Hi! This is my first time posting to this list. I have enjoyed the
"conversations" so far. I have a few comments - hope no-one minds that
they are all mixed together (let me know for the future if you do).
First, I think I have a "ChefMate Bakery Oven" - in little print on
the back, it says "Seiko". It has most of the "standard" features,
and the only things I wish it had are warm-up on timer mode, and possibly
that "beep" to tell you to add ingredients (but see below).
Anyone else have one of these? Comments?
(One person asks:)
> I have a wonderful recipe for orange bread, but no matter what I do,
> the outside of the crust comes out tasting burnt. I suspect that
> the sugar in the bread (1/4 cup) is the problem, but I haven't found
> a solution. Anybody have any ideas?
My machine has a "sweet bread" setting, which I believe is supposed to
solve the problem. You might try cutting down both the sugar and
maybe the salt (salt is supposed to regulate the yeast where sugar feeds it).
Another thing to try is to go with your normal "good" white recipe,
and add/substitute ingredients. For example, instead of following
cinnamon raisin bread recipes, at first I took the "white" recipe
and added the same amounts of spice/raisins that the real recipe called
for.
Can we get a copy of your orange bread? Mine never comes out very orange-y.
(Another person asks:)
> I've made several different breads using my Hitachi 201 (?).
> At the beep I add whatever mix-in items I need
> (e.g. raisins, pepperoni)
> Typically the items never get *into* the dough: they
> just whip around the outside during the needing, and
> bake at the bottom.
Try putting the ingredients in at the beginning - that is what
I *have* to do. This works great with raisins - they aren't chopped
up at all, and are evenly mixed in. Chocolate chips melt a bit
and are marbled through the dough - I consider this a feature, although
I still would be nervous about making this bread on the timer, because
the chips would get so soft by the time it started that I would
have chocolate bread instead!
Lisa Stroyan