Philips Viva Collection Bread Maker - A Simple Way To Bake Bread

Merlion City
December 2014

Merlion Wayfarer received the Philips Christmas catalogue recently, and decided to try the Viva Collection Bread Maker to experiment with. With the Christmas season coming, it seemed perfect to share the joy of festive baking with one's loved ones.

The Philips Bread Maker has 14 easy-to-use preset programs that bake any bread to perfection, from rich and satisfying whole wheat to gluten free, French and sweet varieties. It also makes specialty breads such as Borodinsky, Easter bread and delicious dough for pasta, even jams too.
  


How Simple It Is

  1. A Recipe Booklet is included in every purchase.
     


        
  2. Measure out the ingredients accordingly with the measuring cup (in ml) and measuring spoon (in tbs and tsp) that Philips thoughtfully included with this product. And empty them into the baking tin provided.
      
  3. Switch on the power plug and choose your settings.
    -  Bread Type : Choose from the list of 1-14
    -  Loaf Size : 750g or 1000g
    -  Browning Level : Light, Medium, Dark
     

      
  4. And bake.
    There is no need to do any kneading, or baking, or waiting for the yeast to rise.
     
  5. At the end of the program, just empty the bread out from the tin, remove the paddle, and serve.
     

The Initial Attempts

French Bread


 The end result after 3h 55 mins (for Medium) - 
There was a significant amount of flour in one particular corner of the tin...

How the loaf looks like after being emptied onto a plate -
It was extremely easy with the non-stick tin...

The depth of flour in the corner...


Learning Points
  • On hindsight, this was hardly the bread to choose for a maiden attempt as a significant amount of time was required (3h 55 mins).
     
  • It's always good to read the "Notes" and "Tips" in detail especially for a first attempt.
       

     
  • As the bread time was rectangular in shape, the edges were not well mixed. A manual mixing might help. 

White Bread

The choice this time was made for a more straightforward bread.
An additional ingredient - sugar - was required...
 
The smooth brown crust...

The texture was also better with no residue of flour...

Learning Points
   
  • The crust was just nice. However the texture was still a bit sticky, and tasted more like steamed cake than bread.
        
      
  • An initial manual stirring of the ingredients within the bread tin helped, especially at the corners of the rectangular tin.

With 2 bread adventures down, Merlion Wayfarer looks set to hone her breadmaking skills to an even higher level - Cheers to the ongoing adventures with the Philips Viva Collection Bread Maker!


Gift your loved ones something special this festive season and
celebrate with Philips Christmas Promo 2014

For more on Merlion Wayfarer's adventures with Philips products, click here.