ok... people who use breadmakers... a question...

Its bland because it doesnt have enough time to prove and develop flavour. use less yeast, and do it on manual, give it minimum 2 hours resting.

We've found that wholemeal and granary bread is much more interesting. We also love sun dried tomato bread!

H noticed that it tasted bland at first, I think it was the lack of salt by comparison to the stuff he's used to. He has got used to it now, I think.

I think it might be your tastebuds. I actually found the panasonic recipes quite salty to start with, but only put in a third of what the recipe says and that works much better for me.

I rarely make white bread in it though, usually granary or 50/50 white/wholemeal.

Nick, have you ever eaten supermarket bread? ?

It's the lack of salt, I expect.

I think it might be as well!!! Guess we just need to tweak the ingredients a little and see what happens!

I dont agree JK. every bread recipe I have uses 10 grams of salt per 500 grams of flour.

a quick look on the sainsburys website suggests that supermarket bread actually has, on average, LESS salt that that. thats looking at own brand, hovis, etc.

Think our recipes are saying either 3/4 or 1 tsp salt for 400g flour.... maybe we do need a tad more..... I'm just going to have to play around!

My breadmaker recipe booklet says 1.5tsp salt for 450g flour, but it seemed way too much to be adding when I was measuring it out. I now use 3/4 tsp salt and bread tastes fine. It is less salty thatn shop-bought bread though.

Recipe I use for a 1.5lb machine is:

275ml water
450g bread flour
1.5tbsp milk powder
3/4tsp salt
1.5tsp caster sugar
25g butter

I've added 2oz sunflower or pumpkin seeds and had excellent results, also added 1tsp cinnamon and 2oz currants to make a fruited bread. I add these all at the start and don't wait for the beeps that tell me I can add 'extras'. Walnuts added to wholemeal bread are good too.

If your recipe book that came with the machine is the same that came with our 253 version, theres a good seeded bread recipe. i don't use the caraway seeds though

i like hovis flour for wholemeal and sainsbuggers own for white