Do I need a bread maker?

[ICanTuckMyBoobsInMyPockets]

Really? Do I?

DS and DP eat a lot of sandwiches and I do bake but not really bread as it always seems a bit faffy.

There's a Morphy Richards Fastbake for half price in Argos and I have some vouchers coming.

Is it worth it?

Am I going to be a huge fatty from eating lovely warm bread with loads of butter?

If you've got room for it in the kitchen, yes.

Mmmm warm bread oozing with butter...

Possibly...

But, yes, you DO need a breakmaker in your life.

I have a 5 year old Morphy Richards (model now discontinues) for which I have just bought a new paddle and tin because they had gone a bit scabby from overuse.

A bread machine is genius IMO: Water in, ingredients in, switch on - and walk away. Only to come back to lovely warm homemade bread.

I went from bread mixtures to now making my own bread from 'real' ingredients and we have not bought bread in years.

"Do I need a bread maker?" - Yes, you do.

Yes, to all your questions. My breadmaker is currently gathering dust since I went on a low carb diet, but before that it was in daily use - everything from plain white bread through naans to pizza base mixes, banana bread, and beyond. I mostly just used it to mix the dough, which was then shaped by hand and baked in the oven - but it certainly made all that kneading and proving a lot simpler! Mine's an Argos 'value' model - think it was around €35 about 3 years ago - brilliant bit of equipment for the price!

Yes. We use it several times a week and only ever have to buy speciality bread, eg baguette. I'm sure it's paid for itself too.

Solved!

So what about the model I'm looking at then? Any good? Or should I spend a bit more?

ICanTuck of course you need a breadmaker, how have you managed without one. They are not just for bread though, you can make cakes and jam in them too. My Panasonic is 5 years old and works like a dream. If the one you have seen has a timer on it so much the better, you could be waking to the aroma of fresh bread filtering through your home. Lovely.

Oh, yes, the timer, brilliant piece of kit .

Is it this one?

Yes that's it.

It's out of stick direct but Argos have them so I've just reserved one!

Happy Christmas to me!

I don't know anything specific about it, sorry, but looks good.

Personally, I don't use the 'fast bake' function much at all. The bread tends to be a bit denser and heavier as it is not left to rise as often, I think.
Depending on how many you are/how much bread you eat/how often you might bake, consider the size of your tin (2lbs is fine, but not huge).

Happy Christmas to you from me too!

Not really no.

If you can stand the kerfuffle of kneading the bread by hand, etc then my mum used to do this and it took her, ooh a morning to do this.

Looks like I'll have to be the lone dissenting voice. I'm a competent baker but I thought I couldn't make bread so I got a bread maker, but despite trying lots of different recipes I never got a result I liked from the breadmaker and I disliked the weird shaped loaf with the hole in the bottom. It mostly just took up space and was occasionally used to make jam.

I would recommend a stand mixer and a copy of Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard.

I make much more bread now with these than I ever did with the bread machine.

Here you go....

A Prospero or entry level Chef would be a much more versatile way to spend your vouchers.

No you don't need one - more clutter for the kitchen, you can just bung some dough in the oven if you want bread.

Yes you will very quickly turn into a fatty because you feel the need to finish off the bread because you made it. Once you put the effort in you feel twice as guilty if you throw it out.

Don't buy it!

I must admit when my mum got left (she's since bought) her uncle's Kenwood Chef - it made mixing the dough a heck of a lot easier.

she now buys Vogels anyway. and I don't really have time or inclination to bake my own bread.

Well.... I've bought it, but it's still in the box.

I'm torn.

I already have a Kenwood Chef which I love, I do everything in it, but thank you for the suggestion.

Does anyone know if you can do tiger bread in it? Someone at work said she'd pay me for home made tiger bread!

Honestly, we completely rely on ours - all our standard bread is made in it, we never run out of bread, all sandwiches are made using it, we use it probably three times a week.

Not sure if you can make tiger bread. But we routinely make white, spelt, wholemeal, granary, pizza dough, foccacia, bread with nuts and seeds, fruit loaf...

The loaves pretty much always turn out perfect by the way. There is a little hole in the bottom from where you take the paddle out, but that is really a minor disadvantage compared to the many advantages!

Oh, also bread made with leftover rice (surprisingly light and delicious), bread made with part-polenta - lovely and nutty...

Would you like our standard breadmachine recipe?!

Yes, you need it. Essential. Mine gets used every day. I've had it for nearly 8 years now.

You would definitely be able to make tiger bread by making the dough in it and then oven baking.

Oh, use it, use it, use it - I am excited on your behalf

Play around with it - I went from using only bread mixes to actually measuring my own ingredients to now being quite adventurous: my breads are v wholemealy, contain lots of seeks and feature less and less wheat flour... my children's friends are horrified

I am not sure about tiger bread - you may need to figure out when exactly the ?vinegar needs to go on. The program I use the most takes 3 hours from start to finish, but baking time is only 1 hr, so you'd have to add whatever covering exactly goes on when the last rise is finished. I think...

Wow.

Is bread not using the bread machine easy to make? What ingredients do you need? Flour, yeast,water?

No you don't. The novelty value will wear off and the bread isn't ever as good as the stuff you can make very quickly and easily. Buy a handwhisk with a dough hook attachment and you're sorted.

Ok I just read Delia's recipe...looks fine until you get to the kneading and proving part

Hassled, I like the 'bung warm water and half a packet of Lidl's breadmix in the machine, press 'On' and walk away' aspect of using my bread machine. To come back to perfectly baked bread after 3 hours without having even been present [lazy]