Random question.

[rivka]

Do you have a bread machine? If so, what do you think of it?

It's that time of year again: my parents want to know what we would like for Christmas. I was thinking that a bread machine might be a good thing to have. We frequently buy artisanal-type bread from the grocery store, but (a) it's expensive, and (b) it goes stale so quickly. bosssio brought us a loaf of homemade bread after Colin was born, I think made in a bread machine, and it was delicious and stayed fresh for several days.

So is good bread-machine bread easy to make? Are there lots of different kinds? I've seen bread-machine mixes, but presumably you can also make bread in a machine from scratch, right? Any brand recommendations?

Comments

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

We had one and used it so much we wore it out, back when two kids were taking lunches every day. It was a Black and Decker 1-lb machine. When we replaced it with a 1.5 lb machine, we didn't like the bread quite as well and we didn't eat it fast enough.

We generally just made white bread with a crispy crust, and raisin bread, because that's what we liked. It was so repeatable that the kids did it sometimes with good results.

It did take up a lot of counter space.

[ailbhe]

The only real downside of our breadmachine was that the mixing bowl couldn't go in the dishwasher, and the mixing paddle came off in the loaf and twice ended up being thrown in the bin by accident in the middle of a lump of dough.

Then I discovered that I really, really enjoy making bread, and doing it myself is faster (measured as time from "oh no, we have no bread" to "Ah, now there's bread") and makes less washing up, because the breadmachine washing up was fiddly.

I very much doubt they make them NOT to go in dishwashers any more, so I'd say you're golden. A friend of mine - rmc28 - has been doing a costing in how long it takes the bread machine to pay for itself since they got it.

Making our own bread, we eat 1.5kg of bread flour in about 3 days, usually. Faster if I make egg-milk-and-cinnamon bread, especially if we have friends over when it comes out of the oven.

Having a breadmaker on overnight makes getting up in the morning much nicer.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I have one and have used it regularly for 15 years or so now. I mostly use it to make a nice white whole wheat sandwich bread, but I've used it successfully to make raisen/rosemary/etc breads and dough for fancier bread preparations -- monkey bread was a favorite. I've never tried the pre-made mixes, because the from scratch is so simple, just put in the ingredients in one go and then hit the buttons and leave it alone.

People will tell you that it's unnecessary and that you can do the same with a bread hook and a stand mixer. I say foo to that: all the ingredients in one go, no pans, no punching down.

Mine's a Welbilt Bread Machine, I don't know if they are still even making theme, but Consumer Reports or something will give you a guide towards something reliable.

[ailbhe]

Bread hooks and stand mixers make washing up. Yuck. All the disadvantages of tool use, none of the advantages (like not having to do it oneself).

How does white whole wheat bread work?

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I use King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/king-arthur-white-whole-wheat-flour-5-lb). I like the nuttiness and increased fiber of a whole wheat, but I've never liked the bitter edge of a lot of traditional whole wheats. I mix it half and half with Gold's or King Arthur bread flour, and it makes a really tasty, nutty but not overwhelming bread for toast and sandwiches.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I got one last Christmas, and we like it quite a bit. I love making soup on Sunday afternoons (when I have the time to do so) - and starting up the bread machine at the same time, so we have soup and fresh bread for dinner, is pretty awesome. I haven't experimented much - mostly just have made plain old regular bread, so far, but I did pick up a bread machine recipe book at a used bookstore, and plan to venture through that some time soon.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

We're on our second bread machine, and the first lasted a while. Wore out. On the other hand, we're doing gluten-free stuff. I think Wife would prefer the sensuality of kneading bread by hand, if she had the choice.

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

I had one that I loved, but it was also a design where the paddle ended up baked into the bread and you had to kinda dig it out after -- a real pain. Eventually the paddle was lost. I don't think they do that anymore. I don't have any recipe, but my mom used several of her bread recipes in the machine. She also makes her own mixes -- measure all of your dry ingredients (except yeast) into a zip-top bag and store in the freezer.

Do consider one with a timer. It was so nice set up my slow cooker and bread machine and come home to beef stew and home-made bread all cooked for dinner. Got to get a new machine.

Unhelpfully not answering your question

[firecat]

Making no-knead bread is probably just as easy as using a bread machine.

http://www.breadtopia.com/

There are various tools associated with it that could be Christmas gifts.

Re: Unhelpfully not answering your question

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I've had no-knead bread. It's not terrible, but it's got an odd texture. I don't really consider it a good substitute for a proper kneaded bread.

Re: Unhelpfully not answering your question

[firecat]

Mine has the same texture as kneaded bread.

Re: Unhelpfully not answering your question

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Well, it had the texture of some kneaded bread, I should say: slightly damp and dense. But it's not my favorite texture for bread, especially when I plan on using it for sandwiches.

Re: Unhelpfully not answering your question

[firecat]

How it comes out depends a lot on the recipe.

Re: Unhelpfully not answering your question

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Possibly! The times I've had it, it was from the original NYT Bittman recipe.

