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141 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So glad I bought this, 7 Feb 2008
This review is from: Panasonic SD254 Breadmaker (Kitchen & Home)
Fed up with supermarket bread I decided to take the plunge just over 2 weeks ago. The machine was delivered within 3 days (thanks Amazon) and it lives up to all the other reviews. You need a set of kitchen scales to weigh out the flour but the measures provided for yeast, sugar and salt are excellent. I cam't be bothered weighing out butter but (as the manual says) just measure out olive oil instead. Just make sure that you use Easy Bake type yeast which already contains Vitamin C. I use Hovis. I've tried 70% Wholemeal, 50% Wholemeal, White, Parmesan and Sundried tomato, Green pesto, onion and garlic recipes so far and they have all been perfect. The large (middle-sized loaf) gives me just too much for two lunches (8 slices) so I now make the smallest size for that. The bread pan is totally non-stick and just needs wiping over with a damp cloth - a bit of dough does get stuck to the paddle/spindle but a quick soak in cold water solves that. I was a bit cautious of spending £65 but it has been worth every penny. The recipe/instruction book is excellent and can be viewed online at the Panasonic website. Wish I had taken the plunge many years ago - go on if you are tempted buy it.
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371 of 373 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic gorgeous bread every time - Buy One, 7 Jan 2008
This review is from: Panasonic SD254 Breadmaker (Kitchen & Home)
This is my second breadmaker, I've already written a review for my first one (another brand) and given that five stars because it was pretty good. However, since I've had this one, I now realise that breadmakers can be better than pretty good, they can be absolutely magnificent, fantastic, wonderful, marvellous ... (need I go on?)
I bought this because it was at a very good price on Amazon because I had heard a lot about Panasonic being the best, and I knew that I would use it because I was in the habit of making bread every day.
So, you are probably wondering, why is this one so much better? Well, quite simply, it makes better bread, lighter, less 'spongey', tastier and absolutely gorgeous. Each programme takes longer than the equivalent programme on my other machine - for example, to get a 'basic' white loaf (not basic at all in my opinion!) you have to wait 4 hours, and for a wholemeal, you need to wait 5 hours. A baker would tell you that the longer time the bread has to 'prove' the better it's quality, and the extra wait if definitely worth it here. You can choose your loaf size in some of the programmes (not all), ranging from medium to extra large. I've tended to use the medium, because the loaf comes out a good shape - with the extra large, the bread comes out quite tall, so you don't get any extra slices, just taller ones. I've noticed that for the same weight of flour I get more slices of bread than with my old machine - this demonstrates that the bread has a 'lighter' texture, but also saves me money.
There are fastbake programmes which knock a couple of hours off each of these cooking times, and the finished result is still pretty good, although it is worth being organised enough to run the full programmes if you can. There are special programmes to make Italian style bread, French bread and to bake cake mixture too if you don't want to put your oven on. (For this it is recommended that you line the pan with baking parchment by the way.) In addition, there are options to make dough, including a special one for making pizza dough or Foccaccia in just 45 minutes. You will never buy another pizza I assure you.
The recipe book supplied with this product is extensive, so far, I've only made a few of the many on offer, but I plan to do more. To make bread, all you do is put the ingredients into the pan in the order in the book - yeast first, then flour, then everything else - many of the recipes include a bit of butter for flavour, texture and crust - but you could use oil instead. My other machine almost always demanded milk powder and the flavour of the bread was nowhere near as good as this bread.
My only recommendation is to buy a really good bread knife, and something in which to store your bread. I've had no problems with the bread being fresh for 2 days and then fine for toast on day 3, and to be honest, it doesn't usually hang around that long around here because it gets eaten (unless I hide it!).
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73 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Kitchen Appliance We Ever Bought, 24 Feb 2008
This review is from: Panasonic SD254 Breadmaker (Kitchen & Home)
I purchased the SD254 on reading the reviews. I was totally fed up with normal bread as you always have difficulty spreading anything on it without tearing a hole in it!
The first loaf I made was perfect - using the Basic white recipe. I have also made wholemeal bread and pizza dough. We have also made bread using the rapid setting and this turned out fine - the loaf was tasty and only slightly smaller. It has been used almost every day since we bought it and we have only had one disaster (my own fault for not measuring the ingredients accurately). We have also only once had the blade stick in the bread - this was on the same disaster loaf! We haven't tried making anything which requires raisins etc so I am glad we didn't buy the more expensive SD255.
The only drawback is that the large loaf is quite tall so you only get bigger slices. I haven't tried the ex-large because of this. The medium size is fine for us - 2 adults and 1 child.
I would highly recommend this if you want homemade bread with no effort. It has been well worth the price paid.
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