When your sourdough starter has long since been claimed by the fruit flies of rural Andalucía and your favourite maize loaf never got ordered from the panadería, there's only one thing to do: resurrect the old Panasonic from the back of the cupboard and get creative.

There was a time when I baked my own sourdough like a responsible grown-up. I nurtured a starter, fed it, talked to it, and watched it bubble away on the counter. That was all well and good until one high-summer afternoon in Provincia Jaén, when I left the jar out on the worktop. Within hours it had become the hottest fruit-fly nightclub in Andalucía. I swear they were queuing outside.

After that, I outsourced my sourdough habit to Piqui at the local panadería. They make a beautiful maíz sourdough, but only to order. And this week, naturally, I forgot to order it. No bread. No backup. No starter. Just me, two dogs, and a kitchen that suddenly felt very empty.

So I did what any improvisational cook does: I went rummaging.

THE PANASONIC RETURNS

At the back of a cupboard — behind the paella pan I never use and a stack of Tupperware with no matching lids — I found my old Panasonic bread maker. A relic. A veteran. A machine that has seen things. I pulled it out, dusted it off, and decided it was time for a comeback tour.

This rustic wholemeal bread machine loaf was born in the kitchen at Casa Adora in Monte Lope Álvarez — where forgotten sourdough starters, missed panadería orders, and dusty appliances all have their own stories.

But I didn't stop there. If I were going to resurrect the Panasonic, I would do it properly. Enter: the KitchenAid. Because if I can't make sourdough, I can at least make my bread look like I meant to.

And so began The Flexible Chef's Rustic House Loaf — a 50/50 wholemeal bread with honey, extra virgin olive oil, and enough poppy seeds to make it look intentionally artisanal. It's the kind of loaf that feels both humble and proud of itself. A loaf that says, 'Yes, I came from a bread machine, but I have character.'

One small discovery along the way: my Panasonic's dark crust setting has quietly stopped working. The loaf came out on the lighter side — still excellent, but worth knowing if you're expecting a deeply coloured crust. I've adjusted my expectations and baked on regardless.

Ingredients for rustic wholemeal bread machine loaf

(makes 1 medium loaf)

• 290ml water
• 2 tsp honey
• 20g extra virgin olive oil
• 200g strong wholemeal flour
• 200g strong white flour
• 15–20g poppy seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• A tiny pinch of vitamin C powder (optional but quietly satisfying)
• 5–6g dried yeast (¾ of a 7g sachet), for the yeast dispenser

METHOD

1. Pre-mix the dry ingredients In the KitchenAid bowl, combine the wholemeal flour, white flour, salt, poppy seeds, and vitamin C powder. Mix on low for 20–30 seconds — just enough to blend everything evenly.

2. Load the bread pan Add the water first, then the honey, then the extra virgin olive oil. The Panasonic likes to be loaded in this order.

3. Add the dry mix Tip the KitchenAid blend over the liquids in an even layer.

4. Add the yeast Place the yeast into the dispenser as the Panasonic gods intended.

5. Programme and start Select: Wholewheat cycle — medium loaf — dark crust (if your machine obliges). Press start and walk away feeling quietly triumphant.

6. Cool and slice Leave to cool on a rack before cutting. Admire the rustic crumb. Pretend you planned this all along.

A FEW NOTES

The vitamin C powder is optional but worth including if you have it — it gives the yeast a gentle boost and improves the crumb structure slightly.

If your Panasonic's dark crust setting is working better than mine, use it. If not, the medium setting produces a perfectly respectable loaf.

This is a flexible Panasonic bread maker recipe — swap the poppy seeds for sesame or nigella, or leave them out entirely. The base loaf is solid either way.

I hope you enjoy baking these bread recipes as much as I've enjoyed developing them. More will arrive here as they make it out of the oven and onto the site.

This rustic wholemeal bread machine loaf recipe also features in my Gut Health Recipes collection — real food from a rural Andalucían kitchen, built around fermented foods, high-fibre pulses, wholegrains and prebiotic-rich ingredients.

Find more bread recipes and food adventures here.

Wonky photos, proper bread, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef