Bread machine - anyone have? Recommendation?

[El Chupacabra]

Mrs. C. has expressed an interest in getting a bread machine for Xmas. We've never had one, I don't know anything about them.

Recommendations for or against particular models?

[toast2266]

We have a sunbeam one. It never really gets used. The bread we've made is fine, but not as good as the (good) bread at the store. If you make the dough yourself, it's a minor pain in the ass. You can buy bread ingredients premixed in a box that you pretty much just dump in the breadmaker, but the bread isn't as good and it's not much cheaper than just buying bread at the store. It also only makes a traditional rectangular loaf of bread, but I mostly end up eating baguettes and other non-rectangular shaped breads.

[Binky]

We have the Cuisanart one. It is a major pain in the ass and it is so much easier to just buy a $3.00 loaf of bread at the local bakery. The major challenge is assembling all of the ingredients. We have used it once, and the resulting bread was delicious, just not worth the effort.

[butterscotch]

we have a sunbeam 5891. it's cheap and was highly rated. had it a couple years, we use it regularly. we generally just use it to make dough and then bake in the oven on a stone. the bread that comes out of the breadmaker is good too. timer feature is nice so we can come back from skiing/biking and have dough ready.

Binky - bread is usually like five or six ingredients. Is there something that makes yours more challenging?

[Cruiser]

We have one that very rarely gets used. It makes decent bread but I find it a little fiddly. And if I'm going to fiddle anyway then I'd rather just use the oven and turn out a higher quality product.

On a related note we use the hell out of our Kitchenaid stand mixer. If the misses is interested in baking bread then you ought to try to steer her in that direction instead (if you don't already have one). It's just such a versatile tool to have in the kitchen, particularly when you start accessorizing it with different attachments.

[Kim Jong-un]

I'll concur with the above on a bread making machine--don't bother. The best one available is your own two hands. Its very easy to make a yeast bread. As a kid I used to help my mother bake bread, and I think you really have to hand knead the dough to make great bread--it takes a bit of practice to get the feel for it. I think you lose something by machine kneading. Then its a whole bunch of patience on the rising, proofing cycle. But in the end, you can accomplish the same things with your hands that you can do with a $$ machine. Perhaps a local artisan breadmaker (they seem to be everywhere now) would be willing to teach her for a few hrs for a modest fee?

[abraham]

Agreed on a stand mixer. I would like one for my bread making, but it really is a a simple process other than proofing anf can be done by hand easily. My parents have a bread machine and the best advantage I saw was the ability to keep the dough in the mid 70s while we were out of the house.
I think the stand mixer is a better way to get into bread making, plus it's useful for lots of other things.

[Danno]

I used to have one from Williams-Sonoma, I think it was a rebranded Zojirushi. I disagree with those who say it's too much of a PITA. I found that once I got the hang of it and had all the ingredients in the house, I could make a delicious loaf of bread with 5 minutes of work that blew doors off of the store bought crap. I settled in to a few recipes that worked well for me, that I could also tweak in different ways, and I was happy. ETA: I don't doubt that I could have done better hand-making it, but I couldn't hand make it in 5 minutes, and no way did I have patience to make bread the old-fashioned way.

That said, most people start using a breadmaker, get excited and make lots of bread, then tail off and the thing sits on a shelf for years. I stopped using mine, but that was mostly because I stopped eating much bread. After a few years of not making any (once you fall out of the habit it's hard to get back in) I gave it away.

[irul&ublo]

Recommendations...

Yeah....tell her to man up and make bread the right way. And when she's done, cut a couple of slices and make you a sammy

[Todds]

I have one of the early ones. I haven't used it in 10+ years. I used it a lot at the start. I made the standard recipe. If you like waking up to a fresh hot loaf it's hard to beat the machine. It doesn't take much work to mix up the ingredients before you go to bed. I have had better bread, but it was an early machine and I didn't experiment very much.

[Tippster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/di...mrex.html?_r=0

Watch the video - at the end they have an updated recipe that cuts the proofing time down to 3-4 hours.

[jfost]

Bread machines are the treadmills of the food preparation world. If your coats were smaller or the bread machines much bigger, you'd have a nice place to hang them in the kitchen.

[butterscotch]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/di...mrex.html?_r=0

Watch the video - at the end they have an updated recipe that cuts the proofing time down to 3-4 hours.

My parents make no-knead bread and it's not that good, but that could be more a reflection on them than the no-knead concept.

3-4 hours makes it worth trying.

[powpig]

My girl was always talking about a bread machine, so I did a bit of research and got her a Panasonic a few years back. It wasn't as flashy as some, but got good marks for reliability & durability.

As mentioned above, the timer function is pretty sweet, she'll set it up before bed and we'll wake up in the AM to the smell of freshly baked bread!

[huckbucket]

Here's the no knead recipe to end all ...

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knea...revisited.html

The key is to use the heaviest damn pot you can find that holds the most heat. The bread kicks huge ass. Water, flour, yeast, salt. That's all. So tasty.

El Chup - invest in a Le Creuset and give her this recipe. She can then also use the pot for other things.

[XXX-er]

I had a black & decker that made pretty good bread but then I quit eating much bread and what i do eat now is sprouted grain or artisan bakery so i gave it to a friend and they like it

it does make the house smell GREAT a good trick I used is to put it on while my RE agent was showing the house

[MarcusBrody]

We have one that I took from my parents house where it was sitting unused. We use it pretty frequently though. A couple of times a month, probably. The only issue I have with home baked bread is that it goes stale reasonably quickly with no preservatives so it's great when it comes out of the machine, ok the next morning, toast only by a day after that.

The same is true of a lot of store bought bread, but my homemade bread is a bit denser so I eat less by volume and more often end up throwing out heels.

[gaijin]

We have a Panasonic, an older version of this one.

Awesome for dinner parties.
Tons of recipes included.
Never fails.
Kinda noisy though.

I make bread every night and set the timer for breakfast. I love it. We got ours because good wheat or nutty bread isn't available in Japanese supermarkets- just plain jane white. Of course bakeries can provide. But specialty food shopping is tiring for staple foods, imo.

My advice- splurge for the best/biggest you can find. Ours is enough for breakfast for the family, but that's it. We want a second machine. Get one with a nuts/raisins drop box, too. Don't buy a cheap one unless it's just a party favor.

My 3yo girl helps me each night before bed. It'll be her job when she's a big older. So easy and so worth it. Each loaf is costing us under 2$ for a whole wheat/olive oil recipe. It takes 5-10 minutes total prep time.

My daily:
240g white flour
10g wheat germ
11-14g brown sugar
6-8g dehydrated milk
5g salt
180ml water
30ml olive oil
1.8g yeast (why you may want a precise scale that measures decimals. But once you learn what 1.8 looks like, it's easy to replicate and you won't measure yeast anymore.)

Or- cut the olive oil, add 10g of butter and change the water to 250ml and the milk to 15g.

If desired, cut the wheat germ in the recipe above, replace with white flour, and add any of the following:
Rosemary/oregano
Walnut
Sesame
raisin, other dehydrated fruits
cheese
poppy seeds

The list is endless. You can chuck anything into it. I've been making daily for over a year and my machine has never failed. I have failed to remember water, yeast or salt a few times though. That sucks. It's amazing how I can taste a recipe malfunction. 1g of salt either way is noticeable. No milk = crumbly but good. Too much milk is spongy but good. Butter tastes a little better, not much. Butter yields bigger loaves with the more water and milk in the recipe.

My kids are learning how to make bread before they're in school.

/pretentious post

[fool]

For no knead I'm partial to this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/031236...sr=8-1&pi=SL75 I generally use a 14 cup food processor and a baking stone, that's all the additional equipment needed.

[climberevan]

Here's the no knead recipe to end all ...

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knea...revisited.html

The key is to use the heaviest damn pot you can find that holds the most heat. The bread kicks huge ass. Water, flour, yeast, salt. That's all. So tasty.

El Chup - invest in a Le Creuset and give her this recipe. She can then also use the pot for other things.

^^^This. I make 3 huge (1000g of flour) loaves every week. They come out perfectly pretty much no matter what--I have fucked them up in every conceivable way, and they still bake and taste just fine. You just have to get in the habit of mixing, waiting, mixing, waiting, mixing, waiting, and then baking. Total active time invested is about 8 minutes, and 45-60 minutes of baking. I make mine 50% whole wheat, and when you buy flour at Costco in 50# bags for $17 it is incredibly cheap to bake a loaf. I would disagree on the Le Creuset, though--they're pretty overpriced. The knock-off enameled pots are 90% as good for 30% of the price.

I have been making bread for 18 years, and have had several bread machines, including the big daddy Zojirushi. None of them are even as easy as the no-knead. Hell, next time you're around S Tahoe just come over and I'll show you both how to do it.

[XXX-er]

The only issue I have with home baked bread is that it goes stale reasonably quickly with no preservatives so it's great when it comes out of the machine, .

Yeah thats one of the reasons why I quit using my bread machine cuz I can't eat enough of it by myself, I would say idealy you need a fam of 4 who will eat most of a loaf in a day and you set the machine up on the timer to make a loaf ready to use/eat every morning

[garyfromterrace]

I recommend going to the baker down the street (or over that way).

[mtngirl79]

bread machines make decent, basic homemade bread with that fresh, yeasty taste that is always pretty good, but if you are looking for rustic, artesian style with big holes, and a crusty crust, its not gonna happen in a bread machine. A stand mixer, some baking stones, some breadmaking tools, and a good breadmaking book would be a better if that is what she is after.

It doesn't really take that much actual hands on time to make really good artesian bread, except that you have to be home, giving it a few minutes of attention at the correct times for a day or more...

[Kim Jong-un]

I'd get her the Kenwood Chef based on this old ad.

[huckbucket]

I would disagree on the Le Creuset, though--they're pretty overpriced. The knock-off enameled pots are 90% as good for 30% of the price.

Totally agree. No need to spend the big cash on the pot. Weight is the key. Cast iron, ceramic, whatever holds the heat will do the trick. I've even used a regular stainless pot with good results. Just figured that the OP was thinking about this as a gift and was already talking >$100 with a bread machine.

For everyone else suggesting complex bread making schemes, machines, and kneading ... there's really no point. I've invested in the books, baked hundreds of loafs the traditional way following every expert tip out there and nothing beats the no knead in the heavy pot.