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There are two tantalising smells freshly brewed coffee and freshly baked bread, either will get most happily out of bed in the morning.

The Antony Worrall Thompson (AWT) breadmaker from Breville measures a maximum of 41x27x30cm with the right hand part where the controls are being somewhat less. There is a hard wired power lead emerging from the bottom back right, above this are a couple of protrusions to allow you to wrap the 1.2metre lead around when not in use. It has four small rubber feet to lift it around one centimetre off the work surface.

The lid is landscape and is 30x25cm reviling the non stick cooking container (20x14cm) it has a wire handle that folds down level and this all clips into ‘the oven’. A fitted rotating paddle sits in the base and when clipped in is able to do all the kneading etc.

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The rightmost 10x18cm area has all the controls; on the back is the on/off switch. There are ten touch buttons towards the front edge of the area and a 5x4cm multi line display above this is an internal light button to allow you to watch the mixing, proving or cooking through a Perspex window in the top of it.

There are 12 possible programs, three crust shades and a book of 68 different bread recipes, each gives the ingredients required for 800gram, 1000gram and 1200gram loaves. While in the past weeks I have made several different types I have yet to use it for making jams, pizza or pasta all of which are said to be possible.

My first loaf (1000gram size) was what is called Milk bread it took 210 minutes from placing the ingredients in the container the only preparation is to place them in the container in the order stated in the recipe with the butter (or spread) cut into small pieces.

From the time you shut the lid the whole process is automatic. Watching is not compulsory but for a few times is compulsive. The display shows what point through which process you are at and the total remaining time. During the initial mixing you become sure that the flour around the edge of the container will never amalgamate – it does – during the longest process -the proving- you think this loaf will never fill the whole size of the container – it does – and during the cooking the loaf will never brown – it does -. Once you move on trying various recipes some even include fruit or nuts that you put in a container behind the landscape lid and these are amalgamated during the process by the machine and you can set a time delay so you can wake up to or come in to a freshly baked loaf.

Once cooked it will be kept warm for up to an hour by the machine however you can remove it from ‘the oven’ as soon as the timer says 0 minutes left. You will need a thick cloth as it is very hot, place on a cooling tray for at least 15 minutes to cool before slicing. The crust is crisp (it still is two days later - if it lasts that long) and the bread is wonderful. My only change to the ‘basic’ milk bread was to halve the amount of salt in the receipt as it tasted a little salt for my palette.

Taking a standard 800gram wrapped thick sliced loaf a slice weights 40 grams a slice of the same thickness from a 1000gram AWT Breville loaf weights 72 grams and is a little wider and longer.

I am still trying various varieties of bread and no doubt in the fullness of time may even make a pizza base or even some jam in the unit. For now however I am back to my youth when everyone made bread (in a conventional oven) or there were still local bakers, the difference is I can make bread to the style of my choice when I want and I do not need to leave the house to get good fresh bread.

Doing my Internet searches found the AWT Breville Professional Breadmaker BR11 at a best price of £97.89 including free delivery from the first link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000ANHZL4?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.breville.co.uk/cookingappliances.html