Do not buy any other bread maker...please!

A brief history as to why I have entitled this opinion as I have.

When my friends were married 7 years ago, they were bought this bread maker (or its earlier version, the SD) by her parents. We spent a couple of summers round their house (they lived near some great windsurfing!) and enjoyed the lush bread that they made. Our other good friends are foodies and she has just about every kitchen gadget known to man, and uses them! She had bought several different bread makers in the meantime (the Panasonic was and is still one of the most expensive on the market) and had never had one that worked properly. So, one summer after coming home from my first friends' house, we went out and bought the Panasonic. Shortly afterwards so did our other set of friends and they never looked back, but seriously wished they hadn't spent so much cash on bread makers that didn't work as wonderfully as this one.

Living with the Panasonic

We moved to the US in August 2004 and, for the first month or so, I bought bread from the supermarket. Now, I don't know if you have ever eaten bread in the UK but, let me tell you, even our cheapest, nastiest bread I would eat any day over the awful, awful stuff that you poor guys get. My poor kids wouldn't touch the stuff and I don't really blame them. When I looked at the ingredients list I nearly fell over in shock. Bread should have the following ingredients: Flour, yeast, sugar (or honey), fat (oil or butter), salt, water, possibly flour improver like milk powder and, in over the counter breads, some kind of preservative. 8 ingredients maximum.

As we had to buy all new stuff when we moved over, I searched and found the Panasonic cheapest from Amazon and ordered it as soon as we moved into our rental!

The bread it makes is truly amazing. All of our friends whom we have had for lunches and suppers when we have offered bread we have made have said the same thing; it's the most delicious bread that they have ever eaten.

It sits comfortably on my counter, next to my microwave and is used at least once a week (we're not huge bread eaters).

When you look at other bread makers, you may wonder why they Panasonic doesn't have a window in the top like many of the other makes do. According to Panasonic, the window in the top allows uneven heating during baking, which means the bread doesn't rise and brown nicely. If you make bread and want to watch it, they suggest you lift the lid to look at it! Putting a windowed bread maker next to the Panasonic, making the same loaf, you can physically see the difference that this lack of window makes. Windowed bread makers, without fail, make a less well risen, poorer loaf.

Best flour; best recipes

I make three things most regularly; wholemeal, ciabatta style and raisin dough.

For the wholemeal, I prefer the following recipe: 500g wholemeal flour (I use King Arthur brand as it has given me the best results), 1.5 tsp rapid action yeast (in the dispenser), 1.25 tsp salt, 3 tbsp golden honey, 30g butter and 350ml of cold water. Baked on large, wholemeal.

For the ciabatta style: 500g white flour (again the King Arthur brand), 1 tsp rapid action yeast, 1.25 tsp salt, 1.5 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 280ml of cold water. Baked on large, regular, medium crust.

For the raisin dough: 500g white flour, 1 tsp rapid action yeast, 50g sugar, 50g butter, 150ml 2% milk, 130ml cold water, 150g raisins, 1 tsp apple pie spice, 0.5 tsp cloves. On regular raisin dough, then I make buns!

All have got very positive remarks and, really, it takes such a short time to put the ingredients into the bread pan and set it off, I feel guilty taking the compliments!

Odd bread experiences

My parents bought the Panasonic having spent two weeks with us the October after we moved here! My dad was so impressed with it he bought one after my mum had been trying to get him to buy one virtually since the first time I took a loaf round to their house.

Anyway, he got really into making bread and one day called me up (almost unheard of) to ask me if I had ever experienced a loaf just not rising. At that time, I think I'd had one or two but thought that it had been because I'd forgotten to put something in it. He, however, is a licensed chef and always does it 'properly'. We noodled it through and, finally, during last summer, worked out what caused it. Whenever the weather is really, really humid, the bread just doesn't rise properly, so you have to add another 0.25-0.5 tsp of yeast.