My unexpected love affair with my bread machine
My mother first bought this bread machine in 2013 and she baked at least 3 loaves a week till 2017.
In 2017, she came to live with us as she had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and I wanted to look after her. Sadly, my mum passed away in May 2018 and I then packed away the machine in my sorrow.
After Covid hit in 2020, I had to find a way to reduce our household expenses. I pulled out Mum’s bread machine and thought let’s see if it still works. It worked perfectly! I didn’t realise how easy it is to make bread with a machine! All I needed was strong flour, water, dried yeast (I use Tesco’s!), sugar and salt. I use coconut sugar as it doesn’t make my blood sugar spike (as I’m hypoglycemic).
Since April 2020, I’ve been baking a loaf a day! Generally, I prefer wholemeal loaves. although for variety I’ve baked French bread, cereal bread as well as white bread. I’ve made dumpling skin a few times with the machine, although that’s such a mess to clean up. I don’t like using the machine to make cakes as I find it’s much easier and quicker (and less cleaning!) to prepare normally in a mixing bowl.
One day last year, I ran out of coconut sugar. And I wondered if I could bake bread without sugar. Surprisingly, it was the same shape, size, taste and texture! I googled it and it appears sugar is more a taste thing and that it’s not actually needed in a bread recipe.
I discovered if the bread didn’t rise well, it was usually because the yeast was old. Oh if anyone is wondering, this is what happens if you forget to put the blade in your bread — it doesn’t mix or anything and is just this mess to clean up from the machine…
It was only whilst I was researching this particular machine for this article, that I realised the machine has a timer function! As you can see from my machine photo, the labels are all in Chinese — my mother was Chinese and I only speak Cantonese, I don’t read more than 100 Chinese characters — I don’t know how many times, I would put on the bread as late as possible so that it would be ready close to breakfast time :) I will try the timer function tonight!
I’ve baked over 750 loaves with this machine. As you can see from my photos, it’s looking well-worn, yet it’s still in good shape and making great bread for my family daily.
Buying sliced bread here in Hong Kong is expensive and being able to bake our own bread, has been life-changing. Thanks, Mum for leaving me your bread machine!
