Is it possible to make great bread in breadmaker?

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We got one for Christmas, and I like the idea of it but the bread so far is just ok, not fantastic.

We live in Austria where there's a big "dark" bread culture - lots of rye and spelt - so we never eat sliced, plastic-wrapped bread anyway, and I'd like to be able to make something that's at least as interesting as what we'd normally buy.

Does anyone have any tips/recipes? Or are there any good recipe books out there specifically for breadmakers? I have googled and looked on Amazon but haven't found anything particularly convincing yet.

I find the quality of my bread depends very much on the quality of the flour. I try to buy organic. Mine came with a good booklet of recipes (Panasonic).

Yes.

I always get better results if I just make the dough in the breadmaker and then bake it in the oven (or george foreman grill for stripey treats). My bredmaker seems to cook unevenly.

Which breadmaker did you get?

I have a panasonic sd257 breadmaker and we went mad with it to begin with to find the ultimate loaf! We use it every week, about 3 times and make either dough in it for rolls, or actual bread that is both mixed and baked in the breadmaker.

We used to eat granary bread before the breadmaker so I made the granary loaf from the recipe booklet, it was ok but not that exciting. So I made the seeded wholemeal, again not that exciting.

I just substituted the wholemeal flour for granary so now get a seeded granary loaf which is blooming lovely. I put it on at about 10pm, it has a timer and the seeds drop automatically (some seeds can go in the pan but others get mixed in later) and at 6am I turn out a hot loaf.

The only issue with it is that one side is slightly lower than the other due to how it rests when it stops mixing.

As BlueChampagne says buy the best flour you can afford.

We got a Philips - we've made the basic recipes from the booklet and dh has been experimenting by just using different quantities of flour. They just all seem to be quite bland - big bricks.

How long is the setting you are using? You generally get a better flavour from a slower setting.

That said, I wouldn't say mine ever makes GREAT bread - for really really good stuff I use the dough setting and bake it in the oven, but the everyday stuff using the machine is still way better than anything I can buy locally.

Same problem -bread is ok but not great. Used the dough setting to make rolls in the oven which, again, were ok but not spectacular. Have tried a range of flours and they all come out a bit samey. Any flour recommendations(white or wholemeal)?
My mum used to bake it by hand and the smell and taste was fantastic.

Different flour helps. Add plenty of salt.... eating salt-free bread is like eating polystyrene.

Piste Have you tried buying spelt or kamut flour in a Health Food shop here? and making by hand? My mum used to make lovely bread by hand but since she was given a B.M. (she uses wheat free flour) her bread is okay but not brilliant.

I make wheat free bread by hand it's easier than with wheat 'cos it doesn't need kneading, you can buy wheat free yeast from H.F. shops as well. I know you need to use more yeast than with wheat flour in the bread makers and by hand.

Agree, plenty of salt and use the longest setting for all recipes. I have a Panasonic and use the 6-7 hr setting no matter what recipe I use. When using wholemeal/granary bread, I use 1/4 to 1/3 white flour to lighten it up a bit.

chippy47 try granary flour and see if you like that, I have also tried added malt extract to mine and it comes out very nutty tasting.

Honestly my granary tastes like I have bought it from a supermarket. I previously had a breadmaker years ago and the bread came out tasting awful but the recipe had milk powder in it. Bleugh.

I use 3/4 tsp Allinson's yeast made for breadmakers (comes in a little green tin) 400g Sainsburys Taste The Difference wholegrain seeded flour, 1 tsp sea salt, 15g lurpack butter, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp poppy seeds, 1 tbsp sesame seeds and 280ml water. Then 1tbsp each of sunflower, linseed and pumpkin seeds, these go in the seed hopper and get dropped in later. 5 hour wholewheat bake rasin setting.

Like I say I adapted this recipe and we have experimented a bit with dough. I do love my breadmaker. We only bought it because we went to a party and my friend made 2 loaves of granary style bread and I couldn't believe they were homemade. She also had a panasonic but hers was old and so they didn't make that any more so we got the latest one as it had incredible reviews.

Yes I get very good bread from my breadmaker but really good flour is essential.

For my white loaf, I use a mix of 50:50 Hovis Super Strong Bread Flour (Green Bag) and Hovis Strong Bread Flour (Red Bag). I doubt though it will ever be as good as bread made by hand at a really top class bakery. I also make Artisan Bread mixed in the bread maker but baked in the oven and my family say it is nicer.