Economy of using a breadmaker

[GothMummy]

Hi there
Does anyone know how much electricity it costs to use a bread maker, or is it more economical to bake in the oven (gas oven)?

I am making all our bread and yes, we are saving money, but its taking up every evening after work and sometimes I would long to sling everything in the breadmaker and walk away from it. Not, however, if it defeats the object of making the bread in the first place (economy).

thanks!

[stressedHEmum]

I don't know about the economy, although, I would imagine that a breadmaker costs a bit more, because it heats to rise the dough and uses electricity to knead. I do know that my family won't eat breadmaker bread. They really don't like it. It has a different texture from handmade bread. If you struggle for time, you can make up the dough in the evening and leave it in the fridge overnight to rise. It takes all night because of the temp. Then you can knock it back and finish it in the morning, if that would be easier.

[Lilymaid]

You have to consider capital cost of purchasing a decent breadmaker and remember that if you make bread and bake it in the oven you can bake several loaves at once.
I love my breadmaker, but if I had got into the habit of batch baking loaves in the oven, I wouldn't feel it necessary to buy one.

[TrickOrTreatersDragOnYourNoose]

I would assume a gas oven is cheaper but the breadmaker is so convenient. Far less hassle. Having said that, my parents gave me theirs as they preferred the "proper" hand made bread - my dad doesn't like the taste/smell of the fast yeast.

[Pluginbaby]

I save tons I reckon. Price of flour v bought bread. We reckon the breadmaker paid for itself in about 8 months, the kids eat a lot of bread!

I prefer to make the dough in the breadmaker and bake in the oven as I like to shape the dough myself and the oven gives a better result. I do use the breadmaker to bake from time to time.

However I think it would be cheaper to use just the breadmaker as I'm sure heating the oven will cost more as it's a larger space to heat? I try to use it for something else at the same time.

[Miggsie]

I use my breadmaker to make dough which I then bake in the oven.
I do occasionally make loaves in it. It does use the electric but it makes bread while you are out which is the main advantage (working mum).

The breadmaker warms up so reliably that the dough is always super...before this my dough was always a bit hit and miss.

I haven't bought bread in years.

[BikeRunSki]

I made bread for a year whilst on maternituy leave, but used a Kenwood Chef to knead it. Would make 4 loaves at a time. Kenwood Chef packed up just before I went back to work a couple of months ago and I looked into breadmakers. Foudn one for a tenner in the British Heart Foundation "Homewares" shop in local town. Use it about 4 times a week, very convinient. Bread is fluffier than handmade though, don't knwo it this is a good or bad thing. Love my breadmaker. Have yet to get electric bill!

[TheFallenMadonna]

Would depend on whether you were using your oven anyway I expect.

[GothMummy]

Thank you for your responses. I think one of the problems with the bread making that Im having now is that our house is so cold (no warm place for it to rise or for the yeast to activate properly) and so we are getting heavy, stodgy loaves. So, a long cold rise in the fridge might fix that...

using a dough function and baking in the oven is a fab idea! I usually try to bake potatoes or a bannana bread at the same time to use up the oven space.

I just burn out my Kenwood Chef using the dough hook to make bread it was old but I think I over worked it!

I am hoping to find a secondhand one - Im going to keep popping into the BHF charity shop which sells electric stuff near us.

[BikeRunSki]

Goth Mummy - I could have written exactly what you wrote.

[tasmaniandevilchaser]

I always thought breadmaker would be cheaper as it's so much smaller, I had put it in the same category as a slow cooker (which apparently takes as much electricity as a light bulb) but I have absolutely no evidence for this at all

and

sorry to hijack this thread but there seems to be some breadmaking experts around.... when I use my breadmaker dh refuses to eat the bread saying 'it tastes yeasty' and I have to admit that he's right. What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?

[Pluginbaby]

Too much yeast? You only need a teaspoon, we use the Dove farm stuff, big pack costs 90p and lasts weeks in the fridge.

Also don't add sugar like it says in most recipes it makes the yeast multiply too much and isn't necessary. Failing that maybe your breadmaker isn't heating high enough to kill off the yeast?

[TrickOrTreatersDragOnYourNoose]

The only problem with making the dough in the breadmaker and then baking it is the quantity of dough - only enough for one large loaf.

Seems too much faff for one loaf. I make rolls like this though (and a loaf for the harvest festival so it looked like I'd hand made it )

[tasmaniandevilchaser]

thanks pluginbaby, Have never added sugar, but I've always followed the recipe with the amount of yeast, maybe I need to experiment.

[Pluginbaby]

Its no faff at all, takes a few secs to load the breadmaker then you forget about it. I shape as I start preparing tea, takes only a few more secs, then it goes into the oven with other stuff ie baked potatoes.

[snorkie]

Running my bread maker through my electricity measuring gaget is something I've been meaning to do for a while. I rather suspect they use a fair bit of electricity, but not sure how it would compare to a gas oven, though I suspect the breadmaker would be a bit more (might depend on your tariffs though - if you get cheap overnight electricity for instance then running breadmaker overnight would cost about a quarter the cost of running it in the day). At the moment my gaget is measuring consumption on my new fridge freezer (arrived yesterday), but in a few days I'll try & remember to measure a loaf cycle. Do you know the make/model of your breadmaker GothMummy? Ours is a panasonic (can't remember the model number) & I was going to compare the electricity costs of both rapid & normal loaf cycles. Also, do you know how much gas you use in running the oven when you bake a loaf? Can you measure that too if not? If you bump this in a few days time I'll do the breadmaker measurements.

[Pluginbaby]

We have an electric oven though so reckon the breadmaker must be more economical than that? I hate bread done on the rapid setting its yuck!

[GothMummy]

Snorkie - thats really useful thank you. The breadmaker I currently have on loan is my MIL's Mellerware and is quite old (one of the first to be made I think) so may not be the best out there now.
I dont have a measuring device for gas or electric but we had a shocking gas and electric fuel bill from EDF last winter so Im trying to avoid racking the fuel up too much this year..

thanks for all your help, its much much appreciated!

[AmNOTMissMsOrMrsAmME]

Sorry for the hijack but I wondered if anyone has any tips on how I can make teacakes or rolls with a soft crust. Mine always end up quite hard, sometimes very hard!

Thank you in advance

[Pluginbaby]

Use milk instead of water and milk powder too. When they come out of the oven cover straight away with a clean tea towel and the steam helps to soften the crust further.

Also pop a tray of boiling water on the bottom of the oven to add steam to the baking pocess.

[AmNOTMissMsOrMrsAmME]

Ahhh! Thank you ladies. I will give that a try.

[snorkie]

The basic rapid loaf setting used 0.33kWh.

For me that costs 5.14p per loaf in the daytime (I pay 15.58p/kWh) or 1.83p per loaf at night (5.54p/kWh).

I'll test out the non-rapid setting (4hours instead of 1hr 50mins) early next week.

[darkbeforedawn]

I reckon breadmaker bread is about 50p/loaf and I use premium wholemeal flour . It must be more efficient than heating up an entire oven. Might be cheaper if you can find a good source of flour. The best yeast is a Doves Farm block for about £1.

Bear in mind most machine loaves tend to be quite stubby so you can get at most about 15 slices out - in fact a really sharp new breadknife (I got a Kitchen Devils in Asda for £5) makes an astonishing difference to how many sandwiches you can get out of it. But then if you have toast addicts they won't need so much to fill up. Or you could bake the "small" loaf size which is actually "short".

Relating to the OP,if you are short of time, do yourself a favour and get an automatic breadmaker. Think how much you can economise in the time you free up! Ever made marmalade?