Bread making machines, yay or nay??

[BaconAndAvocado]

Considering getting one for Christmas.

A few questions for bread machine aficionados....

1. Do you buy the ready made mixes or do you use single ingredients?
2. If it’s the mixes, are they healthy...it’s processed??
3. How long does it take to make a loaf?
4. Where do you keep your machine? They’re quite big I think.

tia

Nay

We've had one for years. Use it once a week to make pizza dough. Hardly ever actually use it to make bread. The puzza diugh takes 45 minutes. We keep it in the shed because we don't have much worktop space in the kitchen and it's big.
It takes about 4 hours to make a loaf of bread. We usually just use bread flour and yeast but do sometimes buy the packets.

Definitely Yay.
I use every other day.
Make from own ingredients. Once you get used to it - it takes minutes to set a batch off.
So much better than shop bought processed bread.

I use single ingredients. Panasonic brilliant but too big for my kitchen. Bought a smaller one from Lakeland, just right size. Recipe book that comes with it gives all the information you will need. Enjoy.

I had one- then I started to make bread from scratch. Takes very little extra effort -although I agree needs a little more organisation. But sooooo much better.

Hello. I have a bread machine and I use it all the time. I make bread, pizza dough and even yoghurt in it.

My dad was adamant that he was buying me a bread machine, I bloody hated it. The bread was never good, unlike the artisan breads you can purchase from independent bakers. I’ve thrown mine away, horrible thing. Plus with Utility cost increases how much electricity do they use, they can be on for hours?

I use mine all the time had a morphy richards one which was OK but then got a panasonic around 4 years ago. Great for bread and pizza dough. I don't use the prepack mixes.

We've had a Panasonic for years and use it for pizza dough (45mins) and bread - I use the rapid bake setting so a white loaf is 1hr50min and wholemeal is 3hrs. Mine has a seed tray dispenser thing but I've never bothered with that and just chuck it all in together. It's out on the work surface all the time but in the utility room - might be a bit more of a faff if I had to store in a cupboard I guess. You can't beat the smell of freshly baked bread though

I have a Panasonic one that I acquired after my dm passed away. I am fortunate to have a large enough cupboard in my kitchen to store it. I use both packets and make from scratch. It takes the effort out of the kneading process as sometimes I just make the dough and shape and bake in oven, pizzas, rolls, foccacia etc. My family love freshly made bread.

They just take up too much room. I make two loaves a week by hand, just takes a while for the dough to rise as my house isn’t warm!

Yay. I have a Panasonic and use it regularly. I generally use the packet mixes as they're so easy, just add water. My favourite mix is the Wright's cheddar and sundried tomato.

I have a basic Russell Hobbs £50 job. It make a large loaf if necessary. We don't use it a lot but its excellent on those days when either you've run out of bread or you know you will do.

We use our Panasonic several times a week. I've memorised the ingredients for the standard bread and can set one up in under 5 minutes. We put it on timer in the morning and have freshly baked bread for dinner. The one thing to consider is that it won't taste as nice the next day - still ok (and better than shop bought) but nowhere near as delicious as on day 1. That's the price you pay for not having preservatives added I guess.

I make gluten free bread two/three times a week from single ingredients, the loaf isn't huge, the setting is about 90 ish minutes. I wouldn't be without it.

I like mine and make bread from single ingredients a few times a week. Depending on the loaf it takes 2-3 hours but when I'm WFH I can set it off before DC have their breakfast and it will be ready and cooled for lunch.

I keep it on the kitchen worktop, which doesn't look great but I don't mind cooking appliances out in a room for cooking.

Yes thats a good point about not as nice the next day. Also is hard to cut nice and thin for lunch box sandwiches. We usually do it on timer for morning. Really does only take minutes to pour in ingredients

We use ours most days, bread, pizza dough, DH likes sourdough bread and uses the machine to knead and prove it then baked in the oven. Apparently you can make jam in it too but I haven't tried that. They do take up a hefty chunk of space though.

We’ve used the Panasonic for years. About 4 times a week. Bread is great and it takes about 2 minutes to load machine. We get a 20kg bag of flour and get through it easily. Also use it for pizza dough. Better than domino’s I’m told by 16yo.

@YourWinter "I make two loaves a week by hand, just takes a while for the dough to rise as my house isn’t warm!"

I raise mine in the fridge overnight. Works really well and means there's no actual waiting involved. It's ready for the oven in the morning.

The best part is the kneed function, a dough hook on a food mixer does the same thing. I would rather have the mixer as it does more in the same amount of cupboard/counter space

We have a tiny kitchen and still have a breadmaker out. If you eat bread daily, it's fantastic. I'll make either a quick 2 hour loaf in the morning for lunch, or a 4 hour normal setting loaf for dinner. We very occasionally use mixes but it is cheaper to quickly throw the ingredients together yourself. I always make the largest loaf because it takes the same amount of time, and we're perfectly happy with it the next day, as long as it has been covered overnight.

We had one (a Kenwood) which was excellent but ultimately pointless - I can make pizza dough in my Chef and the loaves from a bread maker are too difficult to use for sandwiches. If the paddle stops in the wrong place you have a hole in the loaf, and it's difficult to cut neat slices for sandwiches that aren't doorsteps (and thus a zillion calories).

I did sell it for pretty much what I paid for it though!

I have the Lakeland small loaf one and I love it. I have never used a packet mix but wouldn't mind trying them. I just use the individual ingredients.

Panasonic one with seed dispenser and it’s used 5/6 x a week. It sits on the surface as it’s used so often.
I buy good quality flour in bulk (15kg bags), we usually have 2/3 types on rotation (white/seeded etc).

I had a cheaper one before and it wasn’t as good.

I don’t think it’s cheaper than shop bought but I don’t mind the kids eating it every day as I know what goes in it.

We do pizza with it once a week - if you take that into consideration it may be cheaper as we don’t buy takeaway pizza anymore.

I don’t use mixes.