Breadmakers - are they worth it and which is best??

[hellenback]

Is good housekeeping guide really the best on this cos Kenwood machine over £100 - will it just gather dust or do you use???

I have a panasonic one - use it all the time. Rarely buy bread now.

mine is gathering dust

was good when we got it

now I can't be arsed

ditto the panasonic, it's brilliant, use it all the time. There's nothing quite like hot bread for breakfast, yum

Also me panasonic. Really good.

use mine a lot, esp for fruity loaves for breakfast and garlic herb breads which we use with pasta dishes. It's a morphy richards 2lb loaf size (can do 1lb / 1.5lb, press "size" button accordingly, but there are 5 of us so never do small anything) It has a whole bunch of settings on it - a bit because as a rule we only use 2 or 3...

Good Housekeeping guide used to recommend the panasonic one which I have but it's quite a few years old now.
I used to use it quite a bit when I lived in a remote area miles from shops but now I live 5 mins from a 24 hour tesco extra and have got lazy.
I do like it though particularly for foccacia and naan bread and pizza dough.

thanks - err which model panasonic then? also where's best for yeast....

You need to have it out on your work top oher wise you never use it. We use ours everyday for loaf bread and also make dough for pizzas and ciabatta sytle bread in it. Its a lot cheaper and nicer than shop bought bread and if you buy flour without improvers better for you too.

mine's the sd-255. Get dried yeast from the supermarket.

Panasonic with the seed dispenser. I've not bought any bread since getting it for Christmas.

Pizza bases and pitta bread is great from it too.

we use ours allll the time but I am gutted that it doesn't make jam

argh sometimes I hate the way MN breeds dissatisfaction within me! I didn't even know I wanted to make jam in my breadmaker, now it is preying on my mind

mine is the panasonic one with a bit for putting bits in, got it from Lakeland

The panasonic comes out tops in the which? guide too. Havent got around to getting mine yet.

Panasonic too! Got the £80 one which is fine, but think I would go for the more expensive one if I was buying a new one.

Strangely I can't get bread machine yeast from Tesco - have to do special trip to Waitrose, but that may be a local quirk.

We've got a Panasonic, and I haven't bought a loaf of bread in almost 2 years. It's fab - use it for rolls, pizza, croissants, garlic bread as well as ordinary bread.

Mum of 2 boys - I can get it in my Tesco and it's not a big one. It's in a bright green box and called Fast Action Yeast and stocked with the other baking stuff - if they really don't have it ask at the Customer Services.

I've got a Panasonic SD206 but I've googled and you can get spare parts but it's no longer available - knew it was quite old!
I quite like the Hovis yeast - I get it in our Tesco but it is a big one.
I don't fancy jam made in the breadmaker TBH sounds a bit weird to me!

I've got a panasonic with the seed dispenser. I've had it for about six years I think. SD253.

It takes about five minutes to put the ingredients on to bake! Fab.

Buy powdered vitamin C for wholemeal loaves. You can get it from lakeland if your local supermarkets don't have it.

Yes

Panasonic

I have a Panasonic, quite an old model, but still use it regularly.

Panasonic sd255,I literally haven't bought bread since I got it.

I buy doves farm yeast - bright orange packet. keeps fine if you make bread regularly - but a warning I learnt through experience (rather than simply reading the packet ) that it needs to be kept in the fridge once open.

Pittas are also ridiculously easy to make

btw I have never used vit C powder or milk powder - infact I make bread because I like it to be dairy free) My bread has never been anything but perfect - except for the hastily forgotten loaf where I forgot to put the mixing blade in!!