Battle of the bread machines

Years ago, I had decided that I would buy a bread machine as soon as I have a house of my own. And sometimes life is simple! When the dust had settled, I found a second-hand bread machine online and bought it. And it made excellent bread.

I don't know how long this bread machine had been in use. Probably quite a while! And over the years, it started to lose its mojo. The anti-stick of the pan started to fail, and it became increasingly difficult to get the bread out. I realised at some point I would have to give up on it. And I didn't want to be entirely without a bread machine! So my first try was buy another one online. But I was insufficiently critical, and the thing didn't work. I am one of those gullible people who thinks that if someone sells an electrical appliance, it works. Not so! And the local appliance repair service didn't do bread machines.

Then I thought I’d just bite the bullet and buy one new. And I did! I had a look at the reviews of bread machines you can buy in the region, and picked one that seemed to suit my needs. But then I found out that bread machines are not created equal.

This bread machine took a considerably shorter time to bake a loaf of bread. And as a result, the bread wasn't as crusty! I thought it was a bit disappointing. I didn't quite like the structure of the inside of the bread either. I did the job; it did create bread. But I get so much enjoyment out of my bread when it's good, I figured after a considerable amount of time that I should act yet again. I want a bread machine that makes bread the way I like it! It can clearly be done; my first machine did. But which one? 

I hit Google. I asked it ‘which bread machine makes the crustiest bread’? And nobody seems to really test for that, but you can get some idea. And then you can scrutinise the details in the user’s manual. And what I found was that top of the range seems to be a Heston Blumenthal bread machine. It's quite expensive, but then you can adjust everything you might want to adjust! Baking time, baking temperature, whatever. And I would think that that means you can just experiment until you get your bread exactly how you want it.

I mentioned this over lunch to my friends. Martin then said he had a bread machine gathering dust in a kitchen cabinet somewhere. Before I would spend crazy money on the fanciest bread machine around, would I want to try that? And I gratefully accepted that offer. And when he came over for the barbecue, he brought it along. I'm sure it is a fine machine, but I quickly noticed that the smallest bread you can make with it is 1 kg! I prefer to make half a kilo loaves. I don't have much in the way of a freezer, so I need to eat the bread before it gets stale. And that's just hard on your own with such big loaves.

When I had finished the bread I already had I tried the new machine out anyway. And the result was quite like what my new-bought bread machine produces as well! So it was a really kind gesture of him, but I'm not improving the situation by switching to this bread machine.

I'll have a quick look at what my bank account looks like at the moment. But I think I will be turning Blumenthal, and I just hope that he won't disappoint me!

Martin’s bread machine, with the one about to be retired in the background

The darkest-crusted wholemeal loaf it will let you bake