Thinking of buying a bread maker but want to know doper experiences. Do you use it at least weekly, has it been a good experience, what’s the updaide/downside, do you make multigrain bread? Favorite receipes?
I’m thinking of getting one soon. Probably to make a multigrain (hard to find here) as well as your basic white/wheat toast kind of bread. Would expect to use it at least once a week if not more often. Remember for me getting good fresh bread is not so easy…
thanks
They work pretty well, are easy to use, and make very good tasting bread. There are a lot of recipes.
Experience says that most people use theirs a lot for the first year or so, then dwindle down to the occasional loaf.
Get a model that has the ability to make pizza dough (it goes through all the steps but the baking cycle). I still use mine every now and again to make bread, but I use it a few times a month to make pizza dough.
I got one because a guy at work told me that the only problem with his new house was that the bedroom was closer to the kitchen and the smell of fresh baking bread was waking him up in the morning. He set the timer to have a loaf ready for breakfast and to make his lunch. Next time they were on sale I bought one and it was great. Set the timer for fresh baked bread in the morning. Chuck on a loaf when making soup so that you have a hot loaf when soup is made. I never stopped using mine until divorce separated me from it. I used to make sure I had all the ingredients on hand and I would make loaves on whim.
I started making loaves with fillings - dried fruit, olives, sundried tomatoes, cheese, bacon, herbs, onions, chili. They were popular snacks - just chuck it all in and when ready, rip it up and eat it.
You should have great fun and will make back the cost even if you only use it for a while.
I was a die-hard It’s Not Real Unless You Make It From Scratch gal.
Then, I broke down and got one.
It’s wonderful. My late father-in-law loved my herb bread and requested it every time we had a family dinner.
I have one in the basement on the ‘overflow kitchen gadgets’ shelf. We don’t use it much anymore although before my wife’s Atkins phase we’d use it in the winter. We’d make a big old pot of chili or split-pea, or beef stew and split the loaf between us.
Izzat bad? 
We’ve got a Cuisinart food processor that makes good pizza dough now, and I’ve occasionally taken to just making bread from scratch and not bothering with the bread maker. We got a ‘cheap’ maker that couldn’t proof a loaf to save its life…returned it for a more expensive one and it really did the trick.
Now what used to be $150 can be had for $65 or so, but I’ve got no clue how well they work. You’ll also have to experiment – in Denver’s altitude and humidity, an extra tablespoon or two of water makes the bread work out MUCH better.
Now, talk to me about home made pasta. 
I have one.
I used it for about the first 3 months. It now sits out in the garage. I still make bread, but not with the breadmaker. I prefer the “hands-on” method.
We use ours fairly regularly; wife really likes fresh bread.
We use ours at least once a week in the winter, spring & fall, but rarely in the summer. It’s about 6 years old, a Breadman Ultimate II.
We use ours mainly to make white, whole grain & rye breads, plus pizza dough and dough for rolls or foccacia which we then bake in the oven.
If the machine has a dough-only setting, you can use it for many kinds of bread, letting the machine do the mixing, kneading & rising for you, then shape the loaf yourself and bake it in the regular oven.
We rarely use the machine in the summer, for some reason.
I usually buy bread at the supermarket in the summer. Which is odd, because it’s not like the machine heats up the house or anything.
In the fall & winter we make a loaf every Sunday to have with our Sunday soup, stew or roast meat. (yes, we’re creatures of habit!)
There’s nothing nicer (in our opinion) than fresh hot buttered bread with a hearty soup or stew. MMMMM.
In spring we get cravings for salads & make interesting breads to go with them.
We make pizza dough & foccacia for mid-week dinners, mostly.
Most of my friends who own a bread machine, however, used it extensively in the first few months and now keep it in storage.
My husband and I are a bit odd, though - we don’t own any kitchen appliances we don’t use regularly. And we own quite a few of them!
HTH
Forgot upsides/downsides.
Upsides:
Downsides:
I have one. I go through spurts–it sits neglected for months unless we have pizza (it makes home made pizza pretty trouble-free), and then I use it two or three times a week for awhile, and then it sits.
The texture of breakmaker bread is different from the stuff I make by hand, and I find it much less appealing the day after it comes out of the machine. However, it’s awfully nice to have fresh bread. I usually use a book of recipes that came from Fleischmans, and they’re available on the web at http://breadworld.com/recipes/index.asp
Particularly popular here are the pizza dough (of course), and the peanut butter bread. It says not to use natural peanut butter, but I do anyway and it works out fine.
THere are tons of recipes on the web, and I’ve found it takes some experimentation and fiddling with the amounts to make it come out right–if your dough is too wet or too dry, the results aren’t very appealing. Once you mess around with it a bit, though, it’ll be fine.
As others have said, we also use ours most in the autumn and winter, but it gets trotted out occasionally for brunches in the spring and summer (I have a recipe that uses fruit jam, and it makes a nice, sweet breakfast bread - that’s the only one I use the timer for, too.) And I too find that it works best making a full 2 pound loaf - I’ve had the lopsided smaller loaves more often than not.
Here’s my little tip - it’s a pain in the butt to cut the loaves into nice even slices, so I bought an electric knife, and I cut the loaf diagonally lengthwise, then place the cut sides down on the cutting board and cut slices. I end up with nice even triangular slices. Not QUITE as easy to make sandwiches as full square slices, but much easier to handle.
I have one also and tend to use it in spurts. Mine is one of the fancier models with a timer, different loaf sizes, different types of bread, and different finishes. I find I like to prep the bread in the machine, but bake it in the oven. I usually mix two loaves of honey whole wheat at a time- there is always a neighbor standing in line for fresh bread!
The machines have a bit of a learning curve to them so if you do buy a machine, plan on making the same recipe two or three times before perfecting it to your taste and climate, etc before moving on to the next recipe.
And stock up on butter 
.
I have a breadmaker and I love it… almost too much. Left to my own devices I’ll plunk in the stuff for oh say, a sweet bread, then once it’s done eat all of it but the crust. :eek:
Not a good thing for someone who’s trying to maintain their weight.
Also, since there isn’t as many preservatives (espically if you make it from scratch and not from a kit) the bread does go stale quicker. If it’s just me, I simply can’t use up enough of the loaf in time to make it cost effective (even if I make bread pudding with the leftovers).
__
<< Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn. >>
Mrs. FtG bakes a lot. I offered many times to get her one but she thought she wouldn’t need it. Then last year she decided she had to have one (forgetting all my previous offers, of course). So I got one for a couple bucks at a yard sale. She uses it a lot. She makes her own special bread, we’re currently going thru a honey wheat bread phase (yum), and of course pizza dough.
She has found that taking it out of the machine and doing the final baking in the oven helps a lot. She still considers it a major time saver, a net $ saver, etc.
Note that you can find these at yard sales and thrift stores that have little or no use.
guess that idea made it past the sanity check. Thanks for the replies everyone and this should be in my new kitchen by the time we move at the end of the month…
I used to use mine all the time. Unfortunately, one day I threw away a loaf that had gone stale and neglected to remove the mixing paddle from the bottom of it where it had baked itself inside. :smack:
I’ve still got the thing; without the paddle it functions quite well as a place to hide candy from the children.
Ours has gone the way of our ice cream maker (to the shed).
Two $75 loaves of bread, and two $50 bowls of ice cream. :smack:
What r you, crazy?
I like mine though I don’t use it as often as I used to. For me it was more about getting very fresh bread than making my favorite kind. I’d eat it with butter or jam, I found that unless you slice it just right (mine were always too thick) it made poor sandwiches.