Check your measurements!

Another happy customer phoned us back this morning. He was worried his bread maker had broken down because he was finding patches of flour around the bottom of his loaves. After discussing things with him we suggested that he check that his scales were weighing accurately. When he borrowed his neighbours scales he was delighted to find that it was only his scales that needed replacing and not his bread maker!

Excess flour around the bottom and sides of the bread usually indicates the use of too much flour or insufficient liquid. Check your measurements!

Happy Baking!

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Flatbed ovens

Cooking food on the base of the Flat bed combination ovens…

Just to clear up some confusion about cooking on the base of the oven. While it is okay to place food contained in a dish on the oven base; food should not be placed directly onto the oven base. Always place food in a suitable dish before cooking.

The Kitchen Team

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If it’s not the machine, it’s the ingredients: Useful tips

Occasionally we have customers phone the advise line thinking their bread machine has developed a fault because their bread is not rising. More often than not it is the ingredients that are causing the problem. please read below for some useful tips.

If it’s not the machine, it’s the ingredients!

• Does the loaf contain flour patches or lumps of butter that have not been mixed in?   Have you heard any unusual screeching noises from the bread maker? If so it could be a motor or belt problem?

• Have you had any leakage of ingredients from the bottom of the pan?  If so then you may need a new kneader mounting shaft.

• If the answer to any of the above questions is yes and your machine is out of guarantee you need to call our customer support on 0844 844 3868 who can put you in touch with a repair agent in your area. If it is still under guarantee you will need to return it to where you purchased it from.

• If the answer to all the above questions is no then it is not a machine related problem, it is ingredient related.  Since the bread program on your automatic bread bakery is computerised, the success of your loaf depends on the quantity and quality of your ingredients.

• We have been experiencing a lot of problems recently with poor gluten content in the flour.  This is due to the poor wheat harvest last year.  We usually find that poorly risen loaves are caused by poor gluten in the flour.  Here is a little explanation of the role of gluten in bread making.

• The way bread is made is the yeast and sugar work together to make CO2 bubbles.  These bubbles are trapped by the gluten.  Gluten is the protein in wheat.  It makes the structure of the loaf, like lots of elastic bands criss crossing to hold up the loaf.  If the gluten content is poor, the loaf will not rise like it should, result in the moisture being distributed through a smaller space.  This makes the loaf feel sticky.  Also, the bits in granary (or wholemeal) flour act like little sharp pieces cutting across the gluten structure.  This too impairs the rise of the loaf. 

• Are you using granary or wholemeal flour or flour with extra grains or rye in it? A white loaf will always rise better as it has no bran or germ in to affect the rise of the loaf.   Is the flour organic?  If so the quality of the gluten is entirely dependant on weather and soil conditions as the farmer cannot add anything chemical to help or protect the wheat while it is growing.  

• Which yeast do you use?  I would recommend yeast that comes in sachets.  Usually you get 6 or 8 in a pack.  Once the sachet has been opened it needs to be discarded after 48 hours. We have found that larger packets such as Doves Farm yeast deteriorate after a short while of being opened. Please read your packet instructions for more detail.

• As a test I would recommend making a basic white loaf. For best results flour with good gluten quality should be done on the longer bake cycle to allow the gluten to develop. The bake rapid program is better for bread mixes with the yeast already added. I would open a new sachet of yeast measuring out what is required.  Flour that has worked well for me recently is Hovis super strong premium white bread flour, Carrs white flour from Sainsbury’s, Waitrose Leckford estate and Waitrose own organic white and whole wheat.

The Kitchen Team

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Moisture content in food

The Kitchen Team

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Thank you for your calls :)

Another happy customer has just been in touch with us to say thank you!

He thought his old SD251 bread maker had finally given up on him as it was producing soggy bread! We told him to switch to a different brand of flour and now he is back in business again producing great bread!

The Kitchen Team

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Using containers in your microwave

Many customers phone us with queries on which materials and containers to use in their ovens, particularly regarding foil / metal containers.

You should never attempt to use foil or metal containers on Microwave only as the microwaves cannot pass through and the food will not heat up evenly, it may also damage your oven. However,

foil and metal containers can be used on GRILL and CONVECTION modes as there is no microwave energy being used in these methods of cooking.

The Kitchen Team

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Tips for Using Bread Mixes…

Evening Cookery demo at Panasonic Store, Crawley

By Janet Caveney, Panasonic.

Last week’s microwave cookery demonstration in the Crawley Panasonic Store was the first customer event hosted by the store since it opened last October. The audience enjoyed the demonstrations and samples so much that they cleared the plates!

Crawley is the most recently opened Panasonic Store and has a very large white goods area displaying the whole range of washing machines, fridge-freezers, vacuum cleaners, breadmakers and microwave ovens. I cooked in ovens built into glossy black kitchen units and demonstrated at a huge hardwood-topped island unit. These were luxury facilities!

The audience were treated to some seasonal dishes: a salmon quiche with asparagus and a rhubarb crumble. The rhubarb was grown in Y orkshi re of course – not far from where I live! I also cooked the most amazing shortbread in the microwave in only 4 minutes. The recipe had been a Panasonic favourite several years ago but has been tweaked by our experts in the Test Kitchen to give a very light, crunchy result when cooked on me dium power in our Inverter microwave ovens.

If you live near to Crawley you must visit the Panasonic Store!

Unit 28 & 29,
County Mall,
Crawley, Sussex,
RH10 1FP

Tel: 01293 529319

Here is a recipe from last week’s demonstration.

Salmon & Asparagus Quiche

Model: NNCF778S / 760M / 771S / CT890S

Oven Accessory: Wire shelf + Anti Spark Ring

Dish: Metal quiche tin+ baking sheet

Ingredients:

250g short crust pastry

2-3 salmon fillets, skin removed, cut into large chunks

1 small bunch fresh asparagus

¼ pt single cream or milk

4 eggs

Fresh dill sprigs

Salt & pepper

Method:

1. Roll out the pastry to line the quiche tin with plenty left over at the edges to allow for shrinkage.

2. Prick the pastry all over with a fork and line with parchment paper and weigh down with baking beans or pasta. Bake blind at 210C for 15 minutes. Trim the edges if necessary.

3. Meanwhile place the asparagus in a ceramic dish with 2 tbsp water, cover and cook on HIGH power for 2 minutes. Drain.

4. Mix the eggs, milk or cream, dill sprigs and seasoning together.

5. When the pastry case is cooked place the salmon pieces and asparagus inside. Pour over the egg mixture

6. Bake on Combination: 190C + Warm power for 20-25 minutes.

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The timer programme

A customer phoned us up today because her bread was not turning out well on the Timer programme. She was using a bread mix on the Basic Bake, 4 hour programme.

By doing this she was able to delay the start time and have her bread ready in the morning but the results were not good. This is because all bread mixes, where the yeast is already added to the packet, must be done on the Bake Rapid ( 1 hour 55 min) programme if they are to be successful. This is because as soon as you add the water the yeast will become active. As such bread mixes are not suitable for use with a delayed start.

Hope this helps!

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