Galanz Bread Maker MB15001A: First Use Review and User Manual

Galanz bread maker MB15001 in yellow, max 750g loaf, Made in China

Kicked to the curb, this little Galanz bread maker MB15001A was. I could tell it was clean and little used. This little ditty did not need much work to get working, apart from brushing off some snow. I just plugged it in and it started beeping at me, telling me to feed it. Is this “Made in China” product any good?

The Galanz Bread Maker MB15001A has a max capacity of 750g, though it says 1.5 lb on the machine. It is made in China. As it did not come with instructions and no recipe, I searched online for a user guide but could not find one. There is also no contact info on the bread maker. Looking at other recipes I guessed at one. Load in this order:

1. 300g water
2. 1.5tsp salt (should only use 1 tsp)
3. 375g white flour (here in Canada we only have high protein strong bread flour)
4. 1.5tsp instant yeast (can try 1 tsp)

The important point for bread makers is add ingredients as they are in the recipe, and to separate the salt from the yeast, as the salt will impair the rising of the yeast. Dig a little indent in the flour before you add the yeast. This is an 80% hydration dough. I eschewed adding other things that some recipes called for such as butter and sugar, just for simplicity. I used the default settings for a white bread, 3 hours and 20 minutes later a white bread popped out. The colour was a bit pale for the “medium” setting. Next time I would try the “high” setting.

As the bread goes through kneading, rising and baking, the steps are shown on the LED indicator, along with the time left to go. After the bread is done there is a couple of beeps. I could not figure out how to preset the start time to bake in the future, but the manual says it can be done.

The bread rose and came out with a good crumb, though the crust was a bit pale. The dough had risen above what it should and some dough stuck to the viewing window. The bread was also salty, so I had obviously added too much salt. Other than over inflating and being a bit salty, the bread came out as expected. The non-stick coating allowed the bread to easily slide out. The metal paddle at the base of the bread needed to be pried out with a chopstick.

Galanz bread maker MB15001 in red, max 750g loaf, Made in China, discarded and cleaned. Setting 1 White bread, knead, medium colour, 1.5 lb loaf, 3’04” to go. Photo by Don Tai

Here’s a flashy advert for the bread maker, complete with cute Chinese kid and sexy model. My bread maker did not come with either.

Settings
This is a very simple bread maker with no fancy setting. There are 12 settings, but you can change the default times. There is a setting for 1 lb or 1.5 lb bread, and the colour (low, medium, high). There is the start button.

Finding a Manual
Without the manual you’d need to play around with the ingredients a bit. Despite searching on Google for a user manual I could not find one. She sent me a Chinese web page that had cursory instructions but nothing that I already did not know.

Fortunately I was talking to my Chinese friend and she recognized the brand “格兰仕 GeLanShi” as a Mainland microwave brand. She had never heard of them making a bread maker. I pointed my browser to Baidu and found 格兰仕, but only for ovens, so I downloaded one of their oven manuals, which had, in the back, an address and contact info:

佛山市顺德区格兰仕微波炉电器有限公司 Foshan City, Shunde District, Gelanshi microwave oven electric company
地址:广东省佛山市顺德区容桂大道南 25 号 Guangdong Province, Foshan City, Shude District
网址:http://www.galanz.com
http://www.mwf.com.cn
电话:0757-28886389
邮政编码:528305

It would have been much easier for me if they had put the web site address on the bread maker label. From the web site I found their customer service email address, who were kind enough to send me the user manual. Yay, if only it were much easier.

Galanz bread maker MB15001 in red, max 750g loaf, Made in China, 750g white loaf came out very easily. Photo by Don Tai

User Manual
The manual says that the max capacity is a 750g loaf of bread, with a max capacity of 450g of flour, and up to 2 tsp of yeast. This appliance is safe for kids 8 and up, with supervision, as it is pretty safe and easy to use. As with all bread makers while kneading and rising, it seems to make random sounds, which is interesting for kids. During the baking time the bread maker never really got dangerously hot.

The user manual has some spelling and formatting mistakes but this is not too bad.

One recipe is called “Dried Meat Floss Bread”, which is probably a shredded beef jerky that I see at the Chinese store. Chinese bakeries also have buns with shredded beef jerky on top. This is not common knowledge to non-Chinese people, and it caught my attention.

The standard white bread recipe for a 750g bread is:

1. 250g tepid water
2. 2/3ds tsp salt
3. 400g white flour
4. 1 tsp instant yeast

This will produce a 63% hydration dough. There is a smaller recipe for a 500g loaf.

Galanz bread maker MB15001 in red, max 750g loaf, Made in China, bread came out really nice looking, good crumb, delicious. Photo by Don Tai

Conclusion
This is a simple bread maker that baked me a loaf a bread. The crumb was good and the bread was delicious. When I feel lazy and don’t wish to mess around with complex sourdough starters and processes, I can simply make a neutral tasting loaf of bread with this machine. I’ll try mixing a 20% rye flour into the white flour to see if it adds flavour.

As for the mechanics of this machine, it still works so I won’t take it apart. I don’t know how long this will last, or even if I will use it much, but it works, makes bread, and I can play with it.

Galanz bread maker MB15001 user manual, max 750g loaf, Made in China