Playing With my New Toy - a Half Price Breadmaker!
Someone tagged me on Facebook recently to ask me about the Morphy Richards Fastbake bread-making machine, which was the first model I ever had. Mine was second-hand when I got it over 5 years ago, but it has served me well. Despite it now being in need of both a new pan and a new mixing blade, I kept it, just in case I spotted some cheap spare parts. In the meantime, I have been using a hand-me-down, twin pan breadmaker that a family member bought from Lidl supermarket. I guess the most important part of this waffling ramble is that when I was tagged, it was also to say that Argos had the breadmaker on half price offer!
Well, that was me truly smitten!
With a £10 voucher to use and cashback available via one of my favourite sites, I simply could not resist the temptation to have a sparkling, shiny, brand new breadmaker. It was an extravagant action for the Frugaldom household, I can tell you!
The new machine arrived, so I quickly wiped it down, seasoned the pan and got the first loaf going using some heavily discounted bread flour I keep in stock.
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| Watching the dough rising |
For this basic white, I used the simple 25p loaf recipe but added in some milk powder, sunflower oil and sugar, seeing as it was a very special occasion - the breaking in of the new breadmaker. In all, even if I had paid full supermarket price for the flour, it would still cost less than 50p for the load even allowing for the electricity to bake it.
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| Opening up to retrieve the first loaf from the new breadmaker |
Great excitement, as the loaf adequately filled the pan and turned a beautiful golden brown on top.
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| I think this is a better shape than the tall loaves made in the old Fastbake machine |
The freshly baked bread tipped out of the pan easily and the paddle/mixing blade remained in the pan, rather than in the loaf - a definite plus!
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| The basic white loaf - slices to perfection |
I am very, very pleased with my wonderful new toy. I can see us spending many happy hours working together over the coming year to produce our daily bread.
Should I rehome the old ones, I wonder? Should I deduct the cost of this new one from my food budget, my extras budget, my gift budget or my miscellaneous budget? The total cost, including delivery, after cashback and after deduction of the free voucher came to less than £50. If this machine lasts as long as the old one, it will equate to no more than a few pennies per week. A frugal bargain, if ever there was one to be had.
NYK, Frugaldom
we love our bread maker we treated ourselves to a Panasonic one earlier this year and its half paid for itself now , we like a really back crusty bread so we put it in the oven for 10 mins still about a third of the price of a nice crusty loaf x
ReplyDeleteI haven't got around to replacing the cooker here, so I don't actually have a proper oven big enough to bake bread. I love a soft crust, so this first loaf was the big experiment. I may cut back on the milk powder next time to see how that goes. :)
DeleteThat loaf certainly does look good. I have a wood-fired oven so no need for a machine. I mostly make Soda Bread.... very simple and very quick.
ReplyDeleteI have been making soda scones / farls on the stovetop with some success, but we can't get the proper soda bread flour here, so we need to just use baking soda. I love the stuff, especially grilled with cheese and served with a dollop of pickle. :)
DeleteThe loaf looks lovely, but real bread without a breadmaker is dead easy and 10 mins kneading is therapeutic! Soda bread (plain flour, bicarb, salt, water) is even easier, dead quick and delicious. You don't need to fork out for a breadmaker.
ReplyDeleteHi Helen, my breadmaker is an absolute luxury that I wasn't even aware had been invented when I first began baking my own. Without a proper kitchen with space to knead or sufficient warmth to prove dough, this is an absolutely vital part of my frugal budget at the moment. But perhaps you are new here, so you wouldn't be aware of that. :) Thanks for taking the time to comment.
DeleteLooks lovely..i received a bread maker for xmas, have tried a few recipes but yet to find a really good one..May i ask what you put in yours>? thanks sam xx
ReplyDeleteHi Sam, my best success with this model so far has been by following the basic white bread recipe to the exact gram. I tried some bread mix in it after cuz brought 3 packs at Christmas but 2 out of the 3 so far have fallen in the middle, so I'll try altering the 3rd one to see if that helps. Have fun with yours, they really are brilliant once you have found and perfected you favourite recipe. :)
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