What do you think of breadmaker machines?

[Saracen]

I'm tempted but I hear they make a lot of noise? I live in a one bed flat with neighbours either side, is one liable to 1. irritate the neighbours or 2. stop me from sleeping if I whack it on at night to do bread for the morning?

I can only vouch for the Panasonic. If I'm in lounge, I can sometime just about hear the machine on the mix-knead cycle .... and I mean, just about, and with the connecting door open. With the door shut or the telly on, not a chance. And other than that bit of the cycle, I can be in the same room with it on and am barely aware of it.

I have used other machines that are far more noisy, but the Panasonic, while not quite silent, sure as hell isn't far off. I regularly use it overnight and it's never disturbed with either the wife or myself. I'm not a terribly light sleeper, but I joke that the government could have saved a fortune on early warning systems for missile launches in the cold war, because the wife can hear (and we woken by) a gnat farting in Kazakhstan, much less a missile launch. They could have just given her a phone number and asked her to ring them.

I would be astonished, absolutely flabbergasted, if my neighbours ever heard it.

The Morphy Richards I used, however, was a fair bit noisier. Still not excessive, but noisier.

If you've got a studio flat and the machine is 10 feet from your bed, I'd not want to tell you it (the Panasonic) won't disturb you. if you've got a kitchen door between you and it, I think you'd need to be a very light sleeper to be disturbed, and even then, I doubt it.

But .... why not run it in the evening? You won't wake to the smell, but to be honest, you want to let a fresh loaf cool, ideally, for an hour or so anyway, or it can be so soft as to be hard to cut. A standard run takes, typically, 4 to 5 hours, with perhaps 10 minutes (I've never timed it though) of the mix-knead cycle), but there is a fast-bake that cuts that to about 2 hours. You just can't used it on all recipes, and the loaf doesn't rise quite as well. It's still perfectly acceptable and tasty, but I prefer the slow bake to the rapid.

[mycarsavw]

Panasonic. There's two models, with the more expensive one having, basically, an automatic dispenser to drop fruit, nuts, etc into the mix at the relevant point, and a rye blade for rye bread. I went for the cheaper one.

We have the same breadmaker.

My ambition to be Like Saracen takes one step forward.

[Saracen]

We have the same breadmaker.

My ambition to be Like Saracen takes one step forward.

That's funny, I've been trying to be like you. No wonder we go round in circles.

[Stoo]

Ditto, sounds like I've got the same one too

See, all these people with great taste and astute minds

[Rave]

I was given a cheap one several years ago. I never got a really satisfactory loaf out of it unfortunately- as others have said, it's great warm out of the machine, but the next day it's just not that nice. I still use it for making pizza dough every so often- which is quite delicious. Nobody I've ever served a home-made pizza to has ever been anything other than complimentary (and I'm at best a very functional cook).

By the sounds of it, I'd do well to invest in a Panasonic- but I don't really eat that much bread, I'm always in too much of a rush before work to make sandwiches for my lunch.

[Zadock]

I can only vouch for the Panasonic. If I'm in lounge, I can sometime just about hear the machine on the mix-knead cycle .... and I mean, just about, and with the connecting door open. With the door shut or the telly on, not a chance. And other than that bit of the cycle, I can be in the same room with it on and am barely aware of it.

I have used other machines that are far more noisy, but the Panasonic, while not quite silent, sure as hell isn't far off. I regularly use it overnight and it's never disturbed with either the wife or myself. I'm not a terribly light sleeper, but I joke that the government could have saved a fortune on early warning systems for missile launches in the cold war, because the wife can hear (and we woken by) a gnat farting in Kazakhstan, much less a missile launch. They could have just given her a phone number and asked her to ring them.

I would be astonished, absolutely flabbergasted, if my neighbours ever heard it.

The Morphy Richards I used, however, was a fair bit noisier. Still not excessive, but noisier.

If you've got a studio flat and the machine is 10 feet from your bed, I'd not want to tell you it (the Panasonic) won't disturb you. if you've got a kitchen door between you and it, I think you'd need to be a very light sleeper to be disturbed, and even then, I doubt it.

But .... why not run it in the evening? You won't wake to the smell, but to be honest, you want to let a fresh loaf cool, ideally, for an hour or so anyway, or it can be so soft as to be hard to cut. A standard run takes, typically, 4 to 5 hours, with perhaps 10 minutes (I've never timed it though) of the mix-knead cycle), but there is a fast-bake that cuts that to about 2 hours. You just can't used it on all recipes, and the loaf doesn't rise quite as well. It's still perfectly acceptable and tasty, but I prefer the slow bake to the rapid.

There are two fire doors between my kitchen and my bedroom, its pretty good for a one bed flat. Hmmm... might consider one then, ta!

[kalniel]

Well just to report I bought the wife a breadmaker for her birthday. Of course, that means I had to sneakily set it up so she would be surprised by the smell of fresh bread in the morning with a slice to try for breakfast

Went for the basic Panasonic, which was still twice the price of most other makes, but with the 'buy cheap, buy twice' adage in mind I'm hoping it's worth it.

Slightly risky making the first effort as her birthday present, but the loaf was amazing, just about the best I've ever had!

