingredients. Some standard recipes can be quite expensive by the time you buy all the ingredients on a loaf per loaf basis and you'll find yourself being cheaper to buy bread from a supermarket and suffer the wastage. We've found though that most supermarkets (in the home baking section) have pre mixed bread flours for white bread, wholemeal bread, Ciabatta bread etc., and these we've found to retail for around 70 pence, significantly cheaper and no reduction in quality from buying everything separately (not to mention a lot less measuring involved).
Back to the heading for this review though - versatility. Ok maybe a little bit misleading in that this machine in primarily a bread maker (and a good one to boot) but we use other functions of the machine a lot more now and we love the results we get. The dough setting on the machine gives wonderful results in making your own rolls and pizza dough.
Yeah I know it sounds boring but until you've tried the rolls you have no idea what you're missing. Simply bung in your half bag (250g) of wholemeal bread mix from your supermarket of choice, add 175mls of water, press the dough button and find something else to do for 90 minutes. After your 90 minutes, simply empty the bread pan onto a lightly floured worktop or chopping board and cut into 4 or 6 even pieces. Shape the dough into a rough square and put on a greased baking tray. Cover with Clingfilm and allow to rise for 15 minutes. Brush the rolls with melted butter and bake for 15 minutes at 190C and enjoy the results. Might sound a bit fiddly but it gives you 8-12 rolls for 70 pence (not to mentioned how good they taste!) and after the first couple of times doing this you'll find it takes no time at all.
Then there's the jam.... We tried the jam recipe (we make our own Jam the old fashioned stirring a pot like a maniac way too) and we realised we'd bought a bit too much fruit for the time we had so we thought we'd try the bread maker out and we were not let down at all. Simply add two cups of fruit (we made raspberries and strawberries) a cup of chopped cooking apple, a cup of preserving sugar, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and press the button. No hassle and excellent jam that tastes great and sets very well too.
So in summary - a good machine with a good bit of versatility if you use your imagination.
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Morphy Richards 48322
by mjc121
I remember years ago my gran and my mum making bread on a weekly basis by hand. Mixing it all together letting it rise etc and naturally the house smelling of fresh baked bread. Well I normally don't have the time to make bread by hand so after my old bread maker packed in and I had a period of buying the mass produced rubbish from shops ... I decided it was time to replace it.
This machine cost me £36.99 form the co-op electrical the RRP is £79.99
What is in the box?
Not surprisingly it's a bread maker. Now despite being lager than my old one it is lighter and has more programmes on it to make different types of bread. Also included are two measuring cups and a set of measuring spoons. The two measuring cups are provided so you can measure the water/milk in one and the flour in the other.
The guarantee cards and instruction booklet are also included. The instruction book does have the usual trouble shooting tips as well as a good number of bread recipes as well. From these I have produced mainly the 50% granary loaf and regular wholemeal bread. As I don't eat white bread I have not tried to make this but I would assume the results would be then same. I have tried the soda bread recipe and just using it to make the dough for bread rolls.
Setting it up and using it
The machine makes mainly 1.5 and 2 lb loves, however, with some settings it will make a smaller 1 lb loaf.
Before you make your first loaf you have to brush the inside of the bread pan with a little oil and put it into the bread maker and then set it on the 'extra bake' mode for about 10 minutes. After washing the pan out and drying it and attaching the mixing arm you are ready to make bread.
Using the recipes provided makes using this machine is very easy as long as you put the ingredients into the bread pan in the right order. As with all bread machines you need to use dried yeast and the fast action sort is the best. When all the ingredients are in the pan simply put the pan into the bread maker then it's all in the programming of the machine.
This machine has 13 different settings for making all kinds of bread from a basic white bread to gluten free as well as sugar and salt free recipes. There is also a 'jam' setting for making jam in the machine. However, although nothing compares to homemade jam (if done properly) I don't have the time or patience to prepare the fruit etc so I haven't used this setting. The recipe book does advise which setting to use to give the best results for each recipe and this is what you should stick to. Then you can set the 'crust setting' from 'very light' to 'very dark'. I tend to stick to the 'medium' setting on this as it gives a good colour but it could be that bit crisper. There is also a setting to use if you are making a so called 'speciality breads' such as malt loaf and soda bread. Although the soda bread result was good with the machine it is the one bread I regularly make that I still prefer to do by hand.
