One small loaf. One enormous breakfast upgrade.
I live on my own, and that’s one reason I absolutely love my little Panasonic SD-PN100. I don’t need a loaf the size of a breeze block sitting on the worktop all week. I want something fresh, small and interesting — and, most importantly, I enjoy experimenting.
I’m calling this one NIX GOLDEN HOUR. It takes the nutty, comforting flavour of Alpen Original muesli and gives it a rather grand send-off: one fresh egg for tenderness and colour, warm cinnamon, runny honey, whole milk, butter and plump raisins. Not quite brioche — it has far less butter than proper brioche — but very much inspired by that soft, golden, egg-rich style.
The Alpen brings cereal flakes, oats, fruit and nuts to the party. The egg and butter enrich the dough, the honey adds a mellow sweetness, and the cinnamon gives you that gorgeous aroma which makes even a quiet morning feel like the doors of a bakery have just opened.
⚠️ One lesson I learned the expensive way
I've broken a bread maker before by using too much flour. So I make no apologies for banging on about this: never use more than 250g of flour in my SD-PN100 recipes. This one uses just 215g of strong white bread flour, plus 35g of Alpen. Stick to the quantities; don’t be tempted to double the batch. A mini bread maker is brilliant — but it is not an HGV.
A quick note before we bake: NIX GOLDEN HOUR is my own untested experimental recipe, adapted around the SD-PN100’s small loaf size and Menu 3. I have not baked and verified this exact egg-enriched formula yet. The first loaf will tell me whether the hydration, rise and sweetness need fine-tuning. No pretending a kitchen experiment is a proven factory recipe.
The NIX GOLDEN HOUR recipe.
No guessing. No “handful of this and a splash of that”. Bread makers appreciate precision, and so do I when I don’t want another kitchen casualty.
The dough
- Whole milk125ml
- Medium egg, beaten (without shell)1 (≈50g)
- Runny honey15g
- Unsalted butter, softened20g
- Strong white bread flour215g
- Alpen Original muesli35g
- Fine salt¾ tsp
- Ground cinnamon½ tsp
- Fast-action dried yeast¾ tsp
Liquid balance matters: a medium egg contributes roughly 50g of ingredient, so I have reduced the milk from 170ml in my egg-free trial formula to 125ml. No extra sugar required: the honey and Alpen provide sweetness. Use instant bread-maker yeast.
The juicy bit
- Extra raisins45g
If the raisins are dry, cover with warm water for 5–10 minutes, drain thoroughly and pat them dry. Moist and plump is lovely; dripping wet adds uncontrolled liquid to the dough.
Menu 3 allows manual fruit addition. Panasonic specifies no more than 50g of ingredients at this addition stage. The 45g extra raisins stay inside that limit.
Why 125ml milk, not 170ml?
An egg is not a dry ingredient! The medium egg adds roughly 50g of mass, including water, fat and protein. I have cut the milk to 125ml to compensate rather than simply throwing an egg into the old dough and hoping for the best. Panasonic’s own Basic Raisin reference uses 250g bread flour, 170ml water and 50g raisins; this version deliberately uses 215g flour plus 35g Alpen, with 45g extra raisins at the beep. First bake = test bake, and a tiny correction may be needed for your particular flour and Alpen.
Liquids first. Always, on a NIX loaf.
Fit the kneading blade
Lift out the SD-PN100 bread pan, fit the kneading blade securely and make sure the pan is clean and dry.
NIX rule: the liquids go in FIRST
Beat one medium egg (about 50g without shell) into the 125ml whole milk. Pour that into the pan first, followed by 15g honey and 20g softened butter. Scatter in 215g strong flour, then 35g Alpen. Put ¾ tsp salt and ½ tsp cinnamon on the dry ingredients, with ¾ tsp instant yeast last in a little hollow on the top of the flour, away from the salt and moist ingredients.
Important manufacturer difference: Panasonic specifies yeast → flour → other ingredients → liquid, not my liquids-first method. My loading order is a personal experiment, not Panasonic’s approved sequence. If you want the manufacturer-recommended method, follow the order in the manual instead.
