| Product: |
Panasonic SD206 Automatic Breadmaker |
| Date: |
06/11/01 (2134 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Easy to use, Consistently good results, Fresh bread every day
Disadvantages: I'm putting on weight
Many years ago when I first moved away from our family home I found myself staying in a single bedroom flat. It was basic, it was uncomfortable and it was expensive. It did, however, have one saving grace. It was right next door to a bakery. I don’t think I will ever forget the wonderful early morning smell of freshly baked bed wafting into my abode. The taste of the bread was pretty good too.
This all planted the idea in my mind that it would be good to make my own bread. However, I am very lazy at heart and the idea of spending time and energy kneading dough into the right consistency held no appeal at all.
I was, therefore, delighted to discover that there is an easier way and decided to buy a breadmaker. After much research I opted for the Panasonic SD206. This looked like reliable machine and it would be possible to produce three sizes of loaf (not surprisingly: small, medium and large).
The machine has a number of different modes you can use. There is a ‘basic’ mode which as it implies produces a basic loaf of bread with no frills. Nevertheless, there are a number of ‘basic’ bread recipes, which means there are a many options open to you even if you never use any of the other facilities on the machine. Using this mode it is possible to produce a lovely loaf of bread in four hours. All you do is measure the ingredients into the pan provided, put the pan into the breadmaker, turn it on, press a couple of buttons, and wait. The average loaf of bread involves about two minutes work by you. Once the machine is started you can leave it alone and don’t need to go back to it until your bread is ready.
There is also a ‘raisin bake’ mode. With this you can produce fruit loafs, and much more besides. For example, a particular favourite of mine is Tomato Foccacia. Anything produced in ‘raisin bake’ bake is slightly more complicated. You measure and add
your ingredients in the normal way but hold back on any bits that have to be added (e.g. raisins). Halfway through kneading the dough the machine stops. It then beeps to tell you to add your raisins, or whatever else is required. This does means that for the first forty minutes or so, you do have to be around, but once your extra ingredients are added you can leave the machine to get on with it. I hope I have made this sound complicated because this is very easy to do.
There is also a mode for baking French bread. This is the easiest recipe, and in my opinion, the tastiest bread. The downside is that this takes six hours. I gather that other machines do produce French bread in less time.
When I first used the machine I had a complete disaster with it. There is a rapid bake mode. This enables you to produce a loaf of bread in 1 hour 55 minutes. Being the impatient type I wanted a loaf of bread as fast as possible, so as soon as I got the machine I unpacked it and set about making a loaf of bread using fast mode. Being impatient, I also did not read the recipe properly. Had I bothered to do this I would have noticed that rapid bake needs more yeast. The net result was that I was left with a gooey mess instead of a wonderful of loaf of bread I was expecting.
I have since learnt that quality bread needs time to ‘prove’ and I have never repeated that mistake. Since that first disaster I have produced a quality loaf of bread every single time.
There are a few other facilities worth mentioning.
There is 13 hour timer, which allows you to pick when you want your bread to be ready. I usually set this so that I wake up to a fresh loaf of bread in the morning. And yes, it really does smell just like a bakery in our house. You might not like that idea, but I think the aroma of baking bread is wonderful.
There is also a dough mode. Here you let the machine knead the dough for you but do your
baking in the over. There are all sorts of possibilities with this mode including, French sticks, bread rolls, Chelsea buns, Nan bread and pizza bases.
It is even possible to bake cakes using........... You’ve guessed it! A bake mode! You have to mix the ingredients yourself, but can then use the breadmaker instead of an oven. Although I have produced a passable orange and chocolate marble cake in this way, I still think that cakes are better oven baked, so I’m not totally sold producing cakes in this way.
The real purpose of the machine is to make bread and it does this superbly and for the minimum effort on your part.
The machine comes with an easy to follow manual. It is also accompanied by a recipe book, which shows how to make just about every type of bread I can imagine that I will ever want to make.
You should not, however, run away with the idea that this is a cheap way of buying bread. By the time you have bought flour, yeast, butter, dried milk (some recipes), salt, sugar and miscellaneous ingredients for some of the fancier breads, the cost does mount. You can probably buy bread a lot cheaper in the supermarkets. But, it won’t be so good. Nor will you get that wonderful smell.
At around £120 this breadmaker is not the cheapest on the market. On the other hand it will do most things you want it to and it is reliable. Provided you buy good quality ingredients you will get good quality bread every single time.
Are you feeling hungry yet?
Summary:
|
|
