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After using the appliance
Unplug the appliance and leave to cool for 30 minutes before starting another programme.
If the appliance is reused too soon, it may emit a beep and "HOT" is displayed, indicating that it is not cool
enough. Wait for the appliance to cool down then press START/STOP.
BAKING BREAD: AN ART AND A SCIENCE
Baking bread is both an art and a science.
The appliance does most of the work, but there are some things you need to know about each of the basic
ingredients and the bread baking process.
The ingredients of classical bread are the simplest: flour, sugar, salt, liquid (water or milk), possibly a fat (but-
ter or oil) and yeast.
Each of these ingredients has a particular function and gives a particular taste to the end product.
It is therefore important to use the right ingredients in exactly the right proportions to guarantee the best
results.
Yeast
Yeast is a genuine "active" micro-organism. Put simply, bread will not rise without yeast.
Once moistened with the liquid, fed by the sugar and warmed to the right level, yeast produces the gases
which cause the dough to rise.
If the temperature is too low, the yeast is inactive. If it is too hot, it dies.
The appliance takes this into consideration and maintains the correct temperature in the baking chamber at
all times. You should therefore use active dry yeast only, verifying the "Use by" date of the product because
after this, the yeast will not leaven the bread.
You should make a small hollow in the top of the dry mixture for the yeast. This will make sure it is active
when it comes in contact with the liquid and sugar during kneading.
If you want to use cubes of fresh yeast, use a fork to mash it into the water in the pan.
Flour
You must use a good quality flour before the "Use by" date.
In order for the bread to rise, the flour must have quite a high protein content.
You should therefore use flour suitable for bread making.
Unlike white flour, wholemeal flour contains bran or wheat germ which are heavy and impede leavening.
Wholemeal bread therefore tends to be denser and smaller.
You can obtain a larger lighter loaf by using a mixture of wholemeal flour and white flour in wholemeal bread
recipes.
It is important to weigh the flour required for each recipe to take account of the air naturally incorporated in
the flour. This guarantees perfectly baked bread.
You can uses packs containing large quantities of flour, but the result may vary.
The consistency and height of the loaf will be variable if the flour is kept for long periods in inappropriate
conditions.
Only buy packs of large quantities of flour if you are baking regularly.
Sugar
Sugar sweetens the bread, makes the crust darker and gives it a softer consistency by feeding the yeast.
You can use equivalent quantities of white or brown sugar, treacle, maple syrup, honey or other sweetener.
You can also use equivalent quantities of artificial sweeteners, but the taste and consistency of the bread will
be different.
Liquids
When the liquids are mixed with the flour protein, they form gluten, necessary to leaven the bread.
The majority of recipes use water, but other liquids can be used such as milk or fruit juices.
You should therefore experiment with the amount of these liquids needed to obtain optimum results as a reci-