Re: Unhelpfully not answering your question

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I've tried no-knead bread, even a recipe claimed by ozarque to be bombproof, and they always come out with a really weird texture and tasting like beer.

Not an inducement, for me.

[geminigirl]

I liked mine a lot more when I was living with more people-two adults and one toddler don't eat the loaves quickly enough right now to make it worth frequent use, but I do use it on occasion...it's nice to be able to set the ingredients up and wake up to warm bread in the morning, or to put everything in and come home to fresh bread. I suspect it will get more use when there are more bread eaters in the house or the smaller people develop larger appetites.

I also like the dough only cycles-the machine does the mixing and I come back, shape and bake the bread.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

We used to have a bread machine, but the bread it made was only okay. And it was really almost as easy to put the ingredients into my standing mixer and then move 'em to the oven. So we decided it wasn't worth the counterspace and I think we gave it away. It was also annoying to clean.

I have no philosophical objection to them, of course, and if we had an easier-to-clean one that made better bread, we might have made a different decision.

[curmudgn]

I have a machine that I use regularly . . . BUT. There are drawbacks.

Getting the machine has most certainly increased breadmaking at home. I have a herniated cervical disc, and kneading is very difficult at best. The machine takes care of all that grunt work for me, and makes good-tasting bread consistently. It also lets me do things like make a home-made pizza dough that M thinks is wonderful. That's the good part.

The middle part is that you shouldn't expect perfect bread first rattle out of the box. Even using the recipes provided with the owner's manual, you'll find that you need to experiment to discover the sweet spot that produces consistently good results. You may even, as I did, find that a few of the manufacturer's recipes just won't work for you, no matter what you do with it.

The bad part starts with my machine being out of production; indeed, the company got out of the bread-machine business entirely several years ago, so if something breaks, then I better hope I can find a dealer with NOS parts someplace. (I could use a new bucket and paddle right now, and have been limping along with the current one, 'cos of the difficulties in finding parts.) Probably I'll keep using this one until something breaks that I can't fix, and then I'll replace it with a current model.

If you go ahead with the plan (and overall, I'd say it's worth going ahead with) do your research first with some place like Consumer's Union, to avoid getting a maker that looks great on the box but doesn't deliver.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Hand-kneading dough is so therapeutic to me that I've never considered a bread machine (although I do mix my bread dough in the stand mixer now). But people I know who have them, *love* them. So this is a vote for.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Generic flour can work, but the quality for breadmaking does depend on the quality of the gluten (and I expect it is awkward for those on gluten-free diets), and that does vary. Flour specifically for breadmaking is a safer bet. Full mixes are good too, just add water.

Hand baking, you can learn how to allow for the variations between batches of flour. These machines don't have that flexibility. That's what you're paying for with flours labelled as suitable for these machines.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

One of the things I like best about fresh bread is the crust - and bread machines are always disappointing in that department.

I find that baking my own is pretty quick and unproblematic - it takes about ten minutes actual work spread over a much longer time. I'm a very lazy breadmaker - throw things into a bowl, mix, let stand in a warm place, dump on tray, bake. And, y'know, it turns out fine, so all the stuff about feeding the yeast and second rising _might_ add to the experience (it didn't when I tried it), but I haven't found them necessary.

[boubabe.livejournal.com]

I have a bread maker, but I prefer to make it by hand. I use the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes book:

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

It's incredibly easy and makes beautiful, tasty breads.

[janetl.livejournal.com]

I had a bread machine, and gave it to Goodwill. I didn't think the bread was all that good -- I like a crisp crust. The deal-breaker, though, was that the deep sound of the motor frightened one of my cats and caused him to spray.
I'd definitely try the no-knead recipe before getting a bread machine. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?ref=dining

[namedphoenix.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love my bread maker when I use it. My favorite is the crusty bread it makes. You don't get all the fun shapes and stuff from the other loaves of bread, but I've loved all but the pumpkin bread I attempted to make. It was to liquidy and well, it was kind of disasterous, but that was my fault.

Every other bread made from it has been beyond perfect. It's the DAK Auto bakery, and it was given to my mom some 15 years ago for she and I to have as a present. Instead, she gave it to me unopened when I moved into my first apartment 6 years ago. So it was brand new, but a really old model - and works perfectly. In the move to my house last year, I lost a box of kitchen stuff which included the instructions/recipe book.

[timill]

Does this help?

[namedphoenix.livejournal.com]

You are the BEST! I can't tell you how happy this makes me. Also, the picture you have of your cat is the same as my cat looks on top of the cabinets right now.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Get the kind with components that can go in the dishwasher. You do NOT want to be scrubbing dough off the components by hand.

It's been so long since I had one that I've forgotten what the brand was. It made nice bread, but see above re: clean-up.

[laurent-atl.livejournal.com]

i used to have one and i did not really like it:
-it takes room on the counter
-your bread has no decent crust
-it does save you some time when baking bread but the time you save is the fun part of bread making, i.e. needing the dough.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I had one many years ago and it was too hard to clean (plus there was a hole for the beater in the middle of the end of the bread) and when I complained, a friend bought it from me. Since then, I've bought loaves of bread from the store and frozen half of it until I finish the first half.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I'm really puzzled by the comments about cleanup. I've never had to clean mine, not in the sense of a dishwasher or scrubbing it with soap. It gets a little crust around the beater, but it's baked so I can break it off easily by hand, and then just wipe it and the rest of the baking container with a paper towel.

[namedphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's basically how I deal with it. I've never seen "modern" breadmakers with machine washable parts, and stuff. Only when the pumpkin bread exploded in it's goopiness (I should have listened to myself) have I ever had problems with it.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Now I'm becoming nervous about having to replace mine if it ever breaks. Paddles getting stuck in the bread? Trouble cleaning it? No crust? Mine makes delicious brown crust, apparently I have some miracle of Welbilt-ness or something...

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I think I was an early adopter. I had to get bits of crust out of a cylinder that didn't come out of the machine, plus get the beater out of the loaf without destroying it and then washing that at the sink. It was just more than I thought was worth.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

I inherited one from my parents - old, paddle baked into bread, and the loaf is a cylinder that cuts into rounds that are just a bit too big for reasonable sandwiches, and a bit too small if cut in half. I tend to use it in spurts when I remember to - I love to have the fresh, hot bread, and I would just not have the time to knead-let rest-knead-let rise-bake from scratch. It *is* somewhat large (we call it "R2" after R2-D2) but it also stores on the floor just fine.

I've generally just dumped unsifted all-purpose flour into it and have been generally happy with the results. I have considered upgrading to one of the newer ones that makes loaf-shaped bread, because I've thought I would get more use out of it.

Also, I think most of them can be programmed to just handle the kneading, resting and rising. So you can set it to make the dough, come back later, and make a nice shaped loaf on a baking stone (or whatever). That might be a nice time/quality compromise for a hardworking foodie. :)

Random Answer

[(Anonymous)]

Here in order of importance are the three electric kitchen thingies I couldn't live without:
1. stand mixer with 2nd bowl
2. reliable electric frying pan
3. food processor

And items that make life better (assuming you have a toaster and a waffle iron):
- rice cooker
- coffee/spice grinder
- yogurt maker

I don't have one but the new programmable slow cookers look to make it possible for a yummy dinner to be ready when you drag yourself home in the evening.

[shandra.livejournal.com]

I love mine, but you do have to be flexible on certain things like shape and crust (my machine has crust settings, but sometimes the bread rises a bit too much and therefore doesn't get crispy on top).

The paddles (mine has two) do end up in the bread sometimes. I just pull them out and it doesn't bother me. Breadmaker bread does go stale faster but this is a reason to make bread pudding or french onion soup.

I played around with our breadmaker's official recipes to develop my own and that took a bit.

Now I can put a bean soup in the crockpot and set up the breadmaker and go to work and come home to fresh bread and soup. It's like having a personal chef. ;)

[shandra.livejournal.com]

Oh and this is mine: http://www.zojirushi.com/ourproducts/breadmakers/bbcc_x20.html - it's a great machine but I'm not sure I'd recommend throwing the money at it if you're not sure you like bread machines /at all/; I'd look to borrow one or find one second hand and see if you like the concept.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

My husband has recently been making this amazing no-knead bread with these astonishing crusts. He uses a dutch oven for them. I think it takes about as much prep as a breadmaker, but is a lot more like the artesenal breads. Our breadmaker languishes.

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

I do both the no-knead and the bread machine breads. Both are wonderful.

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

I love my bread machine, and yes, it's easy. I can give you dozens of recipes (tried and true) for any imaginable wheat-based bread. We bake all our bread now.

(I have a top-of-the-line Zojirushi, which is quite dear, but it was a gift from stonebender. Most of the time, we knead in the machine and bake in the oven, but it does fine baking in the machine, too.)

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

We had one at one time. I didn't use it. okoshun used it once or twice. The problem with it seemed to be that it had a paddle thingy that stuck in the bread and left a big hole when the bread was made. It seemed to me that this must be addressed somewhere, but I never got around to checking if it was while we still owned the device. All in all, it basically consumed a few cubic feet of our limited space for a decade or so in exchange for about a loaf and a half of mediocre bread.

[bosssio.livejournal.com]

I love my breadmachine. Actually, I would love a new one, but I love having a bread machine. I make a lot of bread, and my kids eat better quality bread than they would if we just bought it from the store. I even have a beer spent grains recipe for extra points, that I add flax seed too (and my kids LOVE it).

Fresh microwave jam with bread machine bread, and I get to feel all earthy for days.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the washing up comments; mine has the bucket & a paddle, and I've never had to do more than sponge them off.

I *adore* my bread machine, with a love that is unholy. But my kneaded bread turns out like bricks. So this is all I can do. (Have tried no-knead bread; so far has all be disastrous, but I continue experimenting. Have a dutch-oven recipe up next.)

I can share my tested bread machine recipe, if you decide in favor of the purchase. I developed it from several basic white recipes, plus Cappy's challah recipe (yes, bread machine challah). And now I just make the one loaf, over and over again.