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Jenn Ridley
 
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Default I'm not satisfied with the breadmaker

wrote:

>I have bought a breadmaker on the promise that i'd be able to make a
>pizza dough with it. As it went, I tried making bread and thought I'd
>do the pizza later on. Anyhow, my attempts at making bread were not
>successful though I followed the instructions to the letter (the bread
>didn't rise well, was too solid, didn't taste good).


Too much flour, not enough yeast (or not enough sugar for the yeast),
probably. Did you scoop the flour right out of the bag? That's bound
to give you trouble, as flour settles and you wound up with more flour
in the pan than the recipe can accomodate. Maybe not enough water.
Baking, especially bread, is not something you can do by 'following
instructions to the letter'. If it's dry, you need more water, if
it's damp you need less. If your yeast is old, you may need more of
it, or more sugar.

>I was also
>dissatisfied with the amount of bread I could make in the breadmaker,
>seemed too little.


A loaf of bread out of the bread machine lasts our family 2-3 days
(depending on how many people have a sandwich as an afternoon snack).
A storebought loaf of bread will last 3-4 days.

>I also wasn't sure that it was economical if i
>considered the costs of having a ~500w machine running for a few hours
>on frequent basis.


It's cheaper to run a bread machine than it is to run to the store and
buy a loaf of bread, even if you buy it on a regular shopping trip
(unless you can walk to the store). Yes, even including the cost of
electricity. (It only pulls 500W when it's actually mixing the bread.
The rest of the time it's pulling only enough to run the timer. When
it's baking, it probably pulls more, but less than an electric oven
would.)

I learned how to make bread by hand, and shifted to using a bread
machine when I blew out a shoulder, and kneading dough became out of
the question. You probably won't be able to make bread while you're
sitting on the floor in the living room, though. Kneading dough
requires lots of pushing down into the dough, and it's difficult to do
that while sitting on the floor.

Unbaked dough can easily be left in the fridge (covered) or baked
loaves put in the freezer. You could even half-bake a loaf, freeze
it, and then finish baking it later.
--
Jenn Ridley :