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For a modern person, a bread maker is more exotic than a need. In recent years, we have become accustomed to buying bread in the store, we began to consider it something that is beyond the control of home cooking. Result? Following homemade bread, buns, pancakes, pies and other primordially Russian delicacies gradually began to disappear from our house. Today, not every hostess dares to prepare pies for the arrival of guests - there is always a danger that the dough will not fit the way it should, and kneading it is not an easy job ... Now imagine that 99% of these problems have been removed from you! How? Yes, with the help of a small, undemanding device in maintenance and operation - a bread maker.

Bread is the head of everything

This proverb is clearly not invented from scratch. Remember the old Russian fairy tale about the Frog Princess, where one of the daughters-in-law's tests was the task of baking bread? And this is no accident. After all, for a long time in Russia, one of the main advantages of a woman was the ability to bake.

In general, bakers have long enjoyed respect and honor in all countries. The work of a baker was highly valued in ancient Rome. There, for example, a slave who knew how to bake bread was sold for 100 thousand sesterces, while only 10-12 thousand were paid for a gladiator. In Byzantium, bakers were not subject to any state duties. But at the same time, for baking bad bread, the baker could be tied to a pillory or expelled from the city.

In Russia, very high requirements were also imposed on bakers. Indeed, in a country where famine often occurred, honesty was valued almost above skill. In the "dashing" years, a special watchfulness was established for bakeries, and those who allowed the "admixture" of bread or speculated on it were severely punished. The following fact speaks of our respect for people of this profession: if in the XVI-XVII centuries. common people in everyday life were called derogatory names (Fedka, Mitroshka, Grishka), then bakers with the same names - Fedor, Dmitry, Grigory.

In the XIX century. Russian bakers baked a huge variety of different bakery products: pretzels, bagels, bagels, rolls. The rolls were especially fond of. They have always been on the everyday table of an ordinary citizen, and at the magnificent royal feasts. It was the kalachi that the king sent to high-ranking officials as a sign of special respect. However, the villagers did not consider all these bread "delights" for food and bought them only as a present for children. The peasants preferred "real" bread, which they always baked themselves, in Russian ovens. The urban population, on the other hand, bought bread from bakers.

Filippov was widely known among Moscow bakers. His establishments were visited by the most variegated clientele - from young students to elderly officials and from poorly dressed women to overdressed ladies. Filippov's rolls were delivered not only to St. Petersburg to the royal court, but also to Siberia. Even simple black bread was considered the best by Filippov.

This very black bread, or, as it was also called, rye, was the most popular among our ancestors, and in the recent Khrushchev and Brezhnev times. The fact is that it was much cheaper and more satisfying than wheat, white bread. However, there were varieties of rye bread that even very wealthy people could not always afford. For example, "boyar" bread, for baking which they used special grinding flour, fresh butter, moderately fermented milk and spices, belonged to such expensive ones. It was baked only by special order for special occasions.

Sieve bread was baked from flour sifted through a sieve, sieve bread - from flour sifted through a sieve. Low-quality was considered "fur" types of bread, which were baked from wholemeal flour and called chaff.The best bread, which was a regular on the tables in wealthy homes, was "gritty" white bread made from well-processed wheat flour. Well, in the years of crop failures, when there was not enough stocks of rye and wheat, all kinds of additives were mixed into the flour - carrots, beets, potatoes, and even oak bark, quinoa and nettle.

Why Buy?

It would seem that with such a wide range of bread, there can be no talk of any homemade bread makers. Nevertheless, this miracle of technology has recently become quite popular in Russia. Why?

Of course, the main reason for buying a bread machine is the great taste of homemade bread (just imagine the aroma of your apartment!), But even more importantly, you will know exactly what your bread is made of. Unfortunately, many loaves sold today in stores contain vinegar, soy flour, vegetable fats, as well as E72, E300 and other "improvers" and "leavening agents" that are completely unhealthy for the body, which you will never add to your homemade bread. do not put.

