Lékué Small Silicone Bread Maker

I've started making bread again. To save heating the whole oven for 1 loaf, I use my large (old style) Remoska (yes it works). My next door neighbour showed me the Lekue & offered to let me try it. I liked the idea of no mess & being able to do everything in the 1 'bowl'. Having explored websites re quantity of ingredients for this size, I decided to go with tried & tested strong wholemeal organic flour recipe with 500g flour (recipe on packet) & I know gives a good result. Outcome: perfect loaf with same flavour/texture as before | no mess| nice shape! Pity it won't fit in new small Remoska!

I just made my first small loaf and it worked perfectly and the bread tasted delicious. I wanted something that would allow me to make fresh bread but in small amounts for one and this is brilliant. I’m contemplating buying the larger bread maker for when I have folk to stay but for one this is perfect. I used the Lékué ciabatta recipe and the bread browned well even with the bread maker closed.

This is suitable for small quantities to make into bread. I mix the ingredients with the Lekue in a rigid bowl to make things easier. It can go into a hot oven. It is a wobbly thing to wash up afterwards, but it cuts down on other washing up, which has to be good! I believe you can use this closed to cook in the microwave, keeping moisture in, but haven't used it for this yet.

I bought this bread maker last year as I had decided to start baking my own bread instead of using a bread machine. The results were excellent. I didn't need loaf tins, proving baskets or the need to spray the inside of the oven to keep the loaf moist. It does take up a lot of room in the oven though so I don't use it when bulk baking.

Had really high hopes for this as I regularly make bread from scratch by hand, and wanted something that would make small loaves with less waste as there's only two of us. Unfortunately the first loaf was a complete disaster - didn't rise at all and basically resembled a small house brick. Second loaf not much better. Will give it one more go. *Edit* - third attempt a week later was no improvement, unfortunately the loaves just don't rise properly. Really did want this to be a success as the concept seems great, but it just doesn't work for me.