I went for the french bread setting which takes 6 hours, but does product a lovely crispy crust and amazingly light but elastic crumb. Used Clover instead of butter, in the hope the buttermilk etc. would add to the flavour, I reduced the added salt a little to compensate, though perhaps I shouldn't have as the loaf was right on the limit of lightness - possibly the added sugar in the clover boosted the yeast a bit much so to be safe I could not reduce the salt or should use even stronger flour (just used tesco bread flour).

It is fairly noisy though, especially the first part of the process (mixing I guess) - woke me up, but not her thankfully.

[Larkspeed]

We have one which my wife uses often

Some people claim that bread machines make heavy bread which is not the case if they are used properly.

If you just use the recipes that come with them then sometimes it is heavy but if you experiment you can soon get them making really nice bread every time.

[Saracen]

We have one which my wife uses often

Some people claim that bread machines make heavy bread which is not the case if they are used properly.

If you just use the recipes that come with them then sometimes it is heavy but if you experiment you can soon get them making really nice bread every time.

My experience is that the choice of flour is absolutely critical. For basic sandwich bread, I use about the cheapest flour I can find. I deprived Lidl of a whole tray of their cheap (68p) flour last weekend. For toast, I prefer a much heavier bread, and for that, Allinson's Very Strong works well, but to my taste, it's too heavy for sandwiches.

Of course, your preferences are critical, and there's nothing to stop you mixing. If the light flour is a bit too light, try 25% Allinsons and 75% cheap Lidl/Asda/Tesco etc. Or 50/50 is you want it heavier still.

I usually do wholemeal, but pure wholemeal is a bit heavy, so I do 50/50 (or actually, 250g wholemeal, 225g cheap white), cooked on the wholemeal program, for a mix we like.

For a new machine-user, there's some experimentation to do, to find a blend of program, and flour type), to find a mix that suits.

I suspect (with almost zero evidence) that a lot of people try try machines and don't like the result, are probably just using the wrong flour (or blend) for their taste. Frankly, if a friend hadn't warned me, I'd probably have gone for brand names (like Allinson) and first, ended up with a heavier bread than I like, and second, paid through the nose for it, the premium brands being typically £1.50-ish per 1.5kg compared to sub-70p for the cheap stuff.

Of course, flour mix is the elementary stuff. As kalniel discovered, you can then start playing with options, like varying the salt/sugar blend (I use low-salt, by the way, and it works fine for me), or butter/oil/marg/spread, or water/milk. There's a fair degree of fine-tuning involved to optimise results (and, keep notes on what had what effect, or you'll never remember what variant you tried 10 recipe-changes go), but the biggest single decision (unsurprisingly) is flour choice.

I think I've had just one result that we really didn't like, and that was down to flour. That was Tesco Strong Stoneground Wholemeal, and at least to our taste, it's horrible. It's got a funny smell to it, as well as an unpleasant taste, and we not only ditched the loaves (having tried twice) but dumped the rest of the flour too. Instead, I use Waitrose Very Strong Canadian Wholemeal most of the time, and that's (IMHO, of course) far better.

[Whalefish]

Get the best one you can afford. I bought a Panasonic after my old Morphy Richards died.
They are leagues apart.

[ik9000]

I'm putting this in GD specifically, not in Hotpot, for a reason, which I'll explain later. I'll also explain what I think of them later, but for now, I'm interested in people's reactions.

Have you tried one? If not, why not? Cost? Can't be bothered?

If you've tried one, did you get on with it? If not, why not? Didn't like the bread? Too expensive? Too much mucking about?

I'm just interested in whether people use them and what they think?



Edit - Now that the thread's a day or two old, the reason it's in GD not Hotpot is that I wanted general views on the topic, not just those of people interested enough in cooking to be reading Hotpot. In general, cooking topics in Hotpot, please.

just seen this, not had time to read thread. If you get the right one I think they rock. G/f has one, not sure what brand, but it makes seriously good bread. Trick is having the right recipes. We did some fishing online and while the default recipes from the manufacturer work fine, with a bit of tweaking they work even better. Set the timer each evening and wake up to fresh baked bread. Nom nom nom. Yet another reason my g/f rocks.

[1stRaven]

Nothing beats waking up in the morning and smelling fresh bread..

I use ours at least 3-4 times a week (and again, its the Panasonic cheaper unit)

Bacon butties or soft eggs on a weekend morning are lovely with it but its also lovely with homemade soup as well.

[KBeee]

Bought a breadmaker for £23.99 from Argos... I reckoned even if the bread was rubbish I wouldn't have wasted too much money.
When I got the recipe right, I was AMAZED!!!!
I use it to make bread 3 or 4 times a week (got a loaf cooling now) - warm soft bread that tastes like bread I remember from childhood...

[KBeee]

BTW - for my machine it's 1lb.7oz of strong plain flour (68p for 1.5 kg in Tescos), 11 fl.oz. tepid water, 1.5 tsp. salt, and a knob of butter + 1 packet of instant yeast

[art vandelay]

We use our Panasonic in fits and starts. When we do use it, it's on every day. Makes nice bread, convenient and cheaper than buying good bread.
BUT takes up a lot of room and have to put it on every day to feed our family (ie loaves not big enough).