Money well-spent

What’s this?

Details after the jump.

Neil bought his mother a breadmaker for Christmas (my suggestion, thank you, thank you), and she was raring to get started. Then we realised that the breadmaker didn’t come with a warranty or instruction manual, so we had to take it back to the shop and get another one. Then we got the ingredients and let her loose on the machine. And she said it didn’t work, it just sat there and nothing happened, so Neil and I gave it a go. It worked, but the bread didn’t come out looking like bread, it came out looking like the star of a creature feature (The Deadly Fibre or something). It was a good thing I’d bought Neil’s mother a breadmaker tips book for Christmas, so we tried using a recipe in there, and here is the result:

Not bad, huh? It’s a recipe for country brown bread using the basic white loaf programme on the Kenwood BM250. We didn’t have runny honey, so we made do with soft brown sugar, and Neil smartly added more water. It came out looking great, and it tasted amazingly good as well.

Of course, with all homemade breads, there aren’t any preservatives so we’ve had to eat up fast. Neil and his mum made the second loaf, and his mum attempted the third all by herself (and she’d got runny honey by this stage). Things we’ve learned? The recipe from the manual sucks (it was waaaay too dry), and don’t put the yeast in together with the salt and sugar / honey. Separate them with the bread flour.

(Note: Mum, this does not mean I will start cooking. A breadmaker means you don’t have to actually make the bread, you just throw the ingredients in and let the machine do all the work. I am looking forward to the kitchen of the future, which involves a food replicator.)

• 8 Jan 2007

• Thinking