I now have a Lidl bread maker and am reaching the same conclusions. I have just tested Tesco Strong Flour, kneaded it only with the bread machine with water content on the high side (but still able to pull away from the container walls), gave it about 10+ hours to rise (and it certainly did, I had to divide the 800gr mix in two and left only half in the machine).
I did not use the last heated accelerated rising stages, stopping the machine immediately after the kneading stages were complete. The subsequent multi-hour rising was at low or room temperature.
I used half for a pizza, and it produced the blandest tasting dough I have tried so far. The dough was however had the best texture, stretching well. The most impressive pizza dough demonstrations that I have seen seem to rely on soft and fine flour (0 or 00 grade, the finests), plenty of mixing/kneading before and after rising, and plenty of time for rising/autolysis. I notice that Odlums Plain Flour has a protein (and therefore presumably gluten to a large extent) concentration of 10.8% (by weight) and Tesco Strong Flour has a value of 12.6%, which is not much more.
Can a longer rising time not compensate for the slightly lesser protein/gluten concentration of a soft flour ? Is strong flour primarily for those where time is money such as professional bakers?
I used the bake cycle in the machine for the other half, and it produced the lightest bread I have made so far (after 24+ hrs of rising). The bread was ok, however I will be trying other flours and water concentrations etc. I also plan to test something like vegan lard or suet.
The best tasting pizza dough I have tried so far used Odlums Cream Plain or Self-Raising Flour (I forget which) with 8+ hours rising time to allow for autolysis. Presumably long rising times also allow for small amounts of yeast.
Note both Odlums Cream Plain and Self-Raising flours contain the same three raising agents, though presumably in different concentration. Neither is listed as fortified with Calcium Carbonate (chalk), Iron, Niacin or Thiamin in the ingredients. Tesco's Strong Flour does not contain raising agents, however it does have these four post-WWII fortifiers.
I am making vegan "pizza" (vitza ?). Without the effect of cheese more reliance is placed on the base and tomato sauce. Cheese can partially cover a dull sauce or base. I prefer the sauce more concentrated, and a little pepper, vegetable stock (which contains pepper), garlic/granules, oil, and a small amount of sugar (to counter any bitterness) are some of the things that can be added to the sauce if desired. Green olives work very well as a strong topping, along with thinly sliced onion and bell peppers.
As for the machine, I would like an option to knead but not rise, and to pause before rising for as many hours as desired. The current solution is to time operations and stop or stop/pause/start manually. In fact ideally there would be the ability to program in any desired operation sequence/durations. Perhaps this option is available on a more expensive machine.
The machine is very simple, one motor, and one heating element. Probably a temperature sensor and a motor over current sensor are included, and of course some switches and the display. For those with moderate circuit and printed circuit board skills it would not be technically very difficult to replace the PCB/uC and program in the desired functions, a task however that can wait for now (& of course please do not attempt this if you do not consider yourself qualified to work with 240VAC circuits).
I got the lidl silvercrest model a year ago.
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Someone said to use "strong bread flour".
I found out recently that plain flour produces great results too.
Plain flour is about 1/3 the price as strong flour. It's got a bit less gluten, but it rises just as well.
Another tip, for people who are really hard up.
You don't need a full 7 gram pack of yeast.
You can make a 7 gram pack of yeast last for 2 or 3 loaves by the following technique (if you are not in a hurry)
Put 2 grams of yeast into the machine instead of 7 (along with all the other ingredients).
Turn on the machine for about 2 minutes (allowing a little mixing to happen).
Turn off the machine.
Turn on the machine again and program the bread to finish 8 hours later.
This gives the 2 grams of yeast time to multiply, in a similar manner to sourdough, the resulting bread will taste a bit better too. As yeast likes warm conditions, start with hot water.
A lot of people were talking about the energy costs in making a loaf. Bread machines are extremely energy efficient compared to an oven.
I can make a 500g bread for not much more than 1/2 a kilowatt, around 10 cents.