I guess it was during the Second World War that my mother first started making bread.  These were the days when bread making machines and even the dough hook for the almost indestructible Kenwood Mixer had not arrived in the shops.  Indeed I doubt that the Kenwood was even around. 

I have never really found any of my mother's recipes but I never really cared for the bread she made.  It always seemed heavy and the desire to force us to eat brown bread was great.  The fact that it was heavy probably had more to do with the poor flour that was available after the war than with my mother's abilities to make bread.

The fact that wholemeal bread is a healthier option than Sunblest did not stop me preferring plastic sliced to a loaf which would almost break my foot if I dropped it.

In my 50s I tried my hand at baking bread.  I have to say that even with modern flour and the Kenwood, the bread was seemed little better than my memory of my mother's bread.  Occasionally there was a good loaf but I could never put my finger on the reason for the success. 

Then a friend introduced me to the Panasonic Bread Maker.  Except for a couple of failures early on which were both down to not reading and implementing the recipe correctly, I have since enjoyed fresh bread each morning.

I have experimented a little with the Panasonic recipes but frankly they are excellent.  The recipes above marked BM are suitable for a Bread Maker.

Page last updated 14 February 2001