Menu 3 — then start immediately
Return the pan to the machine, close the lid, select Menu 3 — Basic Raisin, choose Medium crust and press Start straight away. Allow roughly 4 hours to 4 hours 10 minutes for the programme.
No delay timer with this egg-and-milk dough. Do not let the mixed ingredients sit around unrefrigerated in the machine while waiting to start. With the nonstandard NIX liquids-first order, immediate start is particularly important.
Watch for a soft, enriched dough
Once kneading has begun, inspect briefly. I want a soft, cohesive, slightly tacky dough, not a crumbly lump or a batter. If genuinely dry, add one teaspoon of milk, let it knead and reassess. If very wet, add one teaspoon of flour and reassess; avoid overcorrecting. I still keep the total flour comfortably under 250g.
The Panasonic has a resting stage before it starts kneading. The egg can make the dough look softer than a plain white loaf. This is a sensible first-bake observation, not a guaranteed dough texture.
The crucial beep: add the raisins
Usually around 1 hour 5 minutes to 1 hour 35 minutes after starting, the machine will beep. Open the lid, distribute the 45g dry, prepared raisins into the pan, close the lid and press Start again within 3 minutes. The machine will continue automatically if you miss the button, but adding them at the beep is what we want.
Let the machine finish
When the end signal sounds, stop the machine, unplug it and carefully remove the hot pan using oven gloves. Turn the loaf out promptly onto a wire rack.
And here’s the difficult bit: be patient
Cool for around 45–60 minutes before slicing. Cutting too soon can squash the soft crumb and make it seem gummy. Then toast a slice, add butter and enjoy.
Not just raisin bread in fancy dress.
🌾 Alpen Original
Wholegrain wheat and rolled oats add character, while the little pieces of raisin and sliced nuts add flavour and texture. It isn't bread flour, though, which is why the strong white flour still does the heavy lifting.
🥚 Egg, honey & butter
The egg contributes richness and helps create a softer, golden crumb. The honey brings mellow sweetness; the butter rounds everything off. Brioche-inspired rather than true brioche, but a step up from everyday fruit bread.
✨ Cinnamon
Just half a teaspoon. I want warmth and fragrance, not a loaf that tastes like I've accidentally emptied the spice cupboard into it.
🍇 Plump raisins
They go in at the beep rather than being battered for the whole knead. That's how I hope to keep proper little pockets of sweetness throughout the loaf.
How I’d eat it.
For me, this is a bread for slow mornings. Not a sandwich loaf trying to be healthy. A proper little treat, with ingredients you can actually recognise.
NIX GOLDEN HOUR. A bowl of Alpen, promoted to first-class breakfast.
Small loaf. No waste.
Once completely cool, keep the loaf wrapped or in an airtight bread container and enjoy it within a couple of days. For longer storage, slice it first, freeze the slices in a sealed bag and toast straight from frozen. That’s exactly why I like baking small loaves: a proper home-baked breakfast without a week of leftovers.
🧪 NIX TEST KITCHEN — first-bake checklist
When I bake this version, I’ll be watching four things: the rise, the softness of the crumb, whether the raisins distribute evenly, and whether the honey/cinnamon balance needs tweaking. If the loaf is heavy, I’ll reduce the Alpen slightly on the next run rather than throwing in more yeast or ignoring the machine’s capacity.
Allergy check: This new recipe contains egg, milk and gluten-containing wheat, plus any nuts and other allergens declared on your particular Alpen Original packet. Always check the actual packet, especially if baking for somebody with allergies.
NIX KITCHEN / REAL FOOD, SMALL-BATCH EXPERIMENTS
NIX GOLDEN HOUR — written for nixdrones.com in my first-person NIX KITCHEN style. This egg-enriched, liquids-first recipe is an original, not-yet-kitchen-tested experiment for my Panasonic SD-PN100. The photographs are illustrative, not photos of a completed bake.
Reference checks: Panasonic SD-PN100 operating instructions (manufacturer loading order, programme, raisin timing and capacity guidance) · Alpen Original product ingredients. Product ingredients can change; always check the label.