My brother bought me the Morphy Richards 48280 breadmaker for Christmas and as soon as I started using it was instantly promoted from 'brother' to 'superstar'!
I used it for the first time on New Years Eve as we had some friends coming over for dinner. I did a huge beef stew and decided to do make some tomato and parmasan bread to go with it. The bread mix was only out of a packet, but it was possibly the nicest bread we'd ever tasted. And the kudos I received from making my own bread!
The breadmake is about 30cm wide by 50 cm deep by 45 cm high. It is made of white, wipe-clean plastic and has a grey control panel on the front. When you pull up the top lid, you see the bread tin, the mixing panel and the heating elements.
To make a loaf of bread with a packet mix (available in different flavours from all supermarkets) literally all you do is chuck the packet mix into the bread tin, add the amount of warm water they tell you to and switch it on. That's it. And in three hours, you've got a gorgeous warm loaf. Making bread from a recipe is a bit fiddlier as you need to measure out a lot more ingredients, but it's still not difficult and once you get confident you can start adding extra ingredients.
The control panel on the front of the machine has 12 settings for different types of bread. The default is 01 for basic white bread, but you can also make wholewheat, french bread, jam, cakes, sandwich bread and it has a couple of fast-bake functions. I've tried white and brown bread, fast-bake bread, pizza dough, teacakes and bread rolls and they've all turned out brilliantly. And I am by no stretch of the imagination a great cook. The control panel also allows you to choose an extra-brown crust and gives you the option of making a 1.5 pound loaf.
Once the bread has finished cooking, take out the bread tin by twisting it anti-clockwise and lifting it. Remove the bread and then pull the mixing paddle from the loaf (it will leave a small hole). I find for that if you leave the bread to cool for half an hour or so before cutting it you get a better texture.
If you want to wake up to freshly-baked bread it even has a timer function. I was worried that leaving the ingredients all together overnight would be a problem, but it was fine. The only thing was that it beeps quite loudly just before the end of the program and woke me up!
This breadmaker takes the absolute minimum of looking after. Once the bread has cooked, all you need to do is twist the bread tin to unlock it, pull it out and wipe it with a non-abrasive damp cloth. The mixing paddle detatches from the bread pan and just needs rinsing through.
The users manual that comes with it is generally quite easy to follow, clearly written and has some interesting recipes. I've tried a few of them and they've come out fine.
I'd say that the only disadvantage to this breadmake is it's size. I don't know why, but when I opened the box I was expection to see something about the size of... a loaf of bread. Obviously it needs to be bigger than that but I find I need to store it in the cupboard as I don't have room on the worktop for it. Another disadvantage is that the fast-bake loaves tend to come out a bit smaller and denser, but I guess that's what happens when the dough doesn't get a proper rise. These really are small criticisms though and I 'd recommend this breadmaker to anyone.
More details
Cleaning & Maintenance
Easy
Safety
Very safe
How much did you pay?
£45
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