What a brilliant idea, Bucko!

"Leave a loaf of bread on the table after dinner on Christmas Eve. This will ensure there is no lack of bread during the next year." — Bizarre Superstitions

I finally found mantou improver. Can you tell me when and how to use it?

I use 1-2 teaspoons for a loaf, and add it with all the other ingredients at the beginning of the process.

I think it is one of those things to experiment with

Tigertiger, thanks. I only use Western-brand bread flour. I've had failures with the Chinese brands. I'm making a bunch of rolls this weekend so I'll try it out in different proportions in several batches and let you know the results.

your welcome

BTW, I have had success and failures with both Chi and US brands of flour. Stick with what you know best and are happy with. At least you know that if Metro is out of stock of US flour, you can still get the local.

Funny I was at Metro and they only had unbleached flour. Carrefour carries Gold Medal Bread Flour regularly.

Does the Mantou Improver change the taste noticeably? I swear I learn something new everyday I'm in China!!

That's the thing with Metro, one week they have stock, next week no. Carrefour can be a bit the same with imported stuff. If I saw bread flour I used to buy 3-4 bags.
I've not noticed any change in taste with the bread improver. But then I haven't been looking for it.

And I thought I was being a bit paranoid with two bags on my shelf!! Next time I'm at Carrefour, I will get some more. I make several dozen buns a week for my classes. We do cooking together from time to time with the buns, like How to make a ham and cheese sandwich, etc. and I always give them a snack 'cause using all those brain cells makes you hunger. Besides there's no nasty additives to my bread.

I just started making my own bread so I can't speak from much experience, but I have used both local flour and Gold Medal flour — what I found was that the local flour made much fluffier bread while the Gold Medal made much, much denser bread (using the exact same recipe). Both were delicious! But very different consistencies.

I have a question though, I inherited this bread maker and I'm having serious issues getting the bread out. The people who owned it before seriously beat up the container that the dough goes in, it kind of looks like it got run over by a truck — i don't really want to buy a new breadmaker just because one bit is broken but I don't know what to do?

I've tried buttering the edges but during the kneading/rising processes i think it just wears off? Does anyone know if its possible just to replace that part? I'm talking about the metal bucket bit with the paddle at the bottom. Anyway if anyone has had this experience I'd love to hear some solutions.