well they sell a bloody bread maker but no bread mixes? They do sell cake mixes in Carrefour though, why not bread mixes? This isn’t Europe but it’s also not Afghanistan. .so everything is available somewhere… maybe. Maybe some people even haven’t heard about it… but hey, sorry for the question 
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]It seems like it’s not getting hot enough, so the bread is only half baked.
The flour isn’t really a big deal, but I didn’t have any problems like that with mine.
In fact, I had the opposite problem with the loafs getting too big and hitting the lid and expanding in the area between the top of the tin and the lid…
No idea what’s going on though, but yeah, you might be better off investing in an oven…
[/quote]
No? Try making a bread with cake flour … bread is made with high protein content flour (high gluten) so, you at least need all purpose flour or high gluten flour …
Kneading needs to be long enough to develop the gluten (they need to stretch without breaking) into a mesh that holds the CO2 produced by the yeast … although too long over-develops gluten and the bread will collapse … making bread is not an exact science, but it’s close … not every idiot can make good bread … so, it’s not idiot proof :ohreally: 
I was talking about the small white dots of flour on the outside of the bread, sorry if that wasn’t clear Mr Baker…
We’re not all pro’s you know, but despite that and despite me not making Belgian/French bread, I make some pretty kick ass bread that I’m sure you wouldn’t like anyhow, as it’s not up to your standards…
But hey, I’m just going to put you on my ignore list from now on, it’s much easier than having these stupid arguments with you about the difference of home baking and professional baking.
I’ve been looking for a bread machine for years and had no idea they were available at Costco - I’m a Costco virgin. However, I was elated to find them at Carrefoure last week so I went back yesterday to purchase my new toy. I had no idea Kaiser had such a bad name and assumed it was a German brand, lol. If I had read this thread before I might have had second thoughts.
Anyway, it’s a BM 260 and has two kneading paddles which seem to be doing a good job.
I just read through this whole thread and although Mawvellous problem was back in November and he probably tossed his BM out at the end of year toss all your crap out in the street season, I wonder if the problem is in his use of butter - 3 tbls. I hope the butter was melted, otherwise it may account for the mixing problem.
You can always take it back -within one month I think- and purchase the Panasonic one in Mitsukoshi, for about the same price. 
Costco takes returns, no questions asked, immediately.
If anyone is using another brand of breadmaker, please let us know how happy (or not) you are with it, the brand and model number, how long you’ve had it and how often you use it (perhaps in another thread entitled ‘breadmaker reviews’?).
I did something I never thought I’d do … ever, I bought a UBM … unassisted bread maker, it’s just a bread machine … consider it a cheap toy, paid 1,000 NT$ for it second hand. I found out I makes darn good bread. But no manual, no recipe book … so, I have to rely on my knowledge from years of baking … first loaf, fail … second loaf yummy… third loaf I did with stone ground whole wheat and stone ground spelt mix … just wow!
The machine is a Kaiser UBM-700 … works as a charm, and is really easy to understand and use, has a low learning curve even without a manual.
I know what you mean… a member of this forum lent me hers and I’m using it a lot. I use honey instead of sugar and sometimes I partially substitute water with milk, and the bread I get is so nice.
BTW, where do you get the spelt?
Mix your own … Breeze and City Super sell lot’s of flours, seeds so you can mix all you want.
BP, where did you get the spelt?
City Super, New Sogo Fuxing basement … but if I’m correct I saw it at Breeze Super yesterday too. They have a separate shelf (DIY baking) away from the normal Taiwan flours.
City Super, New Sogo Fuxing basement … but if I’m correct I saw it at Breeze Super yesterday too. They have a separate shelf (DIY baking) away from the normal Taiwan flours.[/quote]
Cool. Some friend from my country uses ONLY spelta for making bread, which I think it’s not a good idea (not much gluten in there!). I want to mix it with the other flours I use.
I know the section at Sogo, but I never heard of Breeze Super. A friend told me that there’s some shop in chongshan with some other street that sells all kind of stuff for baking…
Dihua Street. They have the local main purveyors there, mostly Japanese flours and whole sale stuff. Great for moulds, baskets, mixers and other baking accruements.
Icon, that sounds interesting, specially the “whole sale” thing. Could you give me a more detailed address? 
PS: Creo que te debo un pan o dos
Icon, that sounds interesting, specially the “whole sale” thing. Could you give me a more detailed address?
PS: Creo que te debo un pan o dos [/quote]
Cough, Search, cough -since I got no idea where I put their card:
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtop … s&start=40
[quote]燈燦公司 (‘the Mínlè store’ near Dihua St.)
台北市民樂街１２５號 Minle St., #125
０２－２５５７－８１０４
[/quote]
But now I recall the flour was bought elsewhere, we called there, 20 kilos home delivered… somewhere.
Digging up this reply a bit - the Tianmu Carrefour now has bread mixes available. Krusteaz brand, which I know nothing about: Sourdough, Cracked Wheat, and I believe one or two other varieties. (It’s also good for ovens.)
