Panasonic SD251 > Reviews (1)

PANASONIC ‘Bread Bakery’ TM BREAD MAKER

Minimum effort achieves maximum results.....

My Panasonic SD-251 is one of the newest gadgets to enter the Colebeck householdkitchen and I have to say that I cannot praise it highly enough, here’s why.

I don’t have to spend time and energy mixing, kneading and proving (not that I ever did, you understand, but it sounds good!!) the machine does it all for me.

Included with the Panasonic SD-251 are a comprehesive recipe book, clear operating insruction booklet, a measuring spoon and measuring cup. These items are essential to making the ‘perfect’ loaf.

This new Panasonic ‘Bread Bakery’ TM enables a choice of three loaf sizes; medium, large and extra large (why not small, medium and large? you ask I don’t know) you can even select the crust colour you desire!

There is a raisin mode where the machine ‘beeps’ allowing the addition of fruit/ nuts or any other ingredients to be added at a later stage to ensure the fruit/nuts/other ingredients stay whole when producing a variety of flavoured loaves.

If you are in a rush – then you can use the bake rapid 1 hour 55 minute programme to bake a white, wholemeal or brown loaf. This programme with the addition of a larger quantity of yeast, makes a ‘heavier’ textured loaf. Although it is not quite as nice as the more leisurely baked loaves (4hrs +) the Panasonic breadmaker, in my personal opinion, produces the best rapid baked bread when taste & texture-compared to other cheaper breadmakers, i.e. Morphy Richards, Delonghi.

For those with more time (and this is the programme I would personally recommend 100%) the bread is baked at the more leisurely pace of between 4 and 6 hours depending on the type of loaf you are making. For example a basic white loaf takes 4 hours and a French loaf takes 6 hours (but its well worth the wait I can assure you).

For the discerning bread lover you can set the timer for any length of time between 4 and 13 hours for basic white loaves, 5 hours to 13 hours for whole wheat and multigrain and from 6 to 13 hours for a French loaf.

An example of how this works is:-

If the present time is 9pm and you want the bread to be ready by 6.30 am tomorrow morning, set the timer to 9:30 (9 hours and 30 minutes), the time required until the completion of the bread.

It’s as simple as that and what could be better than to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread?

............ okay so some bronzed hunk/busty babe bringing the warm bread TO you, on a tray, dripping with butter would be better, I agree, but let’s assume that’s NOT going to happen and get back to the Panasonic ‘Bread Bakery’ .......

The main ingredients for most loaves are:-

FLOUR. Strong flours contain a high content of protein necessary for the development of gluten (for those on a gluten-free diet see guide to making gluten free bread below). Always use strong flour- labelled as suitable for bread making when using the recipes in the Panasonic book). I have tried several makes and although Hovis makes the best loaf I can recommend that the cheaper strong bread flours sold by supermakets (e.

g. Asda 69p) make perfectly adequate loaves and keep the price per loaf to a minimum.

SUGAR.
Sugars or sweetening agents have the following purposes in bread making.
. They add sweetness and flavour
. They add softness and fineness to the texture
. They give crust colour
. They contrubute to keeping quality by retaining moisure
. They provide food for the yeast.
Besides ganulated sugar or caster sugar, brown sugar, honey (which I have tried with perfectly good results) and molasses can be suibstituted in the recipes (unfortunately it does not give quantities for any sugars other than granulated so it is trial and error).

FATS.
The major purpose of fats in bread baking are:-
. They tenderize the bread
. They add flavour and richness
. They contrbute to keeping quality by retaining moisture
Any fat can be used, however, we recommend butter for the best flavour & texture (I use butter or Clover).

MILK & MILK PRODUCTS
Their main purposes are:-
. They enhance flavour
. They increase the nutritional value of bread
. Milk solids include protein, lactose (milk sugar) and minerals
Most recipes call for the use of milk powder.

SALT.
Salt has the following functions in bread making
. It strengthens gluten structure and makes it more stretchable
. It inhibits yeast growth
. It enhances the flavour
Therefore, too much salt will inhibit fermentation whereas too little will result in weak gluten structure. Both will result in bread with low volume and poor texture.

LIQUID
Cold tap water is the normal liquid to use but cold fresh milk can substituted to improve the keeping quality and nutritional value of the loaf, which will have a softer browner crust

And, last but by no means YEAST
Yeast is a living organism, a microscopic plant that works as a leavening agent in bread making. It acts on sugars and changes them into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol (no sucking on the yeast, please!). This gas production causes the leavening or ‘rise’ of yeast dough. Sorry to disappoint but the alcohol evaporates during baking!

Some of the other ingredients that can be used to flavour loaves are:-

Eggs, fruits, bran, wheat germ, herbs, vitamin C, nuts, spices, olives, onion (don’t make this one for Deano, :o) LOL) and seeds.

You can use the Panasonic SD-251 to make gluten free bread. There is a recipe on page 6 of the Panasonic book. However, you need to buy a gluten free bread mix.

As well as the 35 different loaf recipes there are also 26 dough recipes that require ‘finishing off’ in a conventional oven (i.e. pizza dough, french sticks) and 8 cakes and teabread recipes which are made by hand and then baked in the Panasonic SD-251. The cake baking options seem a little too fiddly for me as you need to line the pan with greaseproof paper and I think this would be fairly tricky?

I have tried several of the plain loaf recipes all with great success, the malted loaf is divine and the kids adore it (malt can be purchased from health food stores and costs approx. £2 for a large jar – PLEASE don’t do what I did when I first went looking for it –I spotted it on the shelf in the supermarket grabbed and paid for it.

Unfortunately, when I got home I saw it had added COD LIVER OIL – Oooooo y-uuuuuu-k!! It cost me over £3 too, bummer.

TECHNICAL DETAILS –

Size:- 13.5”wide x 9” deep x 14” high (34 x 23 x 36cm)

550 watt power

EASE OF USE: It takes approximately 5 minutes to weigh and measure all the ingredients into the baking pan which I have never found a bind, however much of a rush I have been in.

The Panasonic SD-251 is very simple to use – there is a key pad on the top right which is flush with the unit and the function keys are relative self-explanatory although I would strongly recommend reading the books that accompany the breadmaker to ensure perfect results.

The Panasonic SD-251 has a removable baking pan with a removable paddle that mixes the dough – this is made of a very high quality non-stick material and as stated in the books it is NOT dishwasher safe.

PRICE – I purchased my Panasonic SD-251 approx. 3 months ago from John Lewis and paid £127.00. The highest price I have seen it advertised at is £129.99 and the lowest was £124.99.

VALUE FOR MONEY

priceless.

ADVANTAGES

. The main advantage for me is that I know exactly what is going into my daily bread. Most if not all the bread flours are made with unbleached flour – if you compare a slice of home-baked bread to that of a packet sliced loaf the difference is subtle but nontheless apparent.

. Healthwise - Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is incorporated into the fast action yeast and does not have to be added as a separate ingredient

. The other advantage is that you can make a loaf for a fraction of the cost of a supermaket fresh baked loaf and it keeps for twice as long.

DISADVANTAGES

. No functional disadvantages. The price may be a tad high for some but I cannot reiterate enough that I have tried bread from cheaper breadmakers and in my view it simply doesnt compare.

. There is no window in the lid of the breadmaker (an advantage apparently to the quality of the finished loaf) but for those like myself who are nosey beggars you have to lift the lid to check progress (if this is done carefully and quickly it does not affect the finished loaf!).

I hope you enjoy reading this enough to try baking a loaf for yourself!

Thanks for listening.