Breadmakers; are they the devil?

[Pete C]

Just a quick question. As a maker of bread in the old fashioned way, I hate bread makers despite never having owned or used one.

To those who have I ask this: are they the devil?

I can't help but feel the bread will be inferior, so please do tell...

[Nicos]

Not at all- you can go half way and mix the dough and then put it in the oven as you would normally do. The nice thing is that you can have a fresh loaf ready when you get home from work or first thing in the morning if you buy one with a delay timer on it.

You also don't need to hang around waiting it to rise and knocking it back. MUCH easier- and just as tasty- just carry on using the flour/oil/butter/seeds etc you'd normally use.

...go on...you know you want one!!

[Brengirl]

Every loaf I bake is different to the previous one. I use a food mixer for the kneeding bit and never used a 'bread maker' can only think it would take away the fun. Each batch is a new challenge and I would hate to have it foolproof.
I look forward to other opinions.

[coomber]

I have one and don't actually cook the bread in it any more. I use it just for the mixing and proving then take the dough out and make bagettes/rolls/bloomer - whatever we fancy!
I found if the bread is cooked in the breadmaker it comes out really heavy and doughy..yuk (even after trying loads of different recipes) , but some people like it that way!
I have today made a hot cross bun/loaf in it today though and it came out brilliantly

[zazen999]

It's not that fun kneading with a dodgy elbow; I can tell you.

I use the breadmaker to do the mixing, then take it out and shape it by hand; let it rise then bake.

[Brengirl]

You don't need a breadmixer for proving. I put my dough in the fridge overnight. The long prove helps the flavour.

[Rhona]

Nope - they're brilliant. I make bread by hand too, usually make pizza dough once a week etc., but would never be without the breadmaker. We use it almost everyday and the bread's fab. Not inferior at all - different, but not inferior.

[Capsid]

The downside is when they go wrong. After several years of use (twice every weekend), the paddle assembly has sheared off which means buying a new pan at a cost of ~£65. A new one costs £89 (Panasonic) and comes with a dispenser (current one hasn't got that). So the option is to buy a new one, but somehow that seems a terrible waste of materials when all I need is a new pan. Why can't they make the spares less expensive?

Anyway, I made some bread the old-fashioned way using a food processor for the mixing and it came out fine.

[Rhona]

The downside is when they go wrong. After several years of use (twice every weekend), the paddle assembly has sheared off which means buying a new pan at a cost of ~£65. .

That seems like an awful lot! We need a new pan for our Morphy Richards one and all the spares are under a tenner from Amazon - pans are about £9.00. Seems odd that there's such a huge difference?

Tesco did one last year for £30 that won some excellent reviews - nice cheap replacement for you!

[Alison]

We use our breadmaker every 2 or 3 days, almost always with the overnight timer on so that we have fresh bread for sandwiches on that day. Whilst I have no problems with making bread by hand, there is no way I would get up early enough in the mornings to have a fresh loaf by 6.30 in the morning. Re the heaviness thing, it depends on several factors including your recipe / ratios but I've found the main difference being the make of machine. My friend has one which makes what I consider to be quite rubbish bread which is very heavy (she seems to like it OK though so not a problem) whereas ours is much lighter (Panasonic). It will do all sorts of different loaf types and has a dispenser thing in the top but I find that 99% of the time we just do a 50 / 50 white / wholemeal loaf as it suits most of our general needs.

[Bulbaholic]

Magic. We (ie my wife) use ours 2 or 3 times per week. The dry ingredients and water get put in at breakfast time and by about mid-day we turn out a loaf ready for lunch time. There are occaisional failures but very few.

[Alison]

We use our breadmaker every 2 or 3 days, almost always with the overnight timer on so that we have fresh bread for sandwiches on that day. Whilst I have no problems with making bread by hand, there is no way I would get up early enough in the mornings to have a fresh loaf by 6.30 in the morning. Re the heaviness thing, it depends on several factors including your recipe / ratios but I've found the main difference being the make of machine. My friend has one which makes what I consider to be quite rubbish bread which is very heavy (she seems to like it OK though so not a problem) whereas ours is much lighter (Panasonic). It will do all sorts of different loaf types and has a dispenser thing in the top but I find that 99% of the time we just do a 50 / 50 white / wholemeal loaf as it suits most of our general needs.

Also, despite the fact it cost about £80 when we bought it, we've now had it over 3 years so I'm at about 2p per loaf so I can't complain.

[rustylady]

My daughter has one (a new one since her OH threw the paddle out with the ruined bread in the old one - he'd apparently forgotten to add the liquid to the mix). Her bread seems a bit heavy to me and I don't think I would want one. There's only me in the house and I don't eat a lot of bread.

[Two_Sheds]

I agree with everything Alison said above.

For one loaf a week, I also think it's cheaper to make in the machine than heating the whole oven for an hour

[Brengirl]

without doubt it would be cheaper to buy a Waitrose loaf at 3.30pm on a Sunday. But if you want a loaf that your grandkids come round just for a slice of best stick to authentic arm wrestling homemade.