Breadmaker - yay or nay?

[SpaceOP]

I am toying with a bread maker. I'm not entirely sure I have space in my kitchen but if I can figure out a way, I'm thinking about it. The reason being that I'm so tired of bad bread in this country - I can get lovely white or sourdough bread (at great expense but whatever) but a good seed loaf or wholemeal loaf seems impossible. Just back from a trip to Germany where needless to say, bread was all amazing which is what has inspired me.

BUT... how much work is it? is it really super easy? Can I just toss a whole lot of ingredients in while I'm tidying up after dinner and then pop out a lovely loaf at breakfast?

Practical tips please. Anything that involves me spending more than 5-10 minutes prepping is pointless so is it really going to help me?

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It's brilliant but you are not going to get proper rye /pumpernickel bread in 5 mins.

I enjoy caraway seeds in them though.

I gorge on bread when in Denmark eat little in the UK but I do like the breadmaking

I have a basic cheap Russell Hobbs one, after my old Panasonic broke. It makes a decent size loaf, I think. Yes it does the mixing, kneading and rising-you just chuck stuff in and walk away. That said, I
make sourdough more often, and by hand. I mix 500g Aldi flour (half white, half wholemeal) , water and starter (it took me 10 days in winter to make my own starter) . I make it (just mix it together ) anytime between 4-6 pm, leave it half an hour, knead it brief 3 or 4 times before bed, leave it overnight and bake it in a hot oven the next morning. I promise you that once you've done it two or three times, the kneading is easy , and nothing compared to regular kneading. See any online video for details!

What flour do you buy? I get through loads and it's faffy buying so many of the small supermarket bags!

I love our bread maker. I make it every 2 days usually - sometimes both days at the weekend.

Stayed in a lovely B&B in Wales last weekend - the seeded bread was delicious and baked fresh every day. The owners said it was a Panasonic.

You have all convinced me. Knowing me, I'll have my new bread maker within a few days. I'm not letting myself buy it until I've sorted out the space I want to put it in but I'm on it.

I literally just dug mine out of the larder and plugged it in! Quick dash to the shop and I'll have bread shortly. Thanks for the inspiration

I buy flour in bulk from Shipton Mill.

Shop bread is so ultra processed. Urghh.

I got a Panasonic bread maker last year and it is amazing! Just throw it in press a few buttons and you have freshly made bread of any type you like. It also does other things like pizza dough, focaccia, hot cross buns.

I had some French bread in over night and used the timer to have it ready for this morning. I have also just done some buns for iced buns this afternoon. The house smells amazing.

I wish I had got one years ago. The only drawback is the bread can be tricky to slice until you get the hang of it and it only lasts a couple of days as it doesn't have all the preservative crap it. Also I eat twice as much bread as it's so much better tasting.

I now need you all to stop talking about this please because I'm getting bread maker envy. Poor DH does' know what's about to hit him..... (but I've been thinking about DD who is lactose intolerant and a bit fussy and she definitely eats too much processed food. If I can make non UHP white bread, that might be a step in the right direction considering she has sandwiches for lunch every day!)

I do this.

The only things I'd say is that breamaker bread can be heavy but the Internet has recipes for a lighter dough. Also, the bread is not as crusty as oven baked bread especially if you don't remove it from bm straight away. Sometimes, I put mine in a hot oven to get crusty bread.

AlisonDonut please tell me how to convert pizza dough into naan!
SpaceOP I always make bread with olive oil not butter.

I'm on my third breadmaker,use it all the time. Have a Panasonic with the nut dispenser. Makes wonderful light bread, all fresh in the morning.Also make pizza dough, naan dough, and can bake cakes, though seems to take longer than an oven. Mine also has a sourdough setting, though it's not as good as handmade sourdough. Also will do dough for all sorts of savoury and sweet yummies. I found with it I add a little more yeast than in the recipes. I have arthritis so kneading is painful, and it also saves time.
i get my flour delivered from here https://cotswoldflour.com/ I buy a big sack of strong white Canadian flour, and one of Cotswold Crunch, which is delicious. They all sell packs of five 2.5kg bags of all different flours, which you can mix and match to your liking. Loads of recipes on their site too.

We had a Panasonic bread maker (the SD2501 I think, as mentioned by a PP) it was heavily used, sometimes every day but kept going for years. When it finally gave up a few months ago we bought another Panasonic, the SD R2530 this time as the old one is now not sold new any more. It's great and it has a few extras but mostly we use it for a standard loaf and it's used daily as we now have teenagers too. It's a decent-sized loaf as well compared to some of the other machines which have quite small breakdowns. We decided to buy new as we use it so much but there are always bread makers on eBay if you wanted to try a second hand one

Breadmakers are awesome.
It's perhaps not quite as good as fully handmade bread to an expert, but it's streets ahead of packet sliced bread.
It is really just 5 minutes to load it up each night and then rinse out the pan in the morning.
Panasonic are the best brand. Also get a good breadknife for slicing.
You can usually find a local mill for larger supplies of flour.

I go through phases of making sourdough and then back to standard wholemeal in the breadmaker, both are great.

Also you can make pizza dough and various other doughs.

I had a craving for fruit bread the other day and managed to find an old packet of dried fruit and do the spicy fruit loaf recipe.

I love waking up smelling fresh bread. But we eat too much because it's so good (so easy too) I mostly use mine to mix the dough and prove, I bake in the oven

Wow. I'm very impressed by your sourdough method. I went on a sourdough course at a fancy bakery amd their method took five days!
No wonder I gave it up.

We have a Panasonic, and use Waitrose seeded flour, it makes lovely bread.

My Panasonic also makes jam. Really easy, about two and a half jars in a batch, a bit runnier than shop bought but lovely on the fresh bread maker bread. Great if you have a homegrown glut or find a yellow sticker bargain load of strawberries. You can use frozen fruit too.

Mine does jam too, but never tried it. Afraid of burning the pan!

I've got an old Morphy Richards one in the cupboard. It was my grans so it must be at least 20+ years old.

It had a little booklet of recipes, I hope it's still there.

Does anybody know if this will be any good? Or have bread makers moved on in the past 20+ years?

@beguilingeyes it isn't necessary to take so long. Many bakers put it in the fridge for a few hours then next morning, and bake it after lunch, or after work. This makes it more 'sour'. But it doesn't affect the texture,,imo. Possibly a quick 30 minute blast to chill it wouldn't hurt, but not essential.

I used ours every day until a fantastic sourdough bakery opened up on my way home from work. It's bloody expensive but we buy 2 loaves a week. And it's lovely.

I also baked sourdough during lockdown and got pretty good at it....it was very easy to put it together in the morning, prove in the fridge and bake after work or the next morning.

But the Panasonic breadmaker I had was great and the bread was really good.

The panasonic was better but mine broke after about 15 years so i got a £25 russell hobbs off an outlet shop on ebay and set it work overnight on my cheap rate electric and it's so nice. It's a compact one so takes up no room hardly.

They’re nice to set to wake you up in he morning with the fresh bread smell but to be honest mine is shoved at the back of a cupboard these days. It’s way more satisfying making bread yourself, and really easy.