I had two breadmachines, one of which needed a lot more preparation. Fortunately, when it broke, I got a Panasonic BM. Very nice. A little less flexible though in some respects, but the bread always turns out, doesn’t get stuck in the pan or any of the other problems I’ve had.
One point to note:
The US use a standard cup size for baking; and it’s different from the Taiwan or Japanese size (a lot!) so if you use too much water, you’ll end up with a very doughy consistency. And don’t dig out a cup from your cupboard either, unless you know it’s 240ml (the standard size).
Weight is much better than volume. Use g & ml rather than cups or spoons. More accurate.
Don’t trust the basic flours in the supermarket… I couldn’t find any consistency with them. Some advertised loads of gluten, but the results actually told a different story.
Get some decent oven gloves… some of those sold on the market are ineffective; and you’ll burn yourself if you use them!
Be prepared to use more yeast than the recipe recommends.
In short, the yeast, flour & total liquid volumes are crucial to the results. Too much of each or too little will result in non-standard results.
Lastly, if you’re getting unacceptable results, then keep a notebook record and introduce slight variations each time, such as +/-10ml water, etc.
If you plan to make wholemeal bread, start with doing 50% mixes and doing increments. I couldn’t always get the 70%+ mixes to rise properly in the bread machine. Even in full wholewheat mode, it didn’t always come out successfully. In that one respect the old machine worked a tad better than the new one!
This is actually very important for beginning bread makers, who may not yet know what consistency the dough should have, and who thus lack an understanding of how to adjust its hydration after initial mixing. Good recipes will give weights (in addition to or instead of volume measures), and will tell you what consistency to expect for a particular dough at a particular point in the process (e.g. firm and not tacky, tacky, sticky, slack etc.)
That may seem necessary if an inflexible bread machine isn’t allowing enough time for your dough to double in volume before the punchdown, or enough time for the final proofing before baking, but the problems in using more yeast are that 1) you can end up with a yeasty flavor (which is a flaw, in bread), and 2) the dough has less time to develop flavor, so the bread can be boring. To avoid the first problem, one thing you can do, especially in cooler or cold weather, is use warm instead of cool tap water (or milk, etc.) in the recipe. If adding things like eggs, warm them to room temp first; don’t use cold ones, as this slows fermentation. Another thing you can do is turn the machine off to give more rise time.
To avoid the second problem, you may need to find a way to give the dough longer to rise, e.g. pausing the machine or turning it off. If you cut the yeast to 1/8 to 1/2 of the recipe amount, then give it a cool environment and let it go as long as it needs to double in volume at each step, flavor generally improves, in my experience. Baking by hand instead of machine of course gives you this flexibility quite readily.
Good advice. I recommend noting the tackiness of the dough after initial mixing and after kneading ends too.
The bran content of wholemeal flours absorbs more water, so the dough ends up drier and stiffer, and the yeast needs more time to raise the dough. Rather than allowing more time, the solution is to always increase the water content when you increase the wholemeal content. Slacker (moister) doughs rise well, and if it’s a bread machine handling it, the stickiness isn’t going to be a problem like it is for hand kneading, so don’t be afraid of adding more water. Also, as you increase the wholemeal content, you may need more gluten, and whole wheat flour is often not categorized or labeled acc. to gluten level, so for the remaining plain flour consider switching to one with higher gluten content, or even adding a few tablespoons of vital wheat gluten (pure gluten), 小麥蛋白, available online and at DIY baking stores.
Bakers use weight, and percentages related to the flour weight. For instance, 1,000 gr flour (100%) … 1.5% salt … 1.2% yeast … meaning 15 grams salt, 12 grams yeast etc.
[quote]baker’s percentage
When writing a formula, the easiest method is to do so using what is known as baker’s percentage, or baker’s math. In using baker’s percentage, each ingredient in a formula is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, and the flour weight is always expressed as 100%. Most American bakers who have been baking professionally for a couple of decades or more will remember when the only scale in most shops was a balance beam scale, and when liquids were almost always measured in gallon pitchers, not weighed. Although balance beam scales are still widely used, more and more bakers are turning to electronic scales for weigh outs, and gallon pitchers are giving way to liquids that are weighed along with the dry ingredients.
There are good reasons for using baker’s percent for our formulas.
First, since each ingredient is weighed, it enables us to work with precision using only one unit of measure.
Second, it is quite easy to scale a formula up or down when we are working with baker’s percent.
And last, it allows bakers to share a common language.
This common language enables the baker to not only communicate with other bakers, but also makes it possible to quickly assess a formula simply by seeing the percentages used. In this discussion, we will talk about converting a simple bread formula into percentages; transferring from percentages to pounds; and how to compute the Formula Conversion Factor for use in scaling a recipe up or down.[/quote]
Old thread, but looking for some troubleshooting help on this Kaiser breadmaker. Had it for about 2-3 years, but only used it 10 times or so. Used it 4 times last week and it made nice loaves. Today I go to make a loaf and the kneading mechanism is not working. There is no sound like it’s trying to turn. So basically it seems like I have a glorified oven at this point. Anyone else have this issue? Is it something worth getting fixed, or should I just toss this thing? Very annoyed to have only used this 15-20 times and have this happen.