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[Patricia W]

I have shied away from buying a breadmaker for years on the grounds that I have too many gadgets cluttering up the kitchen and I can make bread easily - when I get round to it, that is.

 

But we've now got a new kitchen with lots of cupboards etc, and I'm attracted by the idea of warm bread in the morning.

 

So, I know lots of you have them - do you use them often enough to make them worthwhile and if so, which make and model would you recommend?

 

Tricia

[Chucky Mama]

Yes! We have a panasonic and my sons does the breadmix every evening and sets the timer so that we wake up to warm fresh bread every morning. It is also good for making your own pizza bases.

[Cinnamon]

I am afraid that I only use mine once in a blue moon, & really should dig it out more often

 

That said,I have just bought some Wessex Mill onion bread flour,so will certainly be giving that a go over the holidays,as it smells wonderful

[Patricia W]

I bought some Wessex Mill onion bread flour too - that's what set me thinking!

 

Tricia

[Chucky Mama]

I bought some Wessex Mill onion bread flour too - that's what set me thinking!

 

Tricia

 

Sounds yummy, where did you get it from?

[Daphne]

My OH is getting a Panasonic for Xmas - his old breadmaker is wearing out - mostly after he dropped it! He wanted this one after extensive discussions with 2 passionate breadmakers....only problem is this was at our cider party, so not entirely sure how sober/sensible everybody was!!

 

Our honest opinion is (so far) that breadmaker bread is not as good home baked bread, it seems to have a slightly different crust/texture. However, its much better than anything we can buy locally and of course its 100% convenient. And I have to say my bro had made some delish stuff in his (Panasonic) so maybe our old one (Moulinex) just wasn't good enough (hope its not the chef!!) Fingers X!

[Cinnamon]

I bought some Wessex Mill onion bread flour too - that's what set me thinking!

 

Tricia

 

Sounds yummy, where did you get it from?

 

I just got mine from a local shop, but I think they have a site with stockists.

[Alis girls]

I wouldnt be without ours. It is a cheapy - and you get what u pay for, but we couldnt stretch to the more expensive and thekids were tiring of shop brought bread . I wanted to get more roughage into diet and they will eat the brown I make. I also make a special loaf like garlic bread and bread mixes like ciabatta at weekends. I didnt like the breads in manual bar one recipe so googeled and found some which work a treat. We have very little waste now and even their friends eat it if they come round. One mate of ES's had bacon butty today and no complaints and kids dont always like brown bread.

[Rhapsody]

No. The bread comes out like cake, get an upper arm workout and make by hand!

[sunshinesupernova]

I had a really good bread maker and liked it a lot. That's until I watched a Jamie Oliver program a few years back and saw him making bread with Sixteen.

 

Had a go myself and the breadmaker left. Thetexture of bread from the bread maker was better if I took the dough out and baked it in the oven. However, I like the therapy of making the dough and proving it. I also usually make two loaves at a time .... though I don't do i that often

[Lesley]

We use ours all the time, 3 or 4 times a week - but we only make it to dough stage in the machine and finish in the oven.

 

We have a Morphy Richards Fastbake - it's excellent.

[Patricia W]

I think I got the Onion Bread Flour at Waitrose. I'll have a look next time I'm in (probably tomorrow!)

 

Thanks for all the breadmaker advice. I'm still thinking.....

 

Tricia

[Space Chick]

We use ours all the time, 3 or 4 times a week - but we only make it to dough stage in the machine and finish in the oven.

 

We have a Morphy Richards Fastbake - it's excellent.

 

Snap on all counts

 

I use mine 3-4 times a week, only to dough stage and I have the excellent Morphy Richards Fastbake

[Saronne]

I've got a panasonic bread maker and it makes consistently good brown/white/wholemeal bread every time. There's a delish brioche loaf recipe in the user's manual, too. We also make pizza bases on the dough setting. It's a good machine in my opinion.

