Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Let them eat cake...

Every time I walk past a Subway I get drawn in by the smell of fresh bread. What a great marketing ploy as it never fails to get my taste buds going.

Well it got me thinking about bread machines today and whether they are any good or whether they are another gadget that gets used every day for 3 weeks and then finds its way to the back of the cupboard (to join the electric can opener, weird vegetable slicer/dicer thingy and other such essential items).

I asked Mrs R and she looked at me funny with that "poor innocent child" look she gives when I am about to do something stupid. You know the look. It means go ahead, jump off the swing and discover the pain for yourself. I could tell you it'll hurt but you'd jump anyway so I'll just give you "the look", instead of the "I told you so" later.

What to do. Anyone got one of these beasties and are they any good? More importantly, are they easy to use and can they clean themselves? I dream of waking up to the smell of fresh bread and perfectly formed buns (bet that'll get me some interesting Google searches...)

9 comments:

  1. Just saw the 6/27 post...much thanks!

    Never had one of those bread things, nor knew anyone that did. Maybe they have one of those wall plug in things that will GIVE you the scent of bread. :}

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  2. Heard they are an excellent way to put on weight but what do they know...

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  3. I've never understood them really, it is so easy to make bread the old fashioned way. You can leave the dough in the fridge overnight and chuck it in the oven in the morning. mmmmmm. Yummy. Or make those scones with 4c flour, 1c cream and 1c lemonade. So easy, and they smell nice too.

    But then, I'm a bit of a cook.

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  4. I don't know about breadmakers but my electric can opener is a frequently used item that lives on top of my microwave. I got fed up with shelling out money for crappy can openers. Now I challenge you to invent a most decent and excellent cheese slicer!

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  5. Mr Dedd: My pleasure, and welcome to our shores - an honour to have you here. Good idea on the smell - just get the odour without the fibre and fat, neat.

    ben.run: Looks like Mrs R has me nailed again then.

    brena: Ah. Good point but who listens to "them" anyway.

    martha: You are a kitchen maestro and I shall never, ever get close to attempting to replicate your success. Are you serious on the lemonade?

    sam-boy: A young bread making religious lady? Holy dough, Batman...


    nessie: Can't be done. We can make a camera that is a phone/radio/MP3 player/arcade machine/toothpick and the size of a packet of gum but we have not defeated the cheese dilemma and never will. Somethings are best left alone...

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  6. Dead serious. Tonic will do at a stretch (we tend to have that in the house more than lemonade - can't imagine why).

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  7. Why not go the whole hog and lace with Voddy? That, I will try...

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  8. The trouble with ours is it goes very well for a month or so and then it fails to work for two weeks. I mean you chuck the exact same ingredients in and it fails to rise... you think you made some vague error and try it again the next day paying more attention this time and that one ends up a small solid loaf as well. So buy some more yeast in case that is wrong, and day three you still have bread that even the hens aren't all that keen on. At that point I put the breadmaker away until I think of it again (which could be several months). As long as I give it a week or so off it seems to bake nice bread again (and choccy chip bread is particularly good)
    So.... I would use the breadmaker at least twice a week except the stupid thing is too tempramental... (we've had it about three years BTW)

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  9. wino: Thanks for the advice. I was hoping that it'd be real easy, just like the advertising says it should be....like the choc chip idea so maybe the troubles would be worth it, yummy.

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