Breadmaker is rubbish - get a new one or make by hand?

[clemetteattlee]

My Morphy Richards 48248 is just rubbish. The bread it makes is heavy and stodgy (and a weird square shape!) I really want to make nice bread but have come to the end of the road with this machine. So - shall I buy anohter, and if so, which one. Or is it always going to be better made by hand...?

I've got the Panasonic and currentlyhavesome pizza dough in there to use for tonight's dinner - lovely!

I make lovely bread by hand it is SOOO easy cos DH is wheat sensitive so i use Kamut or spelt flour and others somtimes and guess what it doesn't need kneading, really!! And one rising and in the oven with it.!

The only advantage I can see of having the raisin/nuts dispenser on the Panasonic is that it releases them into the dough later and reduces the possibility of nuts and seeds scratching the non stick surface of the pan.

Thanks everyone.
Kickass I tried your recipe in my Morphy Richards but it was still rubbish (and it was sweet, should it have been tsp rather than tbsp of sugar) so that made my decision for me.
Then, as luck would have it, someone listed a brand new Panasonic 254 on ebay for £20 last night so I bought it and set off on a 100 mile round trip to collect it today. Result: lovely bread as you all promised

i threw away my bread maker after someone recommended buying the book
'artisan bread in 5 minutes a day'
you can actually make a batch of dough that keeps in the fridge for up to a fortnight - then you just break a bit off and cook it. You end up with a wonderful loaf - far superior to a breadmaker with next to no work (but dont buy the 'healthy' version of the book as its difficult to get the ingredients in uk)