I don't really like fancy kitchen appliances. Time-savers for the one recipe a year you'll use them. Granted, the slow-cooker Christmas cake recipe, I think, makes the slow-cooker worth it all on its own (we do sometimes make stews, too). But I don't think we really need the pasta-maker (which, let's face it, is just a mini-mangle).
They tend to sit on the side, or in the cupboard, taking up space, not being used. Even "useful" ones like the food mixer. To be fair, M uses that, when he makes cakes: I prefer a big bowl and a wooden spoon.
But kitchen gadgets tend to have quite a large footprint, and kitchens aren't usually all that big. So I feel that anything coming in needs to earn its keep.
Like the bread-maker. Admittedly, I've only really started using it regularly in the last year, though we've had it for far longer, but it really is worth it. Fresh bread, still warm, with slowly melting butter. The smell of baking bread. And all it takes is five minutes or so at breakfast-time to put everything in and set it going.
Not that I can't, or haven't, made bread and pizza-dough by hand. But, you need a warm space for rising, which can't be guaranteed in the colder months, so I took to the bread-maker.
And now I'm experimenting with some of the other settings. The other recipes it can make.
The "jam", for which read compote (it doesn't set). The chocolate bread. Eventually, the fruit cake.
After the "jam" experiment; or, Why you don't use frozen fruit!
I've experimented before with the cake mixes you can buy in the supermarkets. They work well, both in the bread-maker and for making cakes in the oven, for when you don't want a massive hole in the bottom of your loaf of cake. But a loaf of cake is always tasty, and I haven't yet met a bread-maker cake mix I don't like.
The compote was a bit of a spur of the moment of an experiment, with a bag of blueberries I pulled out of the freezer. The main thing I learned was not to use frozen fruit. Or, at least, to let it defrost first. The blueberries pinged all over the bread-maker and made quite the mess. It made about a pound or one jar. Tasted good, especially stirred through Greek yogurt.
The chocolate bread was - not quite what I expected. Perhaps because I was subconsciously expecting something cakier. But it was chocolate bread. Maybe if I'd had Nutella. Or, if I'd thought of it, the compote. Not awful, just requires further experimentation.
As, indeed, does the compote, with other, non-frozen fruit.
Really, though, what I'm trying to say is: I love my bread-maker. Even if I only used it for the bread I make several times a week, and the occasional pizza dough, it'd still justify its place on the kitchen counter. It really does provide Fairy Cake Joys, since, so far, each recipe only takes a few minutes to chuck in the machine. Simple, effective, and oh-so-yummy for so little effort!
Next up: that fruit cake!
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