Morphy Richards Fastbake Cooltouch Breadmaker review

Morphy Richards’ Fastbake Cooltouch bread maker isn’t a particularly arresting sight. It’s a big white blob, a little bit like a giant misshapen egg. Though we’re willing to forgive it that, as it’s such an affordable bread maker.

The Fastbake scores some immediate points elsewhere too, thanks to a simple innovation. The bread tin has a clip for the carrying handle, so it will stay out of the way while you’re emptying out your loaf. This is something I’ve been crying out for: with most bread maker models, keeping the handle from snagging on your loaf is a fiddly business.

The Fastbake comes with a couple of measuring spoons and a measuring cup, so you’re ready to get going straight away. Like the bread maker, the manual isn’t a thing of beauty, but it’s friendly, clear and full of useful information. This is the only bread maker I’ve seen where the wholemeal recipe requires vitamin tablets – you can get these from a chemist if they’re not for sale in your supermarket.

I wasn’t particularly keen on the bread maker’s controls. These are on the front of the machine rather than the top, so you have to bend over to see the buttons and the small display. The wobbly buttons feel aren’t the best, but setting up a bake is as easy as selecting the recipe, size, crust and time delay you want, before pressing Start.

There’s a viewing window on top, too, so you can see how your bake is getting on. You’ll need a torch, however, as the baking chamber isn’t illuminated as on the Sage Custom Loaf or Kenwood BM450.

My first bake was a standard white loaf, and this came out beautifully. It was a lovely loaf with a light, fluffy texture; along with the white loaves produced by the Kenwood BM260 and Panasonic SD-ZB2512, this was the best white bread I’d seen.

However, wholemeal bread was a bit of a disaster. The first loaf collapsed at the top, and even when I changed to more expensive Allinsons Very Strong wholemeal flour, the loaf came out squat, dense and chewy.

As suggested by its model name and the large logo on the front, this bread maker has a fastbake function. This can make a white loaf in just 58 minutes, but the results are a bit of a disaster. The resulting loaf was underbaked, doughy and not pleasant to eat. The machine takes 2h 53m to make an excellent white loaf, which is well worth the wait. If you’ll regularly need to make bread in a hurry, you should look at the Kenwood BM260, which can make a decent loaf in an hour and a half.

The Morphy Richards Fastbake Cooltouch has one outstanding strength, and that is the excellent quality of the white bread it can produce. If that’s what you want, and you don’t fancy spending many times its current price on  Panasonic’s SD-ZB2512, this is the bread maker for you. However, I didn’t manage to get a decent wholemeal loaf out of the machine, and I’m not keen on the bread maker’s looks or controls. That said, if you’re looking for a cheap bread maker for white loaves this is a great buy for £45. Buy Now from Amazon or check out our other Best Bread Makers.