Breadmaker - Worth investing in?

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

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Joined
31 May 2005
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Nottingham
Have always liked the idea of our own fresh bread.

Currently we get our bread from the bakers (I think chorleywood bread is disgusting, should be illegal).

It is only a Birds bakers though, nothing artisan but I do wonder if with a breadmaker I could make a nice simple loaf to start off with.
 
We have a bread maker and use it for almost all our bread, every 3 days or so we make a new load in it.
Very easy to use, very good results, and perfect for waking up in the morning with the bread freshly baked and the aromas wafting up to the bedroom.just throw flour and ingredients into mixer, hit a couple of buttons and forget about it.
 
We wouldn't be without our bread maker. Started using ours properly about a year ago and we haven’t purchased a pre-made loaf since.

I would not personally consider anything other than Panasonic. Ours was given to us and works a charm but I know people that were not too impressed by other makes (e.g. Kenwood). My parents have just purchased the Panasonic SD-2501 from Amazon (the one with the seed dispenser) and they absolutely love it. The new Panasonic designs are thinner but deeper units compared to the older wider and less deep units. They have the same size tin internally though.

The recipe we have found works brilliantly for us (added to tin in this order) is for a 50/50 large tin loaf:

1 tsp yeast (or 1x 7g sachet)
250g strong bread flour
250g wholemeal flour
2tbsp milk powder
1 ½ tbsp white sugar
1 ½ tsp fine sea salt
25g butter
360ml water

Of course each machine comes with a lot of recipes but this loaf has worked from day 1 and we must have made well over 100 by now and is perfect each time.

Plus, most have timer functions and there is nothing better than waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread!

We settled on the Waitrose Canadian flour as we found it gives the best results, plus it's regularly on special offer and I think works out at well under £1 for a large 50/50 loaf.
 
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Love our panasonic one as well, a loaf every single day since we got it, were on our third needing blade though, but the non-stick ones of amazon are better than the standard one anyway.
We get flour by the sack full as well saves a lot of money.
 
I have a Panasonic SD255, which is an awesome bit of kit for everyday bread making. We've had ours since 2011 if I recall correctly. Panasonic essentially have a good reputation for breadmakers.

It produces lovely bread alright but after coming out of the breadmaker, you really do need to let the bread rest for a good hour or so. A typical white loaf will take 4-5hrs depending on the settings you use.

The one key thing about most Panny breadmakers is that as mentioned above you will wear down the kneading blade after a while. Ours has a ton of scratches on it and has lost its anti-stick coating as a result. Since the blade doesn't fold down during the kneading process it will most likely embedded in the bottom of the loaf upon completion. Getting the bugger out can be troublesome sometimes, hence the scratches.

Overall the machine is excellent and in a family of three a loaf will last about 2 days tops. We get our flour from the excellent http://www.wessexmill.co.uk/
 
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Yes, as Kainz said you do need to let it rest. I find if we don't take out completed loaf within 20 or so minutes after completion the bottom goes soggy. 4 minutes in a 200oC oven will sort that out though.

Out Panasonic must be close to 10 years old and the blade is original and have never had a problem with it sticking. It's a little bit of a pain to clean but a cotton bud or c0cktail stick will do the job.
 
boxman2000 said:
Yes, as Kainz said you do need to let it rest. I find if we don't take out completed loaf within 20 or so minutes after completion the bottom goes soggy. 4 minutes in a 200oC oven will sort that out though.
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Never tried the oven thing to be honest so I'll give it a shot tonight. I hate having to let the loaf cool though as I want to tuck in! :D

One thing for the OP to take into account - a breadmaker will add a good couple of quid to your electricity bill :)
 
I have a panasonic breadmaker and it is fantastic - I put the ingredients in, set a timer and first thing in the morning I have a loaf of bread. Almost as good as a proper baker and cheaper than buying loaves every day or two, I never rated cheap bread makers when I used them - they often got binned! But the Panasonic is worlds apart.

Yes I could make bread by hand but to be honest I don't have time to wait around for proving and suchforth, the fact I am not married, I have no kids and I'm highly irresponsible means I'm rarely in my house of an evening long enough to wait for proving of bread. That is what eats up the time, the actual prep is minimal.

More to the point - It wouldn't be totally fresh if I made it the evening before, unless I got up very very early I couldn't have fresh bread in the morning. Nothing wrong with using a breadmaker for your daily loaf.
 
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Uriel said:
I prefer just making it by hand. Doesn't take that long.
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But you wont get fresh bread for breakfast, or come home form a long day at work and know with zero effort you have fantastic bread.

Making bread by hand is easy but it takes time with all the various kneading, resting, forming, resting again, baking. Bread machines just make it so much easier, and more consistent.
 
Never really wanted one to be honest, it was always more satisfying making our own.

Now we just walk 2 minutes to the boulangerie :P.
 
We've used ours for kneading pizza dough, bread rolls and all sorts of other things that we can leave the machine to get on with while doing something else.

No doubt handmade is nicer and more rewarding (when it works) but as DP said, using a machine simply makes everything more consistent.
 
I had a cheap one a good few years ago and it was rubbish, whatever recipe i tried the bread just never came out right which put me off bread machines.
But last christmas we bought the Panasonic SD-2501 as it has great reviews on amazon and fresh bread is one of my favourite things in the world. And i'm so glad we did, it's utterly fantastic. Great tasting bread with very consistent results, i don't think a single loaf has come out wrong, and i absolutely love waking up on a saturday morning to the smell of freshly baked bread. This machine gets a big thumbs up from me.

I'd also recommend you buy a good recipe book to go with it, my favourite is - Brilliant Breadmaking in Your Bread Machine by Catherine Atkinson. Loads of recipes and all the ones i've tried have worked faultlessly and tasted delicious.
 
Another vote for Panasonic here. Originally thought we'd never use it, but ~4 years on it's used at least once a week (often thing things like pizza dough, not always bread) and if it were to die we'd replace it immediately.
 
We have one (I can't even remember the brand any more) and it's certainly not cheap, but it's still crap. I always follow the Brioche recipe, as it's the only one that ever comes out right. Most times it comes out quite dry and stodgy, with a crust far darker than seems normal.
The Mrs make better loaves by hand.

Making loaves in the machine is a little cheaper than buying them, but this is offset by the cost of the flipping thing in the first place. You'd need to make hundreds of loaves before you start saving any real cash.
 
ttaskmaster said:
Making loaves in the machine is a little cheaper than buying them, but this is offset by the cost of the flipping thing in the first place. You'd need to make hundreds of loaves before you start saving any real cash.
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Bread here is expensive (~£2/tin loaf cheapest) so it would pay for itself within a year. I would be surprised if making a loaf 2-3 times a week wouldn't give similar results on mainland even with cheaper bread/electricity/flour etc.
 
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