17 Years ago when I was carer for my terminally ill ex-wife I found it difficult to leave the house for more than a few minutes. Hence I had all our groceries delivered by the supermarket – home deliveries were relatively new then and it was all a bit hit and miss.
I found it difficult to buy bread that I liked – most of the commercial stuff is heavy, loaded with chemicals and too moist. In fact you could cut the crust off a sllce of white bread, crunch it up in your hand, and water would ooze out – leaving you with a handful of dough.
So I bought a top-of-the range Panasonic breadmaker with a retractable paddle that cost, in those days, almost £300.
5 years later I met Libby, 12 months to the very day later we got married and a year later I sold up and we moved house. I continued to use the breadmaker with great success, but there was a small local bakery that sold excellent bread and the breadmaker soon became redundant. The only thing I missed was the aroma of hot fresh cooked bread first thing in the morning which had been baked on a timer overnight. I eventually sold it on Ebay.
When we moved house last October the bakery was no longer local, it was 5 miles away and we found ourselves buying supermarket bread. I kept intending to buy another breadmaker, but we were so busy getting the new house and garden sorted it was April this year when I got round to it. But by then we were on lockdown, strong bread flour and yeast were as rare as hen’s teeth and noone had any stock of breadmakers.
Three weeks ago I noticed that strong flour and yeast were freely available, so I looked around for a suitable breadmaker. I had intended buying another Panasonic costing £235 – but Which and other reviews all spoke highly of the Russell Hobbs Fast Bake machine which Argos were selling for £65. Technically there was little difference between them if all you wanted to make was plain white and Wholemeal bread. I would be unlikely to use the extra features offered by the Panasonic, hence I bought the Russell Hobbs.
I’m glad I did – it is the equal of my old Panasonic and cooks a standard white loaf to perfection in just over 3 hours.
We met up with some friends yesterday and Libby was telling them I am a master baker - it appears they already suspected that.
This is today’s, which was cooked in the early hours ready for my breakfast toast.
