paulr

I love bread, and have thought about getting a breadmaker. Are they any good, cost effective, whats the bread like.

Any recommendations or thoughts.

Leslie

I think you will find that most of them will work well enough. I suppose the best answer is to buy one of a well known make.

Certainly smells nice when you have made the bread anyway.

Les

Hysteria1983

I know of a great one. It's called the mother in law.

I once tried to do it the proper way, it was rubbish. I used it with soup.
I don't have a clue which machine is the best though, but like Les said, they all do the job.

paulr

Do you have one?

astraboy

Can't reccomend them enough. After I bought mine, I have never bought shop bread again.

Go for the Panasonic with the nut dispenser it even has a brioche function which I have found surprisingly useful in terms of bribery, favour engendering and getting inside laydees knickers.

Costs are much less than shop bought bread, pound bags of sugar and salt are your friends, I'm still on my first ones after a year of ownership. After that its 3 lb bags of strong bread flour and top quality (hovis) yeast all the way. Buy top quality ingredients and buy in bulk (you will use it, trust.)

You will reap the rewards in paying less for your bread, but it will make even more sense when you take your first bite of your first loaf. The taste is something else.
Astraboy.

paulr

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SD...8601873&sr=1-1

This is the most popular on Amazon. £120, quite expensive. Panasonic.

davyboy

...will just end up at the back of a cupboard after a few goes.

Goes stale quickly as it doesn't have the crap supermarket bread has in it.

TelBoy

Rowing machines, vegetable steamers, toasted sandwich makers, breadmakers.


Dust gatherers.

boxst

I have a Panasonic one (I think the one in the link, but in CostCo for £70ish).

We use it quite often, although not as often as when we first got it. As my daughter goes through periods of being wheat intolerant it is great for making spelt or other mixed flour bread.

For DavyBoy's point, it does go stale a little quicker (within two days) but it doesn't go mouldy, just hard so you can make breadcrumbs for cooking if you do have any bread left.

Steve

Coffin Dodger

As above, Panasonic as they are consistently the best.

We use ours all the time, rarely ever buy supermarket bread. I think it's only the cheapo ones that gather dust in the back of the cupboard. If you are serious about it buy the best one and you'll be using it for years.

As for the bread going off, I just slice mine up the day it was made and stick it in the freezer. Small loaf usually get consumed in two days in our house anyway so not so much of an issue.

Also great for pizza bases, Focaccia, pittas, buns, tea cakes, etc.

paulr

Is the nut dispenser just for adding grain and nuts. £20 difference on the Panny.

boxst

It is for adding things into the bread that you don't want mushed to bits during the first dough cycle. Including raisins, nuts etc..

The Zohan

Breadmakers are ok, make it by hand, it is easy, rewarding and good for de stressing.

Google jamie oliver basic bread recipe for a starter recipe - oh and halve the salt amount specified as it is just too much. The better the ingredients, the better the bread as a rule of thumb.

I make bread once a week, usually early Saturday morning - it smells and tastes great, doesn't take to many attempts to get it spot on, little bit of trial and error and you will get bloody good bread.

B0DSKI

iTrader: (17)

I sell loads of them and as has been said above, stick to Panasonic. Nothing else comes close

Coffin Dodger

Or bits of bacon and grated cheese for bacon and cheese bread funnily enough. Lush toasted with scrambled eggs.

As above if you put in fruit or seeds etc. from the outset they will just be pulverised. The dispenser automates it such that they are only released after the first prove of the dough and the machine is knocking it back for the second prove before baking.

paulr

Thanks everyone. Ordered the Panasonic from Amazon. No nut dispenser, saved £20. Dont normally have nuts in anyway.

Thanks for the advice.

The Zohan

Personally I would rather spend the money on a decent food processor and let it take the hard work out of mixing the ingredients.

r32

Waste of money as previously said it will end up at the back of the cupboard.

The Zohan

We had one and that is exactly what happened.

Making bread is about as easy as it gets, simple ingredients and recipe.

The Zohan

We had one and that is exactly what happened.

Making bread is about as easy as it gets, simple ingredients and recipe.

mslorach

iTrader: (22)

Best thing ever, we use ours all the time.
The bread only stays fresh for a couple of days but it's so tasty you'll have it eaten by then anyway.

astraboy

Not true, have a look at 'astraboys bakery' including a fair few results from my breadmaking.
http://m.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?...user=631805345

jods

I've got a Panasonic SD-255

Love it!

Great Bread - Love the smell of freshly baked bread on a Sunday Morning and at Christmas.

Do it - You won't regret it

Leslie

Yes we have a Morphy Richards Fast Bake.

It works pretty well as I said before. One thing is that the proportions of the ingredients need to be accurately measured out. Otherwise you just let it get on with the job.

Les

Jamz3k

I just read that Jamie Oliver link into making bread, why would you buy a bread maker as there doesn't seem to be much to it?

I'm think i'm going to hit tesco's now and make some bread.

The Zohan

Buy a decent quality stong(est) plain flour

it really is that simple, i use that recipe all the time and if you keep it in a tin it keeps for 3 or so days

Jaybird-UK

We have the same, gets used about twice a month for the last two years

paulr

Re ingredients, any tips on where to buy bulk flour (and how long does it last)

Made first loaf tonight, taste's great.

Any other tips. Do you experiment with extra salt or sugar.

Coffin Dodger

Normally get mine from Tesco, not in bulk mind, but less than 70p for a 1.5kg bag of white bread flour. Not bad given that a loaf of Warbies is about £1.20 and would probably get three equivalent loafs from the flour.

Buying in bulk may give further savings though so I'll be following this thread...

Leslie

Get ours form the Co Op. Seems to work well enough.

Les