I want a Panasonic bread maker. Tell me your pros and cons

[twiddlingthumbs69]

After having just bought a loaf of bread today and opening it to find it’s already quite stale, I pretty much decided enough is enough and thinking of buying a bread maker

DH is saying no. The initial outlay (down from £159 to £109) is too much. I understand his point and there are only two of us in the house so these are my questions:

shall I get one anyway. If he’s so against it, not let him have any and he can carry on eating shop bought?
how often do you use yours?
how long does the bread stay fresh for?
is it one of those things that end up in a cupboard not being used (his words, not mine)?
overall, is it worth it?

dont want it to make anything fancy, just a white loaf is fine by me. Might experiment when I get used to it.

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Maybe find a different brand bread

The bread won’t stay fresh that long as there will be no preservatives in it. However, you could freeze half of the loaf if the two of you won’t eat a loaf very quickly.

I'm on my third Panasonic one! I upgraded the first one for a newer model and then saw a brand new one with a nut dispenser in a charity shop so I swapped again. Very reliable and consistently good loaves!

We've had our Panasonic for 12 years. Used about 2-3 times per week. The bread stays fresh in a plastic bag, doesn't go mouldy if anything it just goes stale which is then used for breadcrumbs but tbh in this house it rarely lasts long enough to go stale.

You can make a small loaf in it, we get through them before they go mouldy. I've occasionally crumbed the end and put in the freezer (I use breadcrumbs frozen) so it doesn't go to waste.

I’ve got one, we make all our own bread. Apart from the taste and freshness, we can use better ingredients. DH has to limit salt because of hypertension so I’ve got a no salt organic wholemeal in it at the moment.
we've had this one over 5 years now I think and it’s still in great condition.

I’ll slice and freeze nearly all of it. Spread the slices a bit like a card deck to freeze in a bag so it’s easy to separate off a slice to use.
cons? None really, other than needing a good bit of countertop and not under a topcupboard when baking.

Team DH
I sold mine after a short while.
Try making your own bread cakes in the oven with a simple recipe. See how you feel about the time and mess first, before you buy.

A good option is to get fresh bread delivered from the local bakers or milkman.

We've had a Panasonic breadmaker now for 17 years - replaced one or two parts along the way but it's still going strong and is used 2-3 times a week.

I think the key to breadmaker success is to decide you will no longer be buying bread, and to get into a rhythm of using it. Then it quickly becomes second nature. The bread quality is much better, and you can tweak it to exactly how you like it. There aren't really any cons, other than the amount of surface space it takes up.

I got an almost new one for £80 on Facebook marketplace. No cons.

We love our Panansonic breadmaker. We use it every day.

I had a bread maker i bought it during Covid I’m sure it was a Morphy Richard’s one and I bought bread making stuff from Aldi it was great and during Covid I made bread for everyone in the street, the element i think finally went on it and yes I was thinking of buying another but I bought an airfryer instead ( I don’t have a lot of space in my kitchen)

I love mine. Bought so we could avoid the UPF additives.

I have had it about 18 months, use it twice a week and sometimes more - it makes a nice pizza dough.
I initially thought I would use it overnight and come down to a fresh loaf - it was a bit too noisy for that to work for me. Also the bread needs to rest out of the machine before you cut it.

It makes a nice loaf, and once you get used to the recipes you can adapt them for your preferred tastes. My usual is a 50:50 whole meal/ white loaf that stays good for 2-3 days and then the small loaf is all gone anyway.

You make bread every day?

Used it almost every day when the kids were at home.

It made a decent wholemeal loaf that did us fine for years. No mess, no fuss and very easy.

Then it was just two of us and a really good sourdough bakery opened up round the corner. So I sold it. I very occasionaly make a loaf by hand these days - usually a soda bread and dabbled with sourdough for a while but honestly it was easier for the 2 of us just to buy a loaf.

I make all our bread. I’ve got a bread baker but I never use it because I can make better, more long lasting bread with marginally more effort by hand. Also, I don’t like having to have the same shape every time. Honestly-I’d give making your own by hand a try. There are some excellent no-or virtually no knead recipes.

Most days, we probably use half a loaf a day (on average) but we also bake bread for the in-laws who live next door. We also use it to make pizza dough.

My advice is to get one on Facebook marketplace. Quite easy and cheap to find. That way, if you decide it's not for you you haven't outlaid much.

I use mine twice a week. Bread is delicious on day one, tolerable day two, and after that only good for toast.

Panasonic is best. Doesn't need to be the latest model if you only want to use it for basic white.

So if you use half a loaf a day… you could really use it only every other day? 😆

love my Panasonic and use it every other day and wake up to fresh bread. No USPs. Delicious and goes hard and never mouldy like sliced bread. So we just toast it.

only downside is I eat more bread!! 😲 🤣

we also use it to make pizza dough weekly.

I adjust loaf size to how much I'm likely to use and keep it wrapped in foil, it stays fresh much longer.

I'd recommend keeping it accessible - no one can be bothered to use something hidden behind a million things in the cupboard.

I'd also recommend storing flour, salt, butter, sugar in one place nearby so it's even easier to throw everything in.

I've had mine for 20 years. I don't use it for bread, as I make my own bread by hand, in batches of 4 loaves which i freeze in half loaves.

However at least twice a week we have naan, pizza or chapattis, all of which I use the bread machine for as I hate kneading by hand.

The bread maker bread is nice but a bit dry for our liking.

Yeah…..But then we wouldn’t be able to give the in-laws a couple of loaves a week? We probably eat 4 loaves a week , give away two and use it once to make pizza dough. So we basically use it every day, which is what I said.

I’m guessing you have teens!

I’ve had my Panasonic for years. I use it at least 3 times a week, for ordinary loaves, sweet dough to make brioche style rolls, Chelsea buns and pizza. For example- I made sweet mincemeat Chelsea buns yesterday with a lemon icing and a simple cheese loaf for lunch with soup. I would recommend an electric knife or a Lakeland bread slicer guide if you wish to eat your bread very fresh.