Heston Blumenthal has the golden touch when it comes to all things culinary – be it his iconic multi-Michelin starred restaurants or his sell out Christmas Puds for Waitrose.

It’s no surprise then, that he has turned his hand to a sleek and chic range of kitchen aids which pretty much encapsulate the essence of the man. He currently runs one of the most celebrated restaurants in London – one I’d love to review – and in his spare time, he is currently sorting out our bread woes.

I’m by no means a brilliant baking mummy. A few short cuts here, a bit of luck and a few good eggs there, I blag my way through it. So I knead (see what I did there?) a bit of help from an expert, and when Sage got in touch to see if I’d like to review this stainless steel stallion, what else could I do but give them a hasty ‘hell yeah!’?

#RealBreadWeek is in full swing – I’m late to the party but I brought plenty of dough!

My kids love to make and bake with me and although I always stick to the easy stuff so I don’t shatter their little delusions of having a domestic goddess for a mother, I occasionally dip my toe in a new pond. SAGE asked if we’d like to get involved with #doughingitforthekids and my two were more than happy to get stuck in! So bread making it is this week, but this beast can do lots more besides. Pizza dough (great for our Pizza Fridays),home-made jam (yes really!) pasta dough and loads more!

DAY 1 Disaster

First up though, the boys were so excited to have first go on this gleam machine so I let them loose with their choice of flavours. They went for banana & raisin to kick us off and I was pleased as it half ticks my healthy eating boxes!

Here’s a little Vlog of our antics with the Sage Custom Loaf Pro, hope you enjoy it!

The bread machine takes around 3 hours for a standard loaf so we got started after breakfast so our Sage could work it’s magic in the day, ready for a post-school treat.

I was quite fascinated by the whole process and the inoffensive gentle whirring of the breadmaker was nice and soothing as I worked from home and caught up with my deadlines.

Like having a newborn, I kept checking on my new friend, having a little peek regularly to make sure all was well!

I’m not a great one for reading instructions, I’m a quick scanner and this came to be my downfall in this particular dead bread episode! Wet and stodgy it was when it came out and I knew the boys would be disappointed.  As I knew it was me who had not followed procedures  properly and cut corners, I quickly whipped into action and set about making a second loaf straightaway to test the Sage’s prowess. After all, as Heston himself says, it IS literally a science! Do I dare show you how it turned out? Oh go on then, honesty is the best policy….!

As I was thinking fast, I went for pesto and pine nut loaf and this time with a darker crust. I didn’t show the Sage so much love this time and just let it do it’s thang.

Result? WINNER!!!

Kids weren’t super keen but the hubby loved it and had it with some smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Third Time Super Lucky

So, bouyed by this success, I decided to give the kids what they really wanted, a ‘normal’ loaf… By this time I felt like a pro and literally chucked my ingredients in and went to the gym, leaving my silver dream machine to do it’s magic.

I came home to the comforting aroma of freshly baked bread and when I picked the kids up from school they couldn’t wait to get stuck in!

Yes it’s pricey, yes it’s big, but the Sage is less stressful and noisy than a new baby and we have  happily welcomed it into the family!

Heston has kindly put together some  tips on brilliant breadmaking so I thought you’d like to see them….also, Sage are running a fab comp to win one of these bad boys worth £249.99!!! Here’s the link if you fancy entering…. https://www.facebook.com/SageAppliances

Heston’s hints and tips for general bread making 

• Bread and pastry all begin with dough. But what makes them so different? The key here is liquid, temperature and relaxation (and I am not talking about relaxing at the pub with a pint!). Liquids such as water react with gluten proteins in the flour to make the dough more elastic. Hence adding water to flour, as well as kneading, will promote elasticity in the dough – also known as gluten development. This is great when creating bread.

• A pre-ferment containing just flour, yeast and water will help add flavour and texture to the bread. Most pre-ferments take approximately 24 hours. Once comfortable with this method, some ingredients can be substituted for added flavour.

• When working with wet doughs such as brioche burger buns, it is very important to sift all of the dry ingredients. This will help avoid any lumps in the ingredients in the dough.

• Excess flour is an issue when shaping or balling the bread dough. While working on the Burger recipe for In Search of Perfection 2, I found that a little water on the bench helps shaping the dough as it gets a bit of traction with the surface of the table or board.

• Baking is a science – each ingredient has a particular reason for being part of the recipe – more than just flavour. It is important to accurately measure the quantities of each of the ingredients.

• When using freeze-dried yeast, adding lukewarm water to a bowl and the yeast with a little sugar will help kick start the fermentation process.

• When mixing the ingredients, it is important not to add the salt and the yeast together. Salt can stop the yeast from fermenting. Salt and yeast can be added at different steps when making the dough.

Keep Calm and Carry On Linking Sunday