Results
So far I have tended to make the 2 lb loaves and they last about 2 days before they are eaten. As long as they are properly stored they should last a few days without drying out. For recipes I have used mainly the recipes in the booklet provided. The results for the 50% granary loaf is a soft bread with a slightly sweet crust and a slightly nutty flavour to the bread. The reason for making it with 50% granary and 50% white is that it tends to rise that bit better than it would have if I had used only granary flour. I have tried it with 75% granary and although the taste was better the bread wasn't as soft and did not rise as well. The wholemeal recipe also works well and again gives a good soft bread although not raised as well as white bread would do. This is actually normal as wholemeal and granary flours are heavier and don't rise as well.
I do tend to use milk in place of water as this gives a better flavour and texture to the bread. However, this has to be skimmed milk so as little as possible extra fat is added. As I don't use milk for anything else I tend to keep a packet of dried milk in my cupboard for this and mix it up on the day.
The time it takes to produce the loaf varies depending on the setting and the size of the loaf you want to make. The 50/50 granary one takes over three and a half hours including the one hour bake time. This length of time is so the heavier grains of flour can soak up the moisture better to give a better result. A 2 lb white loaf will take three hours (according to the booklet). There are some 'fast bake' cycles which work quicker and produce a loaf in a little over an hour but the result is a heavier textured bread. However the fast bake can only be used successfully when making white bread.
I have also used it on the dough setting when I have wanted to make some bread rolls. Here the machine will mix it all for you but it won't bake it. When it is ready it will beep to let you know to take the dough out and shape it and to allow it its second rise. Now this requires you to be fairly close by to hear the beep. Either that or set a separate timer to the time on the in built clock and keep it with you. The problem here is that the baking of the rolls is down to your skill as a baker and your oven. They should take about 15-20 minutes in the oven. I take them out at about 15 minutes in and, whilst holding one with a clean tea towel tap the bottom of one of it. If it sounds hollow then they are cooked.
There is also a timer delay function so you can set it to start to make the bread at say 2:30 in the morning so it is ready for you when you get up. There are some programmes where this is not advised and you shouldn't use it if you are using milk in place of water. The timer delay is also not very successful for wholemeal and granary breads (I learnt this from my old bread maker).
The digital display goes onto a dim setting after a few seconds in order to save some power but to be honest unless you leave it plugged in permanently the amount this will save is negligible.
After the bread has been baked the machine goes to a 'keep warm' setting for an hour but the sooner you take it out and get it onto a wire rack to cool the better as this prevents condensation from getting into the bread making it go soggy.
Cleaning it
The bread pan and the mixing arm have to be washed by hand as a dishwasher would damage the non-stick coating on it. The non-stick appears to be quite thick and it is easy to wash. Just make sure that you are not using anything rough which could damage the coating. The outside of the machine is easily wiped down with a damp cloth and you should not use any cleaning product on it.
The lid of the machine also lifts off to make it easier to clean the glass panel in it. This is easy to do and also, more importantly, easy to put back on as well.
Problems
Removing the mixing arm from the bread after you have taken the loaf out of the pan. Not only, being metal, is it very hot but also the bread cooks around it enclosing it. The best thing to use to remove it are some plastic tongs as this avoids scratching it.
The machine its self is also quite large hence if you are short of storage space in your kitchen then a smaller model may be better for you. Despite its size it is fairly light so can be take out of and put back into a cupboard fairly easily although carrying handles would make this easier.
When mixing the dough it does appear that the dough has all moved over to one side of the pan. When I first used it when it got to the first rise cycle I opened the lid and with a plastic spatula evened this out. The second time I used it I did not do this and there was no difference in the quality of the bread produced. I do feel that a larger mixing arm would possibly prevent this.
Naturally after the bread is cooked the bread pan which is metal is hot, so using the handle to remove it, the only problem being that the handle is also made of metal and gets very hot. Also with a tea towel or regular oven gloves the handle isn't all that easy to lift up. I do have some of those heat resistant proper gloves (if that makes any sense) so I use those to lift it out. The handle is also quite thin and twisting the bred pan to unlock it isn't the easiest thing to do with hot metal so those with arthritis may struggle with this.
Specifications:
Depth - 29 cm
Width - 37.5 cm
Height - 33 cm
Power - 600 w
Please note height is when the lid is closed. Open lid adds an extra 30 cm to the height.
The machine is well made and comes with a two year guarantee as long as you register it online within 28 days of purchase. If not it goes back to a one year guarantee.
Summary
The range of settings it gives a lot of versatility to making bread. Despite a couple of design flaws (the handle on the pan and the mixing arm being too thin) the machine is a good one and it is well worth what I spent on it.
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