I am not quite into kitchen gadgets since I have always prefer to eat than to cook. Cooking is time-consuming and there is no guarantee that the final product will turn out the way you expect it to be. But this cooking demonstration got me curious as to how a home bread-maker can bake delicious bread. Some friends have got their own bread-making machines at home and it gave them the flexibility to bake bread of their choice.
So, here I was at the Panasonic cooking demonstration, organised by omySG. 4 recipes were shared and we were really impressed with the soft texture of the bread loaf, focaccia (flat bread), bun and even muah chee which was the biggest surprise to me. I would have never thought that a bread-maker machine can be used for making muah chee!
Panasonic Bread Maker SD-P104 is an automatic bread-maker that has 13 menu (for bread, dough and dessert), 13-hour digital timer and has separate dispensers for raisins/nuts and yeast. Using the dough cycle, we can even use this machine to make dumpling skin and pizza dough.
The metal container is where the ingredients will be placed in and where the kneading process will take place inside the bread-maker.
The control panel looks simple enough and instructions on the display panel looks rather straight forward too. Our cooking instructor, Theresa, shared that when the cover is cover is shut, the panel will indicated the current preparation stage so that user need not open up the cover to check.
One of the recipes shared during the session was the Fragrant Mixed Wheat Bread. The good thing about making your own bread is that, you know the actual ingredients used and the freshness of the bread.
Ingredients for the bread include:
75g Whole Wheat Flour
175g Bread Flour
10g Butter
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Castor Sugar
1 tbsp Milk Powder
200ml Cold Water (ensure that the water is chilled)
1 tsp Instant Yeast
Mix together:
30g Sunflower Seeds
10g Melon Seeds
30g Raisin
10g Black Sesame Seeds
Method:
1. Place the above ingredients (except the mixed nuts and yeast) into the bread pan.
2. Place yeast into the yeast dispenser and mixed nuts into the nuts dispenser.
3. Select Menu no. 2 for "Rapid" mode, and select "Raisin" mode, next press start. [The reason for selecting "Raisin" mode is so that the bread-maker will automatically dispense the mixed nuts at the later stage of the 2-hour process.]
4. Once ready, remove bread from the pan.
5. Leave to cool before cutting! Enjoy the super-soft wheat bread!
The good thing which I really like about the bread-maker is that cleaning seems quite easy too. None of the dough got stuck to the bread pan and so washing can be quite fast too. For those who are into bread-making and would like to improvise with new bread recipe, I think it is worth to get this machine which is retailing at $329 at Isetan, Takashimaya, Tangs and selected Best Denki, Courts and Harvey Norman outlets.