In a word, there is probably no need to prove that a bread maker is one of the most successful and useful items in the kitchen. This is not surprising. For an amount of $ 100 or more, you can forget about bakeries and enjoy fresh delicious bread whenever your heart desires. The first automatic bread makers appeared in the 1980s. and since then have gained popularity very quickly. They came to us from Asia, where the tradition of baking bread at home is still strong. After all, there are practically no large bakeries working for mass sale.

How does it work

In principle, all bread makers use the same technology. Each has a mold with a non-stick coating and a thin handle. There is a paddle in the bottom of the mold for mixing the dough. To bake bread, it is enough to pour the ingredients strictly specified in the recipe into the oven: flour, salt, sugar, water, add milk powder, butter and yeast. But in no case should they be mixed! Just close the lid, use the buttons on the control panel to set the selected program and you can go about your business - the bread maker will take care of everything itself. While you are resting, she will knead the dough herself, let it stand and knead it well. Then, when the dough rises, the mini-bakery will knead the dough and let it rise again - so that the gases come out. And only then the actual baking will begin. The one you ordered yourself: with a very ruddy, medium or very light crust. After all these procedures, the stove will remind you of its existence with a sound signal. And it's okay if you are not at home at this moment: some models can keep bread hot for a long time. In general, the bread maker will do all the routine work for you. You will also have to enjoy a ready-made freshly baked loaf.

By the way, more expensive models can be found with such features as the ability to choose any of five degrees of toasting the crust, a fan, thanks to which hot air is distributed evenly throughout the entire volume, a timer with a delayed switch-on so that hot bread ripens, for example, right for breakfast.

What can you bake

In order for baking to please, you need to take care of the appropriate ingredients. For example, it is better to use dry yeast (preferably imported).

Having mastered the preparation of a basic loaf, which includes only flour, water, sugar, yeast, salt and milk powder, you can start baking bread with the addition of grains, spices, nuts and seeds, and even fresh and stewed vegetables! The bread maker will easily bake bread with fried onions, dried mushrooms or tomatoes, baked peppers, crispy bacon, smoked meat or grated cheese and herbs. You can also make sweet cupcakes with chocolate, fruits and berries. And strawberry bread! Such delight even in the most fabulous dream will not be dreamed of! Various additives are put in strictly according to the sound signal that the stove gives.

Save on bread

Homemade bread is about half the price of the one bought in the store.From a kilogram of wheat flour in a homemade bread maker, you can make four loaves of bread, about 400 g each (this is the weight of a standard "store" loaf). Plus the cost of a few grams of sugar, salt, milk powder, butter and dry yeast, and electricity. Do the math and you'll see that a tabletop bakery pays for itself in less than a year.

Which model should you choose?

Before buying a bread maker, you should think about what size machine you need. Different models, depending on the size, bake loaves weighing from 500 g to 1.5 kg, so if you eat a lot of bread, choose a larger oven. By the way, large bread makers can also make small loaves.

If you are not averse to adding additives to your bread, then you will need the "add raisins" function. In this mode, you can bake bread with the addition of not only raisins, but also chopped dried apricots, herbs, prunes, nuts, candied fruits, chocolate, cheese, ground ginger root, saffron, pieces of fresh fruit, bacon and other delicacies that make ordinary bread an appetizing delicacy.

And if you love yeast baked goods made with your own hands, but you struggle with kneading dough from time to time - a bread maker with the function of "making dough" will save you from torment forever: it will be able to knead dough specially for buns, buns and pretzels, pies with filling, kulebyak. It will be enough to pour the food into the mold and after an hour and a half, having taken out the finished dough, start sculpting the pies.

Most models also have a pizza dough preparation mode. Resourceful housewives have already adapted this mode for making dough for dumplings.

Many models can also make homemade jams and preserves from strawberries, blueberries, apricots, plums, apples and even lemons! The hostess will no longer have to stand over the pot for hours and remove the foam. There is no need to fear that the jam will turn out to be too liquid or, on the contrary, it will digest and darken. You just need to follow the instructions exactly, which is amazingly simple. And some expensive bread makers can even cook rice!

