breadmaker recommendations

[Rosendula]

After reading the self sufficiant ish bible and discovering that a breadmaker uses less electricity than making bread in an oven ....

I've yet to buy the Self Sufficient is Bible, so I'm no sure how Dave and Andy explain this. I have a gas oven, and try to cook as many things at once, or in a single run to avoid as many pre-heatings as I can. I had previously assumed that with all the kneading, proving, kneading again, and cooking, etc., it would use up lots of electricity. And for all that, I was never impressed with the bread that came out of it. My kids complained about it and I ended up chucking half of every loaf out to the birds. Having said that, I've never heard anyone else complain about them.

I now make bread by hand, a couple of loaves at a time to use less gas and fill the freezer up a bit. I use less salt than I did in the bread maker, less sugar, no marg or oil. I use plain white flour or wholemeal (or a mixture of both), and don't buy 'strong' flour. And I don't knead it. Now my bread is loved by all the family.

[vgods]

I now make bread by hand, a couple of loaves at a time to use less gas and fill the freezer up a bit. I use less salt than I did in the bread maker, less sugar, no marg or oil. I use plain white flour or wholemeal (or a mixture of both), and don't buy 'strong' flour. And I don't knead it. Now my bread is loved by all the family.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using a breadmaker. I for one am a big breadmaker fan, my Panasonic breadmaker lets me prepare all the ingredients the night before, and delay the baking process, so you wake up to the smell of a freshly baked loaf.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Something you can never achieve when doing it by hand.

...or maybe I'm just lazy

[contadina]

I make several loaves and leave them to prove in the fridge overnight. The following the day we light the wood-fired oven and bung the bread in once it's had a second rise somewhere warmer than the fridge. I also bung several other dishes (baked pasta, shepherds pie etc) and trays of veg in the oven to be cooked and we've got most of the following weeks sorted.

[Fifer182]

I use my breadmaker daily and love, love, love it Mine is a Rachel Allen one which I was given as a present. It's easy as pie to use ( why pie is easy I don't know// but so goes the saying teheh!!), makes fab loaves, has a delay timer and hasn't let me down once.
You could argue that it's cheating to use a machine, but with five of us in the house and loads to do with not enough hours in the day... bingo.. at least I know what's going in my loaf. I just chuck in my ingredients, get on with other stuff and presto.. fab bread which the family love

[weatherwax]

My breadmaker broke about a month ago and I am waiting for a replacement, but I have been making bread by hand since and I have to say it is so much better, much tastier and bakes better, however far far more time consuming, I have been tending to make several loaves at once. I can now make cobs/rolls which I couldn't in breadmaker. When my replacement comes think I will use it for during the week, but carry on making my own at the weekend when I have more time.
To answer the original Q, my breadmaker is a morphy richards fastbake and while it does exactly what it says, I find the fastbake option leaves me with small loaves and a shorter bread, the paddle in the bottom is also a bit of a pain and sticks in the loaf when cooking so leaves a big solid lump in the bread.

[ina]

To answer the original Q, my breadmaker is a morphy richards fastbake and while it does exactly what it says, I find the fastbake option leaves me with small loaves and a shorter bread,

Also - be careful with the fast bake: might be nice if you are in a hurry, but it does exactly the same thing that's so abominable about shop bought bread. It doesn't give the dough enough time to mature, and make it digestible. (The superfast baking is suspected to be the cause of the large number of gluten intolerances that have appeared since it's been introduced...)

[Shirley]

I've got the Panasonic one (not the most up to date version) - we've had it for 5 years or more and it's used regularly. Personally I prefer the oven baked bread to the taste of the breadmaker bread and I'll often just use the dough setting and then shape and bake accordingly.

As for the fast bake option - I don't ever use it because I don't like the results.

[wulf]

You can also use a breadmaker as a bread oven - make your own dough by hand and, when it comes to the shaping stage, drop it in the bread pan (no paddle so only a small hole in the bottom) for an hour or so before putting on the bake setting. What I need now is a way to measure whether this uses less energy than the oven; I find the bread takes about 50 minutes to cook in the breadmaker but, because it has to heat much less space, this is probably still more efficient.

Wulf

[ina]

I think if you compare baking one loaf in a breadmaker with baking just one loaf of the same size in the oven, the breadmaker may well be more efficient. However - who would do that? Especially now that I have a fan oven, I fill it up every time I bake. Just takes a bit of organising; have your baked tatties or apple crumble the same day you are baking bread...

[Birdie Wife]

We got a Panasonic for a wedding present - it's has an automatic raisin dispenser, timer, bake/dough/cake options... and it's fanntastic. I have always made bread by hand, thinking that a breadmaker just would not be able to make bread with the same soft consisency, but how wrong I was!! The best thing is being able to set the timer and wake up to the smell of fresh bread (like this morning ).

We have a solid fuel Rayburn too but I don't use it for baking any more, the temperature is just too difficult to control.

[Uller]

I used to have a breadmaker years ago, but didn't particularly like the bread or the hole in the bottom. So I gave it away and started buying bread again.

Now I've bought a book called 'Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day'. You mix water, yeast, salt and plain flour in a big bowl, with a wooden spoon. Leave the dough to rise for about 2 hours - then stick it in the fridge. When you want a loaf, pull off a chunk of dough, shape into a ball, rise for 20 minutes, stick it in the oven. The dough lasts for about a week in the fridge and you never need to knead it. As there are only 2 of us, I regularly make a small loaf to have hot, fresh bread with our lunch or dinner. The bread it makes is like the sort of 'rustic' ciabatta-type bread that you might get at an Italian deli - crusty, slightly chewy crust and a holey sort of dough. The longer you leave the dough in the fridge, the more sourdough-like it becomes. I absolutely love it and haven't bought bread since I started doing this. I also make a tin loaf occasionally, slice it and freeze it for toast etc. Unfrozen, it doesn't last well, but as it so quick to make, I just make sure I am only making as much as we want to eat for dinner and maybe toast the next morning.

[madmutt]

Hi I have a morphy richards fastt bake 2lb bread maker it is FANTASTIC
i use warm water and add bread improver to the sandwich loaf it cooks in 3 hours and is HUGE
I paid £50 for mine in feb taking into account the cost of bread ingredients and cost of machine plus electricity used thats now 140 baked ! it now costs me 50p for a 2lb , organic loaf with all organic ingredients BEAT THAT!
i can add seeds , have as much wholemeal flour as i want - or not .
For choice cost and convenience as i live in a very rural area , fresh bread daily for 50p !! Fabulous

[Chambo]

Anyone know if there's one that comes without the Teflon non-stick coating on the tin? That stuff seams a bit grim.

[craig.r]

Hi, i recently asked the same question on INEBG and nearly everyone said the panasonic 255 is amazing. Also the 254 but this does not have a timed automatic fruit dispenser.

I hope to get a 255 soon but rather skint at the mo

[lazyspice]

Himself bought me a Morphy Richards for my birthday a couple of years ago and it's the BEST present he's ever given me! It gets used most days and we both love the results. So much of the supermarket mush used to get thrown away because it went mouldy overnight - if a loaf lasts long enough to go stale now I simply make a bread and butter pudding with it, which makes him very happy!