Bread Machines

Bird · May 27, 2007

We got to talking about baking and bread, etc. in jinman's garden thread in the Projects forum and I didn't want to completely hijack his thread, so I decided to start a new one here.

I'm wondering how many of you use bread machines, which one, and how good they are. Many years ago, we had a bread machine. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, and we can't remember just what brand it was. Anyway, we got rid of it when we became full time RVers. After we quit traveling, our daughters gave us a new bread machine that was more expensive and supposed to be better. Maybe we were just unlucky but that thing never made a single decent loaf of bread, we finally got rid of it, and we can't remember the brand of that one either.

Now I want to start making my own bread again, especially sourdough bread. I can make good bread manually and with the conventional oven, but unfortunately, I can't do much with flour without getting it all over the kitchen, so I thought maybe I'd like to have a KitchenAid stand mixer to mix and knead the dough. The cheapest one is about $200, the one I'd want is about $300, and it probably would see very little use except for bread. An alternative is a new bread machine. I've been reading what I could find on the Internet and it seems that perhaps the $200 Zojirushi machine might be the best. I'd pay that for a good one, but would sure hate to spend that much and find it wasn't much better than the ones we had in the past.

So my question is whether I should buy a KitchenAid mixer or a Zojirushi bread machine, or even some other brand of a stand mixer or bread machine. I don't want to buy both because: (1) I don't want to spend the money, and (2) we don't want to use up too much more cabinet space.

Shimon · May 27, 2007

We got a "Breadman" bread machine for our wedding and we really didn't want it. Who needs more stuff in their kitchen. Then we gave it a try and we are hooked. Works well and is easy to use. Nothing like the smell of fresh bread with minimal effort.

When we were selling our home, the real estate agent told us to bake cookies in the morning before people came to see the house. Instead we set up the bread machine before we left for work and the house sold on the first day. Some say we undersold our home...I say it was the bread machine.

mjarrels · May 27, 2007

I have a Zojiruhi rice cooker and water heater (for coffee etc). Top of the line products.

mark

MikePA · May 27, 2007

We have a Black and Decker. I just visited their site and they don't even make bread makers any more. Ours works just fine, but they do take up a lot of room. That's probably why we don't use it more than we do.

mjarrels · May 27, 2007

TIGER also makes top of the line products.

mark

turnkey4099 · May 27, 2007

On my second machine, just the cheapo brands. From my useaage (whole wheat for toast every morning) and sampling of other's over the years I would say that people used to homemade bread will never be entirely satisfied with a bread machine's output.

Harry K

Egon · May 27, 2007

I make some bread with a Bread Machine. It's not the light fluffy quality the oven makes but is usually somewhat dense. I do add a lot of stuff like nuts, dried tomatoes/fruit or seeds though. It usually east best if toasted.

My suggestion would be a cheap bread machine to mix the dough and then switch to pans and the oven for raising and baking.

We have a bakery just several hundred feet away and often wake up to the smell of 04:00 AM bread.

Heating vanilla in the oven is also used to give a pleasant baking aroma in the house.

Dozernut · May 27, 2007

We had a bread machine but got rid of it. The machine would make good bread but the crust was so tough and hard you could not eat it. We tried several recipes and suggestions with no luck. Do any of you have that problem or know what we did wrong? We would like to try another but don't want the hard crust.

reb · May 27, 2007

We have an Oster bread machine and it makes excellent bread if we get the moisture content right. The hole in the bottom from the beater is a pain, but if we remember to remove the beater after the last rise it isn't bad.

BTW, we are on our second KitchenAid mixer. It is a piece of junk compared with the first. Something has been changed lately in the manufacturing process. After a couple of years' use it has developed a loud howl, I think in the fitting at the front where the attachments are driven. There is no bearing or bushing there, it turns in the housing.

Bird · May 27, 2007

people used to homemade bread will never be entirely satisfied with a bread machine

That's what I'm afraid of.

the crust was so tough and hard

When we used a bread machine in years past, I brushed the loaves with melted butter (or margarine) as soon as I took them out of the machine. It didn't make the crust as thin and soft as most store bought bread, but it helped.

our second KitchenAid mixer. It is a piece of junk compared with the first

That concerns me a bit. I haven't talked to very many people who have a KitchenAid mixer, but I've never heard anything bad about them before. (And we just came from the home of one of my wife's nieces and I know she has one and has mentioned loving it in the past, but I didn't think to ask about it today.)