Paul Hollywood Understands the Benefit of Breadmakers

Published on 17th April 2013

It is great to see Paul Hollywood back on our screens showing everyone how exciting home made bread can be. And even though you see him making his bread by hand, Hollywood himself is also a fan of automatic bread makers.

Paul Hollywood

Baking's answer to George Clooney? (image source: BBC)

On his trip to the Loose Women studios earlier this year, Paul was quizzed about the benefits of using a bread maker and he was quick to identify how great bread machines were for starting off any type of dough.

Baking's answer to George Clooney went on to explain that mixing your dough in a bread maker can have incredible benefits for any type of dough mix and that a bread machine is actually a cheaper alternative to the more costly food mixers that many people use to prepare their loaves.

Here's a clip of Paul on the show (apologies for the poor quality, it's the only clip I could find):

It's clear to see, he had lots of fun talking about kneading moist dough with the capricious loose women!

Saving Time and Energy

Following his interview, Paul also went on to a live web chat at Mumsnet, the popular parenting Internet forum, where again he was professing the benefits of bread machines. This time for people who were unable to spend a long time kneading their dough.

This could be due to time limitations in the kitchen or, in this case, was due to a medical condition which meant the questioner was unable to exert herself to the level required to make a good mix. He even went on to recommend the Panasonic Bread Maker as the ideal choice for such a situation.

The Key to Good Bread

Ultimately, the key to creating great bread is in the preparation. The Hollywood Baker himself always says that the secret of a good loaf is in the kneading, and a bread maker is in the ideal position to take on this role for you.

Kneading bread

The secret to perfect bread is in the kneading (image source: perpetuallightbulb)

Bread is at its smoothest when all the flour cells within the dough have been broken and the gluten has been released. Continuous kneading, stretching and ripping of the bread may be hard work but it will cause your dough to become more flexible and mould into any shape you like.

And the more you knead, the more air will be trapped which will mean that when the dough is cooked, the results will be delicious, light and taste superb.

So next week when you sit down to enjoy Paul Hollywood's Bread, remember you don't have to spend hours kneading and sweating to create the same results as him.

Just pop your ingredients into your bread maker and you can get the same great flavoured bread but with more time for watching the man himself while your a machine does all the hard work for you.

And if you've missed Paul working his magic over the past five weeks, take a look at BBC iPlayer to catch up on the series so far. We are sure you will be as addicted as we are in no time.