To think using a bread maker is NOT making your own bread!?

[EdnaClouds]

If one more person tells me they make their bread themselves when they actually use a machine I will scream. Seriously, I'm going to turn purple, steam will come out of my ears and my head will spin round.

"putting some ingredients in a bread machine and pressing "go" is not making your own bread."

What is it then?

Ha ha. :o

I kind of know where the OP is coming from, though. It doesn't really matter if you do the kneading by hand or in a machine, but a wonky hand-shaped loaf baked in the oven just feels more homemade than the regulation rectangles our breadmaker spits out.

It's an argument based on bollocks aesthetics IMO.

Morebeta - you are right, I did. But it's tricky to handknead 10kg of bread douch a day ;D I did hand roll it though and knock it back.

The reason I say that putting ingredients into a bread machine is not "hand making bread" is because it doesn't give you any understanding of the process, whether your yeast is working properly, you don't learn at what point the dough is ready to be knocked back, whether it's too dry and needs more fluid, at what point the gluten has been stretched enough to make a nicely textured crumb, whether it has proved long enough, whether you've cooked it long enough to ensure that the middle is cooked properly. I appreciate that for most people this is not something they are interested in - but putting ingredients in a breadmaker doesn't mean you can sucessfully handbake bread

I borrowed my MIL's breadmaker for a month in an experiment as to whether I would buy my own. I hated it - I like being hands-on with my bread, feeling it and assessing it myself.

But a breadmaker loaf is vastly superior to the normal ghastly sliced stuff.

Cory, Sainsbury's bakery used to sell you fresh yeast but I'm not sure if they still do now they don't bake on site

I guess for me it's similar to using a sewing machine to do embroidery.

My name is Lady Clarice and I both use a breadmaker AND buy bread mixes to put in it.

Do your worst.

LadyClarice - you are not even worth my haughtiest sneer!

Nigel - you are right.

It's not really worth getting so worked up about it OP

DP bought a bread maker and is proudly telling everyone how he makes our bread now (I am not interested in the machine... it's his toy) I'll show him this thread, it will amuse him no end

Gah this thread has just made me buy a breadmaker on eBay. Damn you mumsnet!

"The reason I say that putting ingredients into a bread machine is not "hand making bread" is because..."

Nobody mentioned "hand making bread" though.

If I choose the proportion and type of ingredients then I am making my own bread be it in a bread maker or by hand.

Happy you won't regret it just be careful how much bread you eat

I think I know who you are IRL.

DD4 used to sit all folded up in my bread machine when she was a little crawling thing. It was her favourite place.

I think Yabu op. they are making their own bread, they just aren't doing it by hand.

I made bread using th mixer to knead it today. Much easier, but not so much fun. Bread making is very time consuming. I would definitely have a bread maker, but don't ave the counter space.

I live near a fantastic French bakery... only a mug would bake bread in such close proximity to a professional artisan baker. Especially when said baker also sells great croissants and is as gorgeous as David Ginola. Phwoar.

My SILs in Algeria hand make their own bread and bake it in a wood fired mud oven they build.

And my SILs in India hand make their own bread and cook it on a fire fuelled by dried out cow dung.

What folkgirl says... its homemade, not handmade.

I make my own handmade bread ocassionally when I can be bothered.

DH makes homemade bread everyday using the machine.

Its not shop bought, itsnot shit, its all good stuff and made at home.

And it works out very cheap.

And its lovely.

YABU Edna I guess I am a bit of a snob though, because mixes come in their own category of 'homeassembled'.

Home-assembled! YY!

I know lots of home assemblers who take far too much credit for their cooking !

Well, handmade bread is tastier and prettier - no big hole in the middle for a start. But when you make bread for reasons of practicality (cost, live 60 miles from the supermarket ..) a breadmaker is a huge timesaver. I do both, but my daily bread is made in the breadmaker and i do think that i bake my own bread, so shoot me!!!

This thread makes me want to run out and buy a bread machine! Any recommendations?

Honey I don't think I'll be trying the cow dung fire in my flat anytime soon... the neighbours might have a bit of an issue with it

Our breadmaker is one of our most loved kitchen gadgets. DH is always experimenting with Quatermass style combos of lovely flours, nuts and seeds and strange shapes. I love it for making dough for things like home made pizza, flatbreads, bread rolls and I make the most gorgeous Chelsea buns. That involves dough made in the breadmaker but various stages after that are all very much my own work. All the breadmaker does is take out some of the boring stages. They are also ideal if you are not able for health reasons to knead your own dough - after a particularly bad arm break my aunt can't knead any more, but is still turning out delicious bread via her lovely machine.

OP, you ARE being VU, and if it's really making you turn purple and generate steam, then that's a bit sad.

And as others have pointed out, where do you draw the line? I occasionally (whisper it) buy ready plucked chickens.... and I DON'T churn my own butter.

Chaz, amazingly, it doesn't smell, but I agree, won't be bringing it into my kitchen any time soon!

I don't have a breadmaker, but if I did, I'd definitely think I was making my own bread. I'd be dead smug tbh :)

But WHERE DO YOU draw the line?

I make my own bread with a hand held mixer with dough hooks. It means I can make bread with max 10mins of \hands on' as opposed ot waiitn gna dcookign time.

I have used a bread maker in the past, both for baking loaves and for proving the dough. Does just using it to knead and prove the dough count as making your own bread as long as you bake it in an oven?

Folkgirl my mate reckons she is Nigella based on her trifle... which is very very pleasant, but its not handmade, okay its made at home, but is it? No!! Its home assembled, considering everything in it comes out of a packet, all she does it snip the corners of various sachets and put it in the fridge.

I think most people who make things from home know the difference between homemade, handmade, homeassembled and shop bought.

There are levels for sure... my BBQ sauce is awesome, yet contains many pre-made ingredients, however I control the quantities and no one knows my secret (not even me if I'm being honest) but its still 'homemade'... shit I'm confusing myself now.