New
#1
What's cooking today?
Oh! It'sn't cooking but baking. I baked my first bread today.
God!Isn't it gorgeous, the size I had never seen before - not in the commercially available bread loaf.
The machine: Panasonic SD-ZB2512 - known as the Rolls-Royce of the bread machines. Ordered it on Amazon, France on 11th inst, shipped from Poland, onto Surrey,Great Britain and from there to India on my doorsteps on 24th inst.
Cost of the machine Euro 173.78 but inclusive of shipping and custom duties it is a whopping Euro 312.39, the costliest home appliance in my kitchen. I was only worried after such a long journey whether it will work. If it didn't I would be sunk with no guarantee for the service in India.
With bated breath. I poured all the ingredients into the baking pan and switched on the machine and kept watching as it went through the rest period, then kneading, and then rise period and finally the last step the all important baking. Into 3 hours and 10 minutes it went into baking mode and it was celebration time. What good all the other steps, if it is not getting into bake mode? I kept feeling the stainless steel exterior and made sure it was heating up.:) And ya, it was getting hotter and hotter and at the end of 50 minutes baking it sounded merrily that it is all over. Took the pan out and tumbled it and out came the mountain of bread. I sighed in relief - everything was working perfectly and dot on time. And then I waited for my grand daughter to slice it.
One great suspense was over. :)
( Me and my wife do not eat bread as a routine but my granddaughter takes toasted store bought whole wheat bread daily, sandwiched with some filling. I just tasted it one day and it was horrible. Now no more store bought rubbish. I shall try whole wheat bread tomorrow.)