BAKING PROJECT

Today I baked a loaf of bread, yes.. from my Kenwood breadmaker, can you believe it.   I’ve had this breadmaker for years, but I have only used it once.  After trying it, I donated it to my mom, who then after some time returned it back to me.  So finally I found the machine under the staircase store room,  decided to use it again.   Unfortunately the manual was gone.  I searched online and thank God, found the manual for my Kenwood breadmaker BM200 here (thank you).

So then comes the boring process of understanding the workings of the Breadmaker.   I was leafing through the manual and there were a few recipes given – the basic white bread, wholemeal, french type bread, sweet breads, quick breads etc.   There’s also an option for Dough cycles – useful if you want to shape the bread and bake it in the oven (not using the breadmaker).  And lastly there’s the Jam Making cycle, which I think is kinda interesting.   Operating the breadmaker is easy.  After putting in all the ingredients, just press On.

The display window will show SEL which means “select”.  Press the Select Pad till you get to the Program number that you want.  In my case, I chose to  make the Citrus & walnut bread which is under no. 8, sweet category bread.  I press to no. 8 and then press the Start button.  That’s it.  Then you wait :).

The time taken to bake the breads ranges from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. For my chosen recipe, it takes about 3 1/2 hours and goes through the following process -  Knead 1 for 6 minutes.  See the video here.  I thought the machine was going to knead this way the whole time.  Had to fight the urge to take out the dough and knead it on my Kitchenaid mixer.  Then comes the Knead 2 for 31 minutes.  The kneading speed was faster and my confidence level grew .   Watch the video here.   The next cycle was Rise 1 for 40 minutes followed by punches, resting, shaping and Rise 2.

The actual baking itself takes about 50 minutes.  Hmm, I wonder why it takes so long to bake?  I’ve just had a peak at my bread and I don’t think the end result will look so nice.  Its a bit high on one side.  But the aroma of bread baking is a bliss, I wish my whole house smells like this all the time.

So, here’s how my Citrus and walnut bread looks like, done by the machine without any help from me.  Yes you may laugh..  Not the best-looking bread, I guess.  Probably I should have shaped it by hand the next time..  The crust was thick too.  Urggh, disaster.

The back has got a hole where the kneading blade is.

Taste wise,  I think it taste ok and the texture was soft.  I guess this is my first time using the breadmaker, hopefully the next time would be better.  If there is a next time, haha.. anyway, the recipe is below – you can do it the conventional way or automatic.   If you have some tips on techniques using a Breadmaker, please leave a comment.  I really appreciate it.  Cheers !