Tasty bread, comforting cakes (Hinari Breadmaker HBM210)

Member Name: solamarie

Product:	Hinari Breadmaker HBM210
Date:	06/02/06 (1674 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fresh bread from fresh ingredients

Disadvantages: Takes a long time to bake bread

I have had this breadmaker/homebaker for about four years. I bought it when I was in new gadget mode and seemed to have most of the ones that most people have and this seemed a brilliant idea.

Then after getting it home, unpacking it and making several loaves of bread, we realised that in this house we actually don't eat a loaf of bread a week. So there it sat atop the microwave, because we don't even have room for it really, for about three years. Every so often I gave it a wipe, thought I really ought to use it more often, but otherwise it didn't feature very highly in our lives. When the children came to visit my husband was heard to make jokes about all the gadgets we have and whether he could find something else as useless as the bread maker for my next shopping rush. But with children and grandchildren around it started to be used again and my family just love to eat fresh warm bread spread with butter, so it is no longer the most useless gadget I have every bought.

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So! What is this wonder machine that gathers dust?

I bought it in Curries, it is a Hinari bread maker, it makes loaves of bread, cakes and even jam. What a wonder machine.

I paid about £29 for it and have just looked on Amazon to see and they have them for £29.97. I am not sure if they include delivery in their prices.



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Then what happened?

Well, some of our children with a grandchild came early in January 2004 to live with us, this is a great thing and suddenly from being a middle aged couple, we are part of this large extended family. We really are having fun.

But back to bread!

I decided that as several loaves of bread were now being eaten each week that maybe I could make some bread for a treat.

I dusted it off, opened it up, got the pan out, got the recipe book out, got the ingredients out, threw the lot together and set it to large light.

Some three and a bit hours later, out came this hard, solid, stodgy mass of bread. Oh dear, they all politely looked at it, tasted it and the rest went in the bin. So, I had another go a few days later, same result.

By now I was really bothered. What was I doing wrong? Well obviously loads of things, one being I wasn't measuring perfectly accurately. And for this machine and probably others like it, you really need to measure exactly and don't just throw what looks like the right amount in.

One of the recipes I used and have used in the past state a table spoonful of dried milk powder, well I didn't have any of that in the house so at the last minute sloshed in some milk hoping that would be the same and I guess it isn't the same at all.

I went and bought new flour and yeast. I bought the white Hovis flour and on the back is a much simpler recipe than the ones in the recipe book so I tried that one. Three and a bit hours later the loaf was cooked, risen to huge proportions, light and soft and just perfect.

I made several loaves over the next couple of weeks and they all seem to disappear really quickly, I usually get the crust, when it is hot and straight out of the machine, hence the indigestion, but don't often eat bread so take their word for it that it is good stuff.

So, the next week, while shopping I bought more flour and decided to try brown bread. Now, I have made brown bread before and it tends to come out rather heavy and the family aren't so keen, so I decided to try a half and half recipe. I used a bit more white flour than brown and set it at large light again. Not very adventurous me!

Some three and a bit hours later out came a small, hard, heavy stodgy loaf. Once again the family said, oh dear, and in the bin it went.

Then in the middle of the night I had a flash of revelation. Of course, the brown loaf setting takes over four hours, I think it is 4hrs. 20 mins. as brown bread takes longer to rise. That is where I have been going wrong!

This afternoon I made another half and half loaf, using the simple recipe on the back of the flour packet. Just before I started this review I took out a perfectly risen, large light brown loaf of bread. Ate the crust which is crisp and delicious. Probably I will get indigestion again, but it won't last forever and the bread is lovely.

Over the last month we have had good, fresh bread from the machine, also it makes cakes, we had a lovely ginger cake the other evening and by the time I got home from work the next day it was gone. I have in the past made a fruit cake, but that was a bit dry, not as good as the one I bake in the oven. It also makes jam, but I haven't tried that; I make my jam in the microwave. You can make pizza dough in it and make just dough to bake in the oven in whatever shape you want. I have made dough and made rolls for tea, which were very nice. It also makes French bread but I haven't tried that.

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The recipe book that comes with it is clear and simple to use. It gives recipes for a basic white, small or large, a basic brown, small, or large. Also there are recipes for speciality breads, like tomato and basil. I haven't tried these but have replaced part of the flour with other things, like oats or sunflower seeds and that works well.

When you select the programme and press start, after about 20 minutes an alarm beeps a few times and you can add things at that point. A couple of times I added grated cheese and that bread was wonderful, with a nice crispy crust and lovely baked cheesy flavour. If you wanted fruit bread you could add raisins or sultanas or whatever you wanted at this point too.

This bread maker has a timer, so you could put all the ingredients in, set the timer for the appropriate time before you awake in the morning and have hot bread for breakfast. The bonus of doing this is of course waking to the wonderful smell of baking.

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What does it look like?

It looks like a small oven with the door at the top which you lift up and some buttons and an LCD beside the door opening.

I have put the dimensions below, they may not be exact, but near enough, I asked my husband and as he measures things by sight he told me the figures below, and I believe he is probably close enough.

15 ins wide x 11 ins deep x 14 ins high

Ours, as said before sits atop the microwave because we have a minute kitchen and there isn't anywhere else, but it could sit anywhere on a kitchen worktop.

There is a select button, a start button and a stop button.

Above these is a list of the programmes, these are numbered so you just have to select the number and press start and wait.

1. Large light
2. Large dark
3. Large rapid
4. Regular light
5. Wholewheat
6. French bread
7. Sweet bread
8. cake
9. Dough
10. Pizza dough
11. Bagel dough
12. Pasta dough
13. Jam
14. Bake only

So you can see there are lots of different sorts of bread and things you can make here.

Inside there is a pan that twists to go in or out, this pan is non-stick and only needs a wipe out after use. Inside that there is a sort of paddle thing, which mixes the ingredients together and kneads the dough. When you take your baked loaf out this leaves a little hole in the bottom of the loaf, but it doesn't detract from the flavour and that is the important bit.

Once you have tipped the finished loaf out, and please be careful as the pan is very hot, you can wrap it in a clean tea towel while it cools, which produces a fairly crisp crust although not as crispy as if you leave it nude on the side to cool, or if like my husband you like a soft crust you can wrap it in the tea towel and then put in a carrier bag which contains the moisture while it cools and leaves a nice soft bread crust.

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In conclusion

Well, I am at last glad that I bought this gadget. There are other things in this house that I thought I would use but never get out of the back of the cupboard, this one was worth the money and not that expensive.

It takes several hours to make the bread and at first I was disappointed because for some reason I had thought it would be a quick process. I have made bread many times kneading by hand and proving in a warm place and now that my life is busy most of the time this is much the easier option. I did buy a book of recipes for bread makers but can't remember what I did with it, so stick to either the book that came with it or the recipes that are found on the back of most bread flours.

Each loaf is the same shape, either the regular ones which are about half size as the large, you would have to make dough and shape and bake in a conventional oven if you wanted fancy shaped bread.

It only takes a few minutes to measure the ingredients and put them in the pan and less than a minute to set the machine off, which is great in this time of working, caring for a mother and having children and grandchildren around. I doubt I would ever make bread the old fashioned way nowadays because I never seem to get a free afternoon, and I can put the bread on, go for a swim and then visit my mum and come home to the finished loaf. How good is that eh?

Thanks for reading and I hope it will help some to make the decision of whether they want and would use one of these or not.

This review is also posted on ciao, I have made a few adjustments but basically it is the same and is posted under the same name that I use here.


Sue

Summary: Bread anytime of the day or night, using good quality ingredients and knowing that the bread is good