Breadmakers - suggestions please :)

CHokKA

CHokKA

CHokKA

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Hey everyone

Before I start off, I just thought I'd say that I am no novice when it comes to making bread. I love making it and have made normal loaves, bread rolls, and even bagels. My issue at the moment, with an 18-month old, is the time aspect. There's nothing like fresh bread, but unfortunately having a little one cuts into my time (in the very best of ways I might add!) so I'm looking at getting a breadmaker.

So anyway, ideally, if possible, I'm after one that has the ability to make light, airy bread. I know that's a big ask but does anyone here that has experience with breadmakers know of any that are capable of this? If not, what would you suggest as a good breadmaker to get? Budget is around £100. Just having the ability to put all the ingredients into the breadmaker and then leaving it to do its thing would be awesome. Fresh bread whenever we want it is always a good thing!

Many thanks all :)
 
Panasonic seem to produce the best results, I had a kenwood years back that made terrible bread. Now I have a Panasonic sd2501 and it's fantastic.
 
Views from people I know would suggest the Panasonic, not used one myself though.

Have you thought about doing overnight proving if time is an issue?
 
We've got a Panasonic and are pretty happy with it. Use it every other day, whack all the ingredients in, set the timer with a delay and it finishes just as we wake up.

Not an expert by any means, but it's a lot better than the Morphy Richards one we had.
 
By a kitchen mate with bread hooks

breadmakers aren't worth it I have a Panasonic and the only use it gets is to make the dough for pizza bases etc, I bake everything in the oven anyway

all the best recipes in the book require an oven anyway, buns etc, the loaf shape from a breadmaker is also really crap
 
FrenchTart said:
Did you read the OP arknor? :p
Click to expand...

yea I'm assuming he's kneading by hand.

takes the same effort to load a mixer as it does a bread maker.

after bung in a bread tin, put in the oven.

You spend about 2 minutes more than you would faffing on with a bread maker and the end result isn't square with a paddle stuck in the bottom

also he's never going to get light airy bread with a bread maker because they use paddles and not hooks, even sour dough loafs have barely any bubbles from a bread maker
 
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He said he doesn't have enough time to do what he normally does due to having a kid and wants something that is "fire and forget". He knows the results from making it properly are likely to be better but has asked for the best options in regards to easy bread making.

If he didn't want to knead it he could just autolyse all his loaves.
 
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Thanks for the advice folks :) We've been looking at the Panasonic 2502 as well.

Just to clarify for those saying about making real bread and proving it etc, I normally don't have time to do this anymore. It's mainly the proving, knocking back, kneading and proving again to get a good consistency that is too time consuming. And if I want a nice loaf of homemade bread, I've got to put that time in and I just don't have it now. Even the process of making dough, kneading it and then putting it in the fridge to prove until morning is time consuming in itself because then you've got the cleaning up etc. I know it might sound stupid but my life is quite busy :)

Also, the biggest plus point with a breadmaker is that both me and my wife can bake bread whenever we like. It's not a replacement for making bread if I have the time like over the weekend, but it sure will help loads for allowing us to have fresh bread for us and our son during the week :)
 
Oh and I forgot to mention that I have both a Magimix and a Kenwood Chef with dough hooks but having a single machine that will do the whole job at those times when I just don't have time to bake bread would be fantastic. And the automatic timer function overnight seems a useful addition as well.
 
Grab a Panasonic then they are always rated as having the best results in reviews

cheese and bacon bread recipe in the Panasonic booklet is where it's at btw.
I think there's a pizza bread recipe as well which is pretty awesome.
 
Thanks for the advice arknor :) I am gonna pick one up tomorrow. I do get what you're saying about kneading in a mixer, and it works well enough but I will find it really useful to be able to put all the ingredients in, set the timer, and off it goes :)
 
Get a Panasonic breadmaker. We have a very active daughter that takes up most of our time but we make fresh bread when we need it.

All our ingredients are in kilner jars so it's just a matter of chucking it all in, setting the timer and then it's ready for the morning, plus you wake up to a house smelling of freshly baked bread! From the point of getting the scales out to setting the timer on the unit I don’t think it takes more than literally 5 minutes.

My parents have an SD2502 (seed dispenser) and they love it - we have a very old Panasonic and works absolutely perfectly. I genuinely wouldn't bother with any other brand and if you're looking for speed/convenience then a KitchenAid or a Magimix with a dough hook is not really the answer as you spend more time cleaning the bowls than you do making the bread.

Only points I would make is that you will want to persevere with recipes as sometimes they can be seemingly inconsistent but it took us 4-5 attempts to get the kind of loaf we like, plus we found cheap bread flour really didn’t make for nice bread. Also add ingredients in the order stated on the recipes as sometimes this can cause inconsistencies.

We must have literally made over 500 loaves in our current maker and it was actually given to us as they were going to throw it away (for whatever reason I don't know!)
 
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Thanks boxman2000, that's another great recommendation for the Panasonic. I'm going to John Lewis on my lunch today to pick up an SD2502 I think :)
 
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