Wonderful bread every time (Panasonic SD253)

Member Name: pingucb

Product:	Panasonic SD253
Date:	12/10/08 (309 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, extremely reliable

Disadvantages: Possibly difficult to get hold of, slightly difficult to clean the main compartment

Several years ago we went for a meal at our friends' house and they cooked home-made pizzas for us. The pizzas were delicious, and having discovered that they'd made the bases in their breadmaker we had the first thoughts that a breadmaker may be useful. However, we were unsure how much we'd use one and didn't feel it was justified just for making pizzas! A few days later we were out shopping and a very nice lady in John Lewis offered us some bread that had been made in one of their breadmakers. I have to say it was the nicest piece of bread I'd ever had and from that moment we knew we were going to get one.

After some online research, we discovered that the breadmaker with the most recommendations was the Panasonic SD253, which just happened to be the one we'd experienced at John Lewis. We ordered one the next day and since it's arrived we haven't looked back. Our breadmaker cost us around £80 I believe, although it's quite a few years ago, so couldn't be exact. As it's an older model, I'm not sure it's even available now, although you may be lucky enough to find one in a shop somewhere. The closest I could find online is the SD255 for £88.83 from Amazon - it looks like an updated version of the SD253 and when our breadmaker eventually conks out I won't hesitate to buy one of these to replace it.

The SD253 looks much like most other breadmakers I've seen - a large white box with a hinged lid on top and a set of buttons with digital display to the side of this. It also has a separate small lid built within the lid, which is the seed and nut dispenser. This covers a small compartment with a hinged, trapdoor style floor which drops away at the appropriate time to add seeds/ nuts/ fruit etc to the mixture. Initially I was a bit disappointed that this model doesn't have a viewing window - however, my research revealed that this is the reason for it being highly recommended. Apparently the lack of a window means the bread is less likely to get soggy during the breadmaking process - something to do with steam escape, sounds illogical to me but is apparently true.

Within the main compartment is a removable bread bucket with its own removable kneading paddle. This clicks into the main compartment so that the kneading paddle is rotated by the breadmaker mechanism and sits on top of the heating element which winds round the inside compartment. Also included in the package are a plastic measuring cup and double ended measuring spoon for teaspoons, tablespoons and fractions of each of these.

As someone who'd never made bread before and never seen a breadmaker in action, I was a little concerned the process would be complicated. This couldn't be further from the truth with the SD253. It comes with a fantastic instruction/ recipe booklet which starts off by going through the essential ingredients needed for breadmaking and more importantly how each one works in the process (this is really essential if you want to experiment with your own recipes). The main additional items that we needed to purchase to use our breadmaker were yeast, strong bread flour and milk powder. Everything else is ingredients that you're likely to already have in your kitchen cupboards. An extensive list of recipes is included, making use of all the different programs on the breadmaker and assisting you to make anything from a plain white loaf to pesto and pine nut bread and encouraging use of ingredients as diverse as sundried tomatoes, apple juice, bacon and Branston pickle (although not all in the same loaf!). The recipes are as simple as measuring out each ingredient and adding it to the breadmaker in the order given in the recipe, then pressing the appropriate buttons to make the machine work. In some recipes there are different options for size of loaf, so you have to be careful to follow the same list of ingredients so you don't use the amount of flour needed for a large loaf and the amount of yeast for a medium. To be fair, we've never done this, so I don't think it's a big issue!

There are only six buttons to worry about - select/ option/ size/ crust/ timer and stop/start. The select button allows you to choose which of the bread types you wish to cook - basic, wholewheat, French, Italian, sandwich, pizza, bake only or gluten free - this is usually just a case of following the recipe, and if we're using a recipe from another book or experimenting with our own we've just guessed which setting seems most appropriate. Option allows you to cycle through whether you wish to use the nut/ seed dispenser and whether you want to make a rapid loaf (which dispenses with some of the time allowed for resting of the dough to make a quicker loaf). We've always preferred to wait that bit longer for a fully prepared loaf, as the longest program on the machine only takes 5 hours. The breadmaker can also be used just as a kneading machine to prepare the dough for individual rolls or cakes such as Chelsea buns, which can then be formed into shapes and baked in the oven. There are three size choices, medium, large and extra large - we've most often used the large setting - as the width of the bread bucket is fixed the extra large just comes out taller and can seem a bit out of proportion. Crust can be light, medium or dark, although with some of the settings there's no option for this. The timer allows you to set the breadmaker so that freshly baked bread awaits you when you wake up, although we've never used this setting so I can't comment on how good it is. Finally, the start/ stop button is obvious.

As mentioned earlier, knowledge about how the breadmaking process works is really useful when it comes to experimentation. Although there are plenty of recipes in the book, I've experimented from quite early on. Sometimes because we haven't had quite the right ingredients in stock or just because we fancied something a bit different. I've usually used a recipe from the instruction book as a guide and made sure to keep the proportions of different types of ingredients the same, so for example one dry ingredient can be substituted for another or oats can be used to replace some of the flour. In this way, we've had some wonderful breads over the years and amazingly we've never had a loaf that was inedible.

After use the breadmaker's reasonably easy to clean - the bread bucket and kneading paddle can be removed and are quite non-stick so clean without too much effort. The measuring cup and spoon aren't suitable for dishwashing but are easy enough to hand wash and they can be stored within the breadmaker bucket when not in use. The most difficult part of cleaning is the main compartment itself - during the kneading cycle, little bits of ingredients can go over the edge of the bread bucket and get burnt to the main compartment during cooking. These burnt on bits can be difficult to remove, particularly if they get beneath the visible heating element at the bottom of the machine.

Overall the SD253 is a fantastic breadmaker, we've been using it for about 4 or 5 years now, have never had a problem, never had an inedible loaf and enjoyed many delicious loaves, cakes and pizzas from it. Our friends love to come round and do make your own pizzas using bases from the breadmaker, and we'll often make a fresh loaf to accompany a sit-down meal, so it can even be used for a dinner party! I cannot recommend this breadmaker enough and won't hesitate to buy the upgraded version when ours eventually gives up (although there's no sign of that happening any time soon!)

POSITIVES
Delicious bread every single time
Huge variety of possible recipes
Very easy to use
Very very reliable

NEGATIVES
Difficult to get hold of now (although there appears to be an up to date version)
Slightly difficult to clean the main compartment

Summary: One of our best purchases of all time!!

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