Stove-intellectual

Many machines are so smart that they take the ambient temperature and the temperature of the ingredients out of the refrigerator into account. Equally good results are obtained at any temperature in the kitchen, from +5 to + 30 ° C. Also, by setting the baking program, you can lock the control panel in case the children want to play with the pretty buttons. In the event of a power failure, the parameters you set are saved, depending on the model, from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

But in any case, whichever model you focus on, check to see if it comes with detailed instructions in Russian, as well as a book with recipes.

Let's walk through the market

Asian companies are traditionally strong in the production of bread machines. Thus, the Panasonic SD-253 model (Fig. 1) bakes white and rye, French and Italian bread wonderfully. This oven was the first in the world to bake gluten-free bread (devoid of protein gluten). A special dispenser for adding raisins made it possible to fully automate the process of adding components (fruits, cheese, olives, etc.), introducing them into the dough gently without damaging the pieces. You just need to load them into the dispenser, and it will automatically add them to the dough at the right time.

Figure: 1. Bread maker Panasonic SD-253

Figure: 1. Bread maker Panasonic SD-253

The ability to make bread from whole grain flour and bran flour will appeal to those who follow the rules of a healthy diet or are simply looking after their figure. The delay timer (up to 13 hours) will allow you to prepare hot bread for breakfast, and using the RAPID mode ("Fast"), you will receive bread in just 1 hour and 55 minutes!

The undoubted advantages of the stove include the ability to knead the dough in seven different ways. Regular dough, French, rye, with additives, pizza dough - each of them has its own characteristics, its own preparation time, kneading scheme.Now you can make almost any yeast dough! The stove will create optimal conditions for its preparation, at each stage precisely maintaining the required temperature regime, and this is the most important component of success.

You want something sweet and the oven is busy? Take advantage of the Baking program, with which you can get excellent non-yeast baked goods - muffins or charlottes. Or cook jam: it is very easy to do this in a bread maker, but it turns out to be remarkably tasty.

Model HB-156JE from LG Electronics has 6 operating modes: basic, special, French, fast, dough and jam, containing 27 bread recipes, 9 dough options and 6 jam options. The oven programs include two loaf sizes - 450 and 680 g, a timer for 13 hours, and three crust colors. But the main feature of the bread machine is a separate unique program "Russian cook", which includes the preparation of honey-mustard, pumpkin, sour cream, rye bread and kulich.

Another model from LG, the automatic bread maker HB-205CJ (Fig. 2), is designed for making bread and cake. It also has 8 modes of operation and the "Russian cook" program. The oven is equipped with a non-stick coated chamber. The bakery programs were developed directly in Russia, the inscriptions on the panel are in Russian, so it is easy and simple for Russians to use such a machine.

Bread maker LG HB-205CJ

Figure: 2. Bread maker LG HB-205CJ

A number of models of bread makers are available in the line of Kenwood household appliances, each of which has its own interesting features. So, the compact model BM 258 from Kenwood with a capacity of 900 g of flour has the function of keeping bread hot, and can also delay the start of work up to 16.5 hours. The quick bake program allows you to get bread in just 60 minutes.

The BM 300 model is designed for baking 750 g and 1 kg of bread and has a gluten-free dough preparation mode, a jam preparation program and an express bread baking mode in 60 minutes. You can set the crust color - any of three, to choose from.

The BM 306 bread maker (fig. 3) has an improved dough raising cycle, protection against power outages. And the BM 440 model, in an aluminum container with a non-stick coating, which can bake 1.25 kg of bread, has the function of keeping the loaf hot.

Bread maker Kenwood BM 306

Figure: 3. Bread maker Kenwood BM 306

So, tabletop mini-bakeries are a great find for those who love fresh hot baked goods, and also know how to count money, save time and do not save on health. This technique is doubly indispensable outside the city, for example, in the country, far from the benefits of civilization. You can, of course, live without a bread machine, but nevertheless, with the appearance of such a multifunctional apparatus in your house, the quality of your life will undoubtedly increase. And, having switched to homemade bread, you can hardly return to the purchased one.

Prepared by Maria Lushnikova


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