I’ve been looking at those breadmakers, and my gf thinks I ought to get one. But until now, I couldn’t believe that they’d really produce anything worth eating. I could visualize myself buying one, trying it out, producing a lump of something hard and inedible, and sticking the machine away in a cupboard to take up space and never be used again. But if it really can produce the “perfect loaf of bread” as you say, then I’d better go ahead and buy one.
Did you have to experiment a lot before you succeeded in finding the right formula for that perfect loaf, or did you just follow the instructions and produce the real thing right away?
All the breadmakers I’ve looked at have been made in either Japan or South Korea, which added to my scepticism about the kind of bread they produce, as those two countries are not exactly noted for the high quality of their bread. How about yours, Salmon? And did you buy it here? I’m sure that the ones I’ve looked at cost a lot more than NT$2,500.
[quote=“Omniloquacious”]Did you have to experiment a lot before you succeeded in finding the right formula for that perfect loaf, or did you just follow the instructions and produce the real thing right away?
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The recipes are pretty failsafe - just measure in flour, a liquid (note to Tigerman: beer works well in bread), butter, suger, salt and yeast, choose setting and press start. My breadmaker (and many others) has a setting for “crusty” loaves which just means it bakes an extra 10 minutes.
I’ve never had a loaf go wrong. On my first few goes some rose too high (fluffy bread) some didn’t rise high enough. But they still made better toast than almost anything I could have bought. I experiment with different flours and mixtures of flours (wholemeal, white, rye etc.) and throw in different seeds at different stages in the mixing to see what happens. If you’re willing to put in a little more effort than the initial three minutes, there’s more to play with. This week I read that Jamie Oliver geezer saying the secret to really good crusts is to coat your tin with finely ground breadcrumbs. I’ll have a go. That means pulling the dough out of the machine once it’s all been mixed to add the breadcrumbs. A little more effort and fiddling with recipes increases the risk of the bread going up too high or not high enough. Even if not prefect though, a home baked loaf is always good.
When I was buying I noticed that many machines were identical but with different brand names. I guess they come off the same factory lines in Korea. All the department stores seem to have them. I got ours from Daichi, a home electronics chain.
The only problem, something that has arisen recently, is that my tin is no longer non-stick which means getting the bread out is not easy.
I also have a breadmaker. Didn’t expect too much when I first made bread with that machine but it turned out very tasty. The bread’s texture is a bit different from that of bread we can buy in bakeries, but puffy, chewy and resilient, yummy, especially with butter spread over it!! I don’t use the breadmaker often though, because it takes some time to measure the ingredients and to clean the measuring cups and spoons (considering it’s so easy and cheap to buy various kinds of bread in bakeries), and more importantly, it takes a few meals for me to eat up a whole loaf of bread. But my parents love it!!! When they ask me to go home, sometimes they add:" oh, and don’t forget to bring with you the bread made by that breadmaker!"
My mother and sister both have breadmakers… and they both make pretty good bread. Mind you, it isn’t as good as what my old Aunt Minnie used to make or what my sister makes from scratch… but for the time and effort put into it (very little, as salmon indicates), they do a pretty great job… and the results are magnified here by the [lack of] competition.
My mother and sister both have breadmakers… and they both make pretty good bread. Mind you, it isn’t as good as what my old Aunt Minnie used to make or what my sister makes from scratch… but for the time and effort put into it (very little, as salmon indicates), they do a pretty great job… and the results are magnified here by the [lack of] competition.[/quote]
I’ll have to tell the wife you said that. Popped in on Saturday, early evening, to see you.
I have two questions for people who use bread machines.
I have heard that bread machine baked breads tend to dry out and get stale rather quick. Has this been ever happened with you?
Where are you buying the flour and yeast? The only flour I’ve seen in the supermarkets is plain refined flour. Where can you find the wholewheat stuff, rye, and other good flours?
I’ve seen quite a range of imported flour, wholewheat and plenty of other choices, in the organic shop in the basement of Idee next to Chungshan MRT station. That’s where I’ll be shopping for mine when I get round to buying a breadmaker. I’m not sure about the yeast, though – I’d been wondering about that too.
Welcomes have everything: wholemeal flour, strong white flour, dried yeast bags of mixed seeds. In Taipei (Breeze Cenrter, 7F) Hands Talung does too. Baking goods shops for rye flour and gluten: In my part of town there’s
Sunflower (xiangri kui) - go up Dunhua on the west side between Chunghsiao (Zhongxiao) and Civil B. Take the last lane before Civil B. about 150 meters down on the left.
On the West side of Fuhsing (Fuxing), also between Chunghsiao (Zhongxiao) and Civil B, there’s an old theatre / cinema. Alley to the left of that there’s another baking shop, not 50 meters from Fuhsing (Fuxing).
Does anyone know where I can buy a good bread machine in Taipei?
I check housewares shops whenever I come across them but as of yet I haven’t managed to find one.
I bought one in Cost Co here a few weeks ago, works great! Screwed up the first batch but the second one came out just fine. Just have to watch how you add the ingredients, there are a lot of recipe sites online for bread machines. So they, they work, just have to do the 'ol trial and error bit.