Fresh baked bread Mmmmm (Prima Home Bakery)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Prima Home Bakery
Date:	08/07/04 (2367 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fresh bread

Disadvantages: see review

I have always made bread from time to time so a bread maker was always going to find its way into my house at some point. So when the Prima Breadmaker found its way into my stocking one Christmas I was delighted and it has been used regularly ever since.

It is quite a large unit so takes up a considerable amount of space on the work surface but it does two sizes of loaf, big and bigger, or more accurately 2.5lb and 3lb. The cooking unit is a large loaf tin, that clicks onto the heating element and it has two paddles, to make a loaf you need a large one and a small one and it does come with two spares. It also comes with a measuring beaker, a measuring spoon a funny metal thing which I think is for jam but didn?t use even when I made jam and of course the instruction book. There is then a control unit, not the easiest thing to understand but its ok, more about that later.

So the first thing you want to do when you get a new toy is play with it. We decided to start off with a 3lb loaf. You always, always, always must put the water in first ? I?ll admit I have no idea why but that?s what the book says and it works, then in goes the flour, followed by the sugar, oil/butter (I always use olive oil) and salt in different corners of the tin then the fast action yeast in a well made in the middle of the flour. Now a friend of mine always says my bread is better than hers and the difference is she will make a sachet of yeast last about 3 or 4 loaves, I use the whole sachet, the recipe calls for 21/2 teaspoons.

Now very few people know that Tesco will give out free fresh yeast if you ask for it at the bread counter, the machine doesn?t recommend using fresh yeast but it does work, if you put the water in first, then sprinkle in ½ oz of yeast and add the sugar then put the flour on top it starts to form a pre-dough whilst it is preheating the ingredients, this mak
es a much stronger, softer loaf and tastes delicious.

So once you have mixed all the ingredients up in the pan the next thing you want to do is to use the machine, first you have the option of selecting the loaf size, and the crust control (we usually use medium but you can have it more or less crusty if you prefer) then there are a number of programming options:

Basic ? this is the first one to use and probably the most popular; it mixes, kneads, rises and bakes a 3lb loaf in 3:30.

Basic Wheat ? this gives more kneading and rising so is better for whole-wheat bread or very big white loaves, cooks in 3:40

Basic Dough ? this just mixes, kneads and rises you then take it out and shape it, I use this one all the time as my family prefer bread rolls and you don?t end up with holes in the loaf where the paddles have been. Time 1:50

Quick Bread setting ? this is supposed to cut out a rising stage, so make a smaller, heavier loaf in a shorter length of time, but the only time I?ve ever used it, it seemed to miss out the mixing stage and was cooking raw ingredients. Time 1:58

Quick Wheat ? As above, but still more time for the whole wheat bread. Time 2:08

Quick Dough ? a complete waste of time, 45 minutes with no rising steps, but ok if you want to prove outside for some reason 0:45

Jam ? 1:20, works quite well but you have to clean it out quickly

Cake ? 2:00 great for Madeira cake, however the chocolate recipe in the book is inaccurate, stating 200g of cocoa, instead of 20g ? it was inedible, even for the birds.

Bread Mix ? 3:20 for all the bread mixes on the market but my argument is if you have a machine, why do you need a bread mix?

Expert Mode ? I have no idea how to use this, and frankly don?t want to ? but using all bar two buttons on my machine is probably more than
most people do, but all machines have to have a button you don?t understand, it?s the law!

The only other button, aside from the ?on? button of course, is the timer which means you can throw all the ingredients in at night and set it and have fresh baked bread for the morning. This can be noisy so it might defeat the object if you?re room is over the kitchen.

So my experiences with the machine; as I mentioned, I tend to use the dough cycle the most as you can then get it mixed and risen, then shape it into whatever and cook it separately, you can also vary the cooking temperature which gives you more control over the crust. The loaves are very nice, but very big and very difficult to cut, loads of crumbs and there are 2 holes in the base of the loaf that goes a quarter of the way up where the paddles have been. It is also not particularly easy to get the loaf out, as it requires a lot of shaking, and often twiddling the base on the other side of the paddles to loosen them. This is exasperated by the fact that it is very hot. When you cut them it is impossible not to have doorstops so a loaf doesn?t last very long, tastes delicious but not very good for any healthy eating regime.

The recipe book is actually very good; there are some great herby variations which taste great. Another great recipe is the pizza base, so we very rarely have shop bought pizzas in our house, works out cheaper as well, a jar of pizza topping 88p grated pizza cheese £1.33 and it does enough for 2 large pizzas easily, (by large, I mean really large a decent meal for 6 people) I have also made croissants using it, which were very calorific but absolutely gorgeous. I also usually do a ?tear and share? loaf when we have people round by rolling the dough into lots of little rolls and let it rise so it creates one big flat loaf, always goes down well.

The bread will stay quite fresh for a couple of days
if you keep it in an airtight container in the fridge, but as it rarely lasts that long I certainly wouldn?t recommend the machine for anyone on Atkins.

I got mine for Christmas but it came from Curry?s and cost £89. I think the prices have come down a lot since then. I have only given it 3 stars because there are some design issues with it, the difficulty in getting it out and if you haven?t clicked the paddles in properly it only half mixes so wastes the ingredients. It does have a nut timer that beeps when its ok to add fruit and nuts but nothing that will automatically release them so you can?t have a nutty loaf for breakfast unless you want to get up at 4am to add the nuts. If you programme it wrong and you have already pressed the go button you can?t stop the programme so again wasted ingredients. It does have a keep warm facility that means you can leave it for up to an hour after it has finished and it reduces the temperature slowly so the loaf doesn?t go soggy.

So whilst I wouldn?t be without my machine, there are a few issues with it, but I?ve seen some good deals on them recently on Ebay and for a keen bread maker they are well worth it.

Oh well, breads done so thank you for reading my review.

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