A couple of years ago I went to visit my sister and her house had that wonderful smell of home cooked bread. she told me she had just bought a brilliant Morphy Richards breadmaking machine. I thought it was an extravagant 'toy' that she would tire of after a few weeks. That was before she gave me a loaf of bread to take home and try. It was delicious. I want a bread machine too! stamp - stamp - kick -scream (sorry, just me having a jealous tantrum!)
Anyway.... my sister - knowing how keen but also how strapt for cash I was kept her eye on prices. The one day she phoned to tell me that Tesco were selling HINARI HB174 breadmakers for £39.99, Yes, I kid you not, £39.99. I leapt into my trusty Mazda 626 Turbo Diesel (OK I'm bragging now!) and tore across town to the supermarket as fast as the speed limits would allow(actually I went the next day but I like to sound really enthusiastic). Sure enough, there on the shelves were 100's (ok, about 15) of boxes of breadmakers screaming for me to buy one. I went to the checkout - handed over the dough(har-har!) Not forgetting to use my Tesco points card, and hot footed it back home to put bread on the table of my family. One problem - ingredients!
Open box, get recipe book out - look for ingredients, go back to shop, buy ingredients, go back home , start again! Phew!
OK - so box is open - packaging removed - calm down Heather - be patient.
The Hinari HB174 is a white rectangular appliance with a sloping top lid (with window) and control panel. Also supplied is the bread pan, measuring cup and measure, along with the recipe book and user guide.
Keen to get my first loaf cooking I hurredly went through the getting started section, washing the pan and parts, wiping the outside of the unit - oh come on! lets make bread!
Remove pan, add ingredients in order as listed in recipe book, ok, here goes....
water, flour, dried powder milk - oh bum! I forgot to buy the powder milk - ok - start again...
semi skimmed milk (instead of water and powder milk) flour salt soft brown sugar (I used white granulated) butter (I used margerine - I'm such a rebel!) dried yeast
put pan in oven select programme 5 select bread colour (dark or light crust) press start
Immediately the blade spun into action, mixing the ingredients into a ball of dough. I had no idea how long it might take to produce my loaf so I went into the lounge, had a cup of tea, watched Neighbours (I don't care - I love it!) fell asleep, woke up - oh no! It's 3 pm - the bread!
I ran into the kitchen and there it was...the same ball of dough as I had left 2 hours earlier, every now and then the blade would spin around. It must have something wrong with it, I thought. Oh well, I'll leave it for a while and see what happens. Just then Katy my daughter wandered in, "What's those numbers on the top? Maybe that's the time left before it's finished" she offered. She's such a bloody clever clogs! "I knew that" I lied - another hour and a half to go. Good grief! All that time for such a little loaf.
At 4.30 my little machine peeped at me and as I peered excitedly through the little round window, I could see my loaf was now risen, and brown.
Hurrah! I made bread! I grabbed the tin handle to remove the loaf - then I dropped it back in again as it was VERY HOT and I had just burned my hands. After ten minutes screaming and running cold water over them I returned to the machine and, with the aid of an oven glove, took out the pan and emptied the loaf onto a tray. Talk about proud - I felt like handing around cigars - only no-one smokes in my house and I didn't have any anyway.
After it had cooled sufficiently I got my trusty (never used) bread knife out of the drawer and gripping the loaf firmly in my left hand cut a 1cm slice from the end. It was beautiful, crisp crusty shell with a soft but firm cente, and a smell only associated with fresh baked bread. I lovingly spread real butter over it and cut it into quarter triangles for the family to sample. A triumphant success, they loved it.
That loaf was a 50/50 wholemeal-white one, the next was all white and equally successful. I am now taking orders from friends and neighbours.
The Hinari was very easy to use, simple to follow instructions and so far has not failed me. There are several recipes in the book that I will try eventually including...
Chocolate hazelnut bread cheese, onion and herb bread apple and cinnamon doughnuts naan bread hot cross buns and pizza bread
to name but a few.
I would add that I think it would have been useful if they had put the cooking times on the recipe pages. It might have been a good idea to incude alternative ingredients too (real milk instead of dried/ marg instead of butter)
So far I am very pleased with my purchase and considering the price of some breadmakers (over £100 in some cases) I don't see what they can offer that this one doesn't. The only real down side is the size of the loaf which is approximately a 6" cube.
If you like fresh bread - I'd recommend this machine to anyone.
BUT...
If I am totally honest with you Ciao folks - I have to admit the novelty is wearing off a bit. My initial enthusiasm is waning and waiting 4 hours for a small loaf that I could buy for 20p from Tesco is really a wee bit silly don't you think? Oh well - I dare say I can get a few quid for it at the car boot sale - but that's another op!
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(+) delicious recipes, easy and flexible to use, pizza, rye, seed, cake and roll options (-) blade getting stuck in bread, need to be at home when cycle finishes
