Thinking about buying a bread maker

[LindorDoubleChoc]

Will I regret it and let it gather dust?

I'm thinking about it because making my own bread seems an easy way to cut down on ultra processed food, and I'm very fussy about my bread anyway.

I've never made a loaf in my life (except maybe in O level cookery classes in the 1970s!) because I hate baking. But a machine does it for you, so it seems like a no effort solution.

If you have one, do you use it regularly? Would you recommend?

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Do it, supermarket bread is one of the worst things in most people’s diet and they don’t even realise it.

the machine makes it so easy. You can even buy bread mixes which are UPF free.

We have a Panasonic one. I thought it would never be used. But make bread and pizza bases in it. Definitely worth it. The bread is much better than shop bought bread.

I don't have one, but when I was married by ex (a chef) acquired one.

Honestly I didn't rate it at all...found the bread it produced always just tasted a bit 'wrong' for some reason.

I'm not sure where they fall in the processed spectrum but I usually buy packets of bread mix and just knock it up by hand if I need to.

I have a Panasonic bread maker which I use twice a week. It’s very easy. You can set so timer so it starts so the bread is ready for breakfast or when you get home from work. Lovely bread, but odd shaped loaf. But - it sat in my utility cupboard for months unused, and only really came into its own when I awarded it its own space on the side. It takes up a lot of precious space but to me it’s worth it. It will also make dough for eg crumpets, croissants, pizza bases etc.

We had a Panasonic, it was great, made a wholemeal loaf most days which was delicious . Then an amazing sourdough bakery opened up in town and I buy their seeded wholemeal sourdough instead. It’s more expensive than making my own, but it’s lovely. If the bakery closes down I’ll dig out the Panasonic again.

I have a bread maker ( a present) but I make my own every Sunday morning by hand. I enjoy the feel of the dough getting elastic, it's good exercise and it staves off bingo wings.

You can have mine if you want. Only used once, been gathering dust for a while.

Or you can get them for a few £ on Gumtree.

I love mine. I set the timer so that we wake up to fresh bread in the morning (not every day but a couple of times a week)

I order a 16kg sack of flour from our local mill. It last a few months, and means we eat decent wholemeal bread with a proper crust and no additives for less than £1 a big loaf.

The postman's not keen but I love it. 😁

The best bread maker is your hands, takes about 5 minutes to mix and knead, we rarely buy shop bread.

I adore everything about it, watching the dough rise, making my own sour dough starter, but mostly the eating.

I had a bread maker years ago but gave it away.

I use ours at least once a week. Make our own bread rolls, malt loaf, bread.

it’s brilliant

That's lovely for you, but as I said in my OP - I absolutely hate baking! I resent any time spent on it as I already do most of the cooking in my household and I don't enjoy it.

@Meadowfinch - I'd love to buy yours! The other replies on this thread have persuaded me. I'm lucky enough to have loads of worktop space in this kitchen.

I'll send you a pm.

I've had an oven maker for 15 years, and don't like the bread. I love crisp baguettes and you can't do them with it.

They are great for a pizza/focaccia base dough. Good investment for homemade pizzas.

I have two, a small one and a more ordinary size one. Both bought second hand, small one from charity shop for 15 quid, never even used I would say! Try your local marketplace before you spend big money, if you really like it you can always buy a better one later.

Mine are more than sufficient for my needs, I really dislike the feel of bread dough and will not knead it or do any of that stuff (I have to basically close my eyes when Paul Hollywood on tv gets his hands all covered in dough, yeuk!) plus it is very convenient in colder weather that it rises the dough too in a timely fashion. I use the small one very regularly to make batches of dough that I usually bake in the oven either as bread, cinnamon buns, burger buns, that sort of thing. The larger one is a 2 paddle machine and makes a good size loaf in the machine itself which I also often do when needed.

While it does do it all it's not really a set and leave it until you have definitely got some recipes that always work, it is best for the first few times anyway to watch the dough ball in the initial knead to ensure it's neither too wet nor too dry and note any adjustments you have to make to the recipe. Once you have a few trustworthy recipes then you can usually just let it do it's thing. Some people like to take out the paddle before the bake cycle so as not to leave a big hole in the bread but it's not essential.

My advice is definitely buy a used one if you can first, there are so many of them sitting in presses unused that many being sold are as new, just make sure the non stick coating has no scratches!

Yep. Have a Panasonic which gets used a couple of times a week (household of 2 paeoe).

use M&S seeded and malted flour which does a lovely loaf