Silvercrest Breadmaker

For many years we relied on our trusty Morphy Richards 'fastbake' breadmaker. The results - after some experimentation - were mostly good, so long as I was careful to adjust the temperature of the added fluids, depending on the ambient temperature of the kitchen - this is rather important in Cyprus. Then, after about six years of regular use, it passed away peacefully.

We had got used to bread made at home, and loved the huge savings that resulted; so we replaced it with an inexpensive Carrefour own brand of breadmaker, which had the big advantage of two paddles rather than just one, making longer, shallower loaves. However it had many problems: no matter what I did, the resultant bread was heavy, and the non-stick coating quickly started to flake off the paddles. Then it became unreliable, failing in the middle of a cycle several times. Perhaps we should have returned it, as it was less than two years old; but then they would have repaired or replaced it… and we really didn’t like it.

So we did some research, and were coming to the conclusion that we would have to pay about 150 euros to get a good quality breadmaker; even more if we wanted one with two paddles. We didn’t really want to spend that much, so we kept putting it off…

Then we spotted a Silvercrest brand breadmaker in our local Lidl. It had two paddles, and was on offer at just under 50 euros. There were some with white bodies but we much preferred the black ones, which matched most of our other kitchen appliances. We did note that the labelling on the front was in Greek, but the instruction manual had an English section, so we thought we could deal with it.

We wandered around the store discussing it… we knew our son would tell us we were crazy to buy yet another cheap breadmaker. But eventually we picked it up and decided that if it failed, we would definitely return it and would resolve never again to buy a cheap one.

TRYING IT OUT

The manual had the usual safety instructions, a reminder to wash the pan and paddles before use, and explanation of the various settings. I knew from experience that I would probably only use a couple of them - the basic bread, and the dough. My trusty recipe uses mainly wholegrain flour with about 100g strong white flour to make it a bit lighter, and has seeds added part-way through. So I thought I would try that first, rather than one of the recommendations in the manual.

There are three sizes of loaf that can be made: 750g, 1000kg and 1250g. I selected 1000, medium crust, and set it off, noting that it would be ready in about three hours.

I half expected a brick - but the loaf mixed beautifully, rose perfectly, smelled amazing as it cooked… and looked amazing! It was better than anything I had made in the Carrefour machine, and better, even, than my Morphy Richards loaves.

DOUGH SETTING

My son likes to make naan bread and uses a breadmaker to knead and rise the dough, so a few days later he put his usual ingredients in the pan and selected the dough setting. It took rather longer than our previous breadmakers had done - nearer two hours than one and a half - but made excellent dough which turned into delicious naan when shaped and cooked in a frying pan.

TEMPERATURE ADJUSTMENT

One of the things that surprised us a little about our Silvercrest breadmaker is that in the first ten minutes nothing seems to happen. I did wonder if it was working at all, the first time. But the instruction manual explains that the machine is getting the ingredients at the right temperature. Apparently it does that very successfully, since I’ve made bread when the kitchen temperature was 35C, and it still came out perfectly. With our Morphy Richards, I had to use ice cold water or it would rise too fast and then collapse.

NON-MEASURED INGREDIENTS

Our son moved to a place of his own, and ‘borrowed’ our kitchen scales for a few weeks. I did not realise this until I had started putting ingredients into the breadmaker one morning, and looked for the scales to weigh the flour. Had I known, I would have used a different recipe that measures all the ingredients in American cups, but I’d already used millilitres for the water. So I checked a conversion table, which wasn’t much use as wholegrain flour is denser than white flour. In the end I guessed, and then added more flour after the first rise, as it looked too sticky.

To my astonishment, even that loaf came out well. Not perfect: it was rather stodgier than we were used to, but it was quite edible. I was impressed.

OTHER PROGRAMMES

In addition to the ‘regular’ setting, which I mainly use, and the useful dough setting, the manual lists these others:

French bread

Wholewheat

Sweet

Super rapid

Pasta dough

Buttermilk bread

Gluten free

Cake

Jam

Manual

In the five months since I bought this breadmaker, I have not used any of these. Even though my recipe is predominantly wholewheat flour, I find that the regular setting is just fine. I don’t want the hassle of baking bread in the oven so am not tempted by the French bread setting, and can’t see myself using any of the other settings. In particular, I have been warned by several people that making jam in a breadmaker is a messy process, which usually boils over and is not recommended. I don’t know why they include this setting.

I did think the manual setting might be useful - it enables custom times for kneading, rising and cooking - but since the regular setting works so well, I don’t see any need to experiment. Others might like to try something different, but I tend to work along the lines of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

INSTRUCTIONS

If I have a slight niggle, it’s that the instruction manual is rather over-technical, with a lot of detail that does not interest me, including tables listing every rising/kneading/baking time for all the programmes. It does not, however, give any recipes at all. This isn’t a huge problem, as I’ve found that breadmaker recipe books often need a lot of adjusting, and we have an excellent recipe book (“Fresh Bread in the Morning”) that is appropriate for any breadmaker.

Still, I was a bit surprised not to find any recipes at all; this could be a disadvantage for anyone buying this machine who did not have any experience with breadmakers.

GENERAL

The power consumption for the breadmaker, according to the guide, is 850 watts. I’m no physicist, but this has to be more efficient than using my oven for a single loaf of bread, quite apart from being less hassle. When we’ve made estimates of the cost of making a loaf with a breadmaker, it comes to about half the cost of buying an equivalent sized loaf, even including the electricity. That comparison would not necessarily hold in the UK where good quality bread can often be found inexpensively in supermarkets, but I still like knowing exactly what goes into my bread, and avoiding any preservatives or other additives.

I was pleased to find that this breadmaker came with a measuring cup that goes up to 400ml (our previous breadmaker cups held only 250ml) as well as a useful metal tool for easing the paddles out of the cooked bread if they have stuck. This happens fairly regularly, and the tool is thus used to good effect.

I understand that the Silvercrest breadmaker is only available from Lidl; as with most Lidl offers, it’s not always available. There are quite a few of them on Ebay at the time of writing, in varying conditions and for a range of prices. If you can find a new (or almost-new) one for around 20-30 pounds, I can recommend it highly.

2022 UPDATE

The Silvercrest breadmaker worked faultlessly for about four and a half years. Then one day I discovered that one of the paddles was not working. Only half the dough was getting mixed. I had to remove it from the machine, mix and knead by hand, then return it to rise before baking rolls. They worked, but it was a lot of hassle. The machine was out of warranty, and it had paid for itself in savings on buying bread within just a few months, so it didn't owe us anything. I don't. like the fact that appliances of this kind are now considered disposable: new parts, even if available, would cost more than a new machine.

So, while I still think it was a good breadmaker, and probably worth buying if you want to experiment with making bread at home, or have a very limited budget, its lifespan may be limited. I doubt if I'll buy another breadmaker from Lidl.