Tips and tricks for your bread machine

Unfortunately, the recipe book that comes with the Tefal/Moulinex Pain & Délices bread maker (see in the picture) has some mistakes. The instruction manual is good but very short, so it can be useful to read through some of my tips and tricks below. Let's start with some mistakes in the recipe book! These are just some things that I noticed, but there may be more mistakes.

Please let me know in the comments if you noticed other mistakes or if you have further tips. 

Recipe book mistakes

Yeast conversion table: You can start with correcting the unit of dry yeast from tablespoon to teaspoon in the first row of the table on page 3. I also highlighted the row I need when converting yeast quantities (I always use fresh yeast) because it's easy to make a mistake. (Been there!)

Yogurt recipes (Yogurt and Drinkable yogurt): the description says to put the lid on the yogurt pot but you don't have to. It doesn't fit well without the strainer, and in fact, without the lid you can check from time to time if your yogurt is set. I will soon write a blog post on how to make yogurt with more details.

Cottage cheese recipe: do not pour the ingredients in the tin! You must use the plastic yogurt pot just like when making yogurt, but this time put also the plastic strainer in the pot before adding any ingredient. Do not use the lid when starting the machine.

Opening the lid

Despite the instruction manual telling you not to open the lid of the bread machine when it's operating, you can safely open it during the kneading phase. This is the first phase when the machine doesn't do anything else then mixing the dough. It is a good idea to check if it's mixing properly. You can notice mistakes such as forgetting to insert the kneading paddle – in this case you can unplug the machine, use your clean hand to touch and feel the metal piece in the middle to know what direction the flat part is facing and then push the kneading paddle through the dough to place it on the metal piece. If you manage to replug the machine in 7 minutes, the machine will continue where it was stopped. If longer time has passed, then you will need to restart the programme from the beginning.

You may also notice other issues like your dough being too wet and sticky or too dry. In this case, if the machine was already kneading the dough for at least 10 minutes, then you can add some more flour (to a wet dough) or some extra liquid (to a dry dough).

At this stage you can also notice (and this has happened to me every single time so far) that a small fraction of the dough is stuck to the walls of the bread pan. This is a very floury dough and if it's left there, it will become very hard after it's baked. Instead of wasting it this way, use a plastic spatula to push the flour down while your machine is still kneading the dough. Your dough needs this flour and will pick it up during being mixed.

Cleaning the kneading paddle

I have a small cleaning brush which originally came together with a metal straw for lemonades. I'm using this brush (with warm soapy water) to clean the hole in the kneading paddle every time after use. Look around in your local store to find a similarly small brush you can use for cleaning the paddle. Don't use the paddle again without properly cleaning it first as spoiled dough may contaminate your bread.

That's it for now. Let me know in the comments what tips you have!