 

Saronne x

[Charlottechicken]

but we only make it to dough stage in the machine and finish in the oven.

 

 

I do this as well, as I've only used the breadmaker for pizza bases and stollen recently. Getting the breadmaker to do the dough takes the mess and hard work out of it Mine makes a perfectly palatable loaf, maybe a tad on the heavy side but it tastes lovely freshly baked. I don't have many gadgets, just this and an ice cream maker, but both are used fairly often.

 

I have one of the cheapest machines on the market, it was £24 from Argos a couple of years ago but has now gone up to over £40 I actually saw it's twin, which turned out to be a Morphy Richards one.

[Daphne]

OK, so OH has made bread 3 times with his new Panasonic SD-254. Its come out very well each time and is much much better than the old machine. No more cakey bread for us! The only drawback is that it takes 3 hours so you have to be organised/get up earlier than we do and use the timer. This bread is now definitely much better than local bread and our big supermarket bread as well. Its doesn't make a perfect loaf for me (I like chewy sourdoughy type bread) but I would certainly recommend this machine.

[Looney]

We have a Panasonic and would definitely recommend it. I use the quick bake setting quite often as well as the full length setting and the bread comes out every time (apart from once when I forgot to add the right amount of water! ). I was worried that it would be a back-of-the cupboard machine but we've had it a couple of years and we're still using it for 75% of the bread we eat

[Ygerna]

My DH bought me a Kenwood machine for Christmas The first loaf I made was terrible I bought fresh flour, and a new batch of yeast and took my time measuring the ingredients and the next loaf was YUMMY. I've now made a loaf of bread a night, using the timer and its perfect. I LOVE making bread by hand but, lets be fair, I don't have the time, energy or inclination for all that kneading and proving and to get fresh bread for 8am I'd have to be up at stoopid oclock Waking up to the smell of baking bread is quite amazing. Drinking your morning coffee and eating warm bread, with fresh butter...HEAVENLY.

 

 

Must go, got to get tomorrows batch into my Kenwood

[Willow]

Definitely ! Ours is used several times a week. Panasonic breadmakers do make better bread.

[chickencam]

I have a Morphy Richard's Fastbake which I swore by until I got my Kenwood Chef, now I use that for all my dough then cook it in the oven and the quality of the loaves is fantastic compared with the breadmaker which was perfectly ok, but not a patch on the ones made by the Kenwood.

 

The Fastbake for value for money and convenience is a good machine, their customer service is also excellent, I had to replace aleaking read pan and they got it to me the next day free of charge.

[docsquid]

I can confirm that our Panasonic breadmaker is the best gadget I've ever bought, and the one that gets used most frequently (apart from the kettle!).

 

There are only two of us so we make a loaf every 2-3 days using the overnight timer. It is excellent for dough mixes and also pizza bases, as we don't have anywhere warm to prove things. Absolutely fantastic gadget, highly recommended.

[Daphne]

Its been especially useful during the last week when we haven't been able to get out. As the breadmaker is in my study I have a beautiful bakery smell when I come to work too!

[Patricia W]

I have to confess that I haven't got one yet - although reading this thread has inspired me to start making bread by hand again! I've been working at home a lot the last few weeks so it's been really easy to start the dough off in the morning and finish in time for tea.

 

I also bought one son a Panasonic for Christmas and another the Morphy Richards! Both report great satisfaction. I'm waiting to visit to test the respective offers - then I may finally succumb to technology!

 

Tricia

[docsquid]

I got mine before I retired from work. It was invaluable as I didn't have time to bake bread the traditional way. I still use it now I've retired, as I simply ended up swapping one job for working at home helping DH with his business, so I'm still busy!

[Seagazer]

I've got a Morphy Richards and had it about a year I suppose. At first the kids wouldn't eat the bread I'd made so I stopped using it until we ran out of shop bread during all the snow. I then restarted making the bread and hey ho they all like it now.