As I've geared up for breadmaking, several google searches for info brought me to this website. Seems like a great group to be a part of.
A few weeks ago I decided to reverse the low-carb dietary changes I made some 20 years ago, and rediscovered the old Oster breadmaker that I stashed away back then. It's been great rediscovering how wonderful freshly-baked bread can be. And the body is loving it - I've lost 6 pounds in 3 weeks! Who woulda thunk it :)
Since I'm not quite retired yet, I'll probably mostly use bread machines for a while, especially in the summer. Amazingly, the old Oster 4811 (1996) still works like a champ and never made a bad loaf that wasn't my fault. I found a brand-new Panasonic SD-YD150 at a thrift store last weekend (for $10!). It's first loaf (whole wheat with bran) was superb! And I have a little-used Zoji CEC20 due to arrive next week. So I'll have some good machines to play with.
Since I don't eat sandwiches per se, I gravitate toward more complex breads to accompany meals, made with whole grains and seeds. Learning to make sourdoughs and Euro-style flatbreads is also of interest. Should be a fun journey!
Thanks for the opportunity to join the group.
A question: Is it always going to be necessary to prove I'm not a robot for every login and post?
No, now that I know you are human I can make some of the captchas go away. I believe Google also chooses to show/hide the captcha based on how much it believes you are human.
Great, thank you. Relying on Google seems iffy... depending on what day it is, the goog believes I live in one of several small cities in the southern part of the state.
Floyd, I'm still facing captchas nearly every time I log in. The last one was 5 in a row before it finally let me through. Can we please do something about this?
Alas, I have no control over how many images it shows you, I can just turn it on or off. If I turned it off we'd be seeing 20-30 spam posts an hour. Agreed, it is annoying, but that friction is what keeps the site usable.
OK thanks Floyd. The only reason I asked is, on Mar 31 you said " I can make some of the captchas go away" so I thought you had control of it. No biggy... as you said, it's a nuisance but I'll get used to it.
Right, yes, there are some captchas that show up even when users are signed in. I make those go away for signed in users as soon as I recognize there is a real human behind an account who wants to have a legitimate discussion. I tagged your account as real back in March.
The most prominent captcha though is the one that you see when logging in. I can't recognize you then because you are logged out. Given that the system logs people out automatically every 2 weeks, and given you experienced them on March 31 and April 14, I assume those are what you ran into. That captcha is the most annoying but also the most effective at keeping bots and spammers out.
Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense now.
Hi,
Has your zoji arrived?
Zoji is superb for mixing-whereas the Kitchen aid treats dough so differently.
Yippee explains her 30 min method with Zojir BM when making a 100% whole wheat bread. Mixing properly with a Zojir made a significant improvement for breads I was making. Also using a sourdough called "clas" was a tremendous time saver too.
What recipe will you try for your Zoji bake?
PS- often I don't logout to avoid a login. :)
Good trick - never log out! :)
I've made two loaves in the CEC 20, the last one being the Irish Oatmeal loaf I mentioned in the bread machine forum. Overall, I have mixed feelings about the machine. It's biggest pluses are, it makes "normal"-sized loaves and is programmable. Yes, it has two paddles, but there are quite a few machines now that do too, at 1/3 the price. And they're programmable, too. As a mixer/kneader, it's ok - the Panasonics are even better. And as a baker, the Zoji is "just ok". The Panasonics are much better.
As an engineer, I feel it is shameful that Zoji designs and builds machines that users can't do the normal maintenance on. It's like making a car that you have to remove the engine to change the oil.
Sorry for the rant, but so far I am not a Zoji fanboi.
Thanks for the Yippee link, I'll read it later. None of the images in the first post are showing. Were they pulled?
On the pictures: you might have to disable your computer's warnings for just this site.
Glad to hear you are making comparisons on the various models. It will be good to know if/when mine runs down.
We had to take apart an old dehydrator and pasta machine and so being able to get to the problem and saving a machine is worth it.
Thanks, but I don't see any browser settings (Firefox) to limit pictures. Videos, yes, but not photos.
I agree, maintenance is part of ownership.
I don't use bread machines, but my impression was thatthe advantage of the zoji is the regular pan trick:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34081/using-regular-loaf-pan-zojirushi-bread-machine
If that is at all relevant!
The Zoji are certainly flexible and amenable to experimenting, perhaps mostly because there's plenty of room to work with.
The SAKI dual paddle machine is also. Their CS has been responsive to questions, and replacement/service parts are available and very reasonably priced. If I needed a 3-lb loaf I'd probably get one.
The Sana machines from CZ also look interesting, but are not imported into the US yet. Would be interested to hear from our Euro members who have experience with it.
jo-en, your blog is excellent! I'm just starting out so it is going to take me quite a while to get to much of it.
I think low baking temp is responsible for much of the concaving in BM's for more whole-grain bread types than just rye.