Bread makers

[cask is best]

Hi thinking of getting one in the sales so if anyone has got one can you try and point me in the right direction.
1. from the cheap 30 odd quid ones to the more expensive £100+ ones they all seem to have good reviews so is it worth paying up to 70 odd notes more. I know the more expensive ones will have more whistles and bells attached. Panasonic owners seem to rave about them but i have read reviews from Argos basic owners who are more than happy with there's. I just don't want to buy one cheap and later on find out i have been stung as it was made in China and like most things from there they are rubbish i would much rather pay a bit more for a British one if one exists.
: :

 

[Mark1964]

I think your better off buying some loaf tins and baking the bread yourself. Breadmakers to me dont make the best loaf its just easier but thats just my opinion

 

[cask is best]

How you doing Mark.

Trouble there is i won't be able to come down stairs on my day off to the smell of freshly baked warm bread mmmm.

 

[RobWalker]

my opinion, get a dough hook instead.
bread makers generally suck, it's just one of those things you won't use. dough hooks do the hard work whilst leaving you to do whatever you want with it - basically no effort, still great bread

 

[RobWalker]

or you could marry one. boosh!!

 

[cask is best]

I know bread makers are classed as the most under used kitchen item at the moment Rob but with the price of bread rocketing and the enzymes and additives going into shop bought bread i reckon more and more peeps will be buying them.
Is a dough hook an attachment for a food mixer that kneads dough. If so i don't have a food mixer. And as i say waking up to fresh warm bread is a perfect start to the day

 

[Mark1964]

all you need is flour yeast and water and a bit of hard work. Prepare the dough the night before you need it let it rise etc bang in oven following morning. My dad used to make some real nice breadcakes doing it that way. We have a breadmaker 30 quid and its yours we never use it

 

[Runwell-Steve]

We have a breadmaker, used a few times, put in loft.

We bought it to make bread for us overnight, it just doesn't work like that, the bread we got out of it wasn't anywhere near as nice as what we had been baking in the oven.

We routinely make up the dough in the evening, let it rise, bash it, then put it in the loaf tin and cover it until morning. The first person who gets up turns the oven on, and 10 minutes later puts the bread in.

I think the reason bread makers don't work so well is you have to put bread in a hot oven for it to rise properly, a bit like Yorkshire puddings really, the bread maker by it's nature isn't hot when you start the cooking process.

 

[dennisking]

Took one down to the charity shop a few weeks ago after a garage clear out.

 

[Moley]

We have a breadmaker, 30 quid and its yours, we never use it

We have a breadmaker, used a few times, put in loft.

Took one down to the charity shop a few weeks ago after a garage clear out.

I think I see a pattern emerging here.

We have one, used it a few times, still occupies worktop space but certainly hasn't been used this year, and maybe not last year either.

We have bought flour and yeast to try making our own over the holidays, but it will be done manually.

 

[dennisking]

To be honest the bread from our one just was not as good as bread you buy, reverse of homebrewing.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Here we go, old Baz being the odd one out

I've always made our own bread by hand and it was always better than shop bought, same as brewing :thumb:

Nowadays I suffer badly with arthritis in both hands, gorilla mitts, fingers like bananas :?

When the mitts got so bad a friend of our who runs a B&B suggested a Panasonic bread maker, she runs 2 every day for the business, gave us a loaf from one of her machines and we ended up buying one. It was expensive, but we never buy bread and always have our own fresh bread, we turn out granary loaves more than anything and actually won a prize at the County Show (MrsC bakes and regularly wins prizes for her baking, which is why I'm the shape I am :whistle: )

The cheap ones are not good but the Panasonic is the one we have, cost about £100, but used all the time the quality of the loaves is as good as hand made and far superior to supermarket loaves..... in our opinion :thumb:

edited bit ....

Panasonic owners seem to rave about them

with good reason :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

The one we had was at least 10 years old and I don't think was expansive, at least that's what the wife told me.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

The bread we make at home is definitely better than most bread you can buy in the shops. Certainly better than any of the plastic wrapped bread available. It doesn't keep long though, usually because I eat it.

We could just never get on with the breadmaker, we have an expensive Panasonic one, making it manually is no more effort really and quite enjoyable, worth getting a proper food mixer with Dough hooks though, a Kenwood Chef makes it so easy.

Perhaps we just never persevered with the Breadmaker and got the best out of it, as Baz has said people do have success with them. Or maybe we are just too stuck in our ways and actually enjoy the way we make bread now and never really wanted the breadmaker in the first place. It's possible, just don't tell the in-laws

It's a bit like brewing, you can experiment, also as brewers we have a plentiful source of materials for your Whole Grain bread.

 

[BigYin]

I've got a Morphy Richards Fast Bake bread maker, and I rate it very highly - use it properly, get top quality flour, follow the instructions, and you have really good bread for almost zero effort - win!

Only negative is that the bread is at it's very best the day it's baked, and really only fit for toast by the next day.

Other than that, I love my breadmaker, still, after 3 years.

Just a shame the family never fell in love with my beer bread

One final thought - I left it to last because most people won't have this issue - I have excema, and mucking with flour really irritates it - so making bread by hand is a no no for me Having the breadmaker makes the difference between having home made bread, and having none!

 

[theboytony]

My mum swears by hers, and it does do a good job. I suppose a lot of it comes down to recipie.

 

[Louthepoo]

I bought a good one a few years ago and have tried so many times to make a nice light soft loaf but it always comes out really heavy and more like a cake than a bread! That's following the instructions too!

 

[scott78]

your going to get more use out of a food mixer with a hook. i gave up with the breadmaker as ever time you really needed a loaf it failed to produce. and i cant remember any that i was truely happy with. so for over a year made all the bread by hand and a few loaf tins.

 

[andyh]

I use ours all the time, makes lovely bread.

I use it to make pizza dough to make our own, you can't beat it.

Ours is a Morphy Richards, good machine. When it goes kapput I'll get a panasonic though as it gets the best reviews.

Merry Xmas

Andy. : :drink: :drunk:

 

[andyh]

Forgot to add, it makes a big difference to get good bread making flour.