Monday, July 4, 2011

I heart oven bread.

Or, Why you don't need a breadmaker.

I heart bread made in Maitland with olives, shallots, chives and garlic.

The main perceived advantage of the breadmaker is that you can set it up at night on timer and wake up in the morning to the smell of freshly-baked bread. Which is surely pleasant and convenient. It also creates less washing up. But I shall now explain why I don't have a breadmaker.

1. If you are the sort of person who is convinced to buy a breadmaker on the basis of convenience, then you will probably quickly find that shop bread is still more convenient. It comes sliced. In a bag. The saying "best thing since sliced bread" is true for a reason. Because I don't eat a whole loaf in one go, I have to cut up the remains and wrap them in glad wrap and freeze them. My slices are fat and squashed, so are not good for sandwiches, only for piling cheese on or dipping in soup or hummus.

2. Breadmaker takes up space. If you don't use it for a long time you'll feel guilty about owning it.

3. Breadmaker is mysterious. You won't actually know how to make bread. After using a couple of recipes I now know the basic combinations and I can throw a batch of bread together pretty carelessly, and as long as I remember salt it works fine.

4. You get a hole in the bottom of the loaf.

5. Breadmaker bread isn't as nice as oven bread. I don't know why, but it's soapy tasting.

2 comments:

  1. But how do I make olive, shallot, chive and garlic bread! Take pity on us uncreative recipe people!

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  2. Make a wet sort of dough, and chop up heaps of stuff and roll it in when you knead it!

    ReplyDelete