Most of the bread you can buy in our neighbourhood is full of various chemicals and tastes like it; you can get one nice white bread that’s made of (gasp!) flour, water, yeast, oil and salt, but it would be nice to have the option of brown bread, or sourdough, or whatever. In an ideal world we’d make it from scratch with our own fair hands, but time-wise, that’s not gonna happen. So we’re thinking about getting a bread-making machine.
Should we?
Which one?
How simple are they? Do you just dump in a bunch of ingredients and take out bread an hour or two later, or do you have to mix the dough and rest it and knead it and rest it again and by this time you might as well just bake it from scratch?
Do they even do sourdough, or is that a different process entirely? (Sourdough bread is the food of the gods.)
Did yours turn out to be one of those gadgets that end up in the back of a cupboard after three uses? Why?
I have a lot of bread-making-machine-related ignorance that needs fighting…
They work as advertised. You add the ingredients as per the recipe, plug it in, hit a few buttons and, viola, a few hours later you have bread. After a while you start making adjustments to the recipe to suite your tastes. Pretty soon it becomes an elaborate production, then it gets to be work, then the breadmaker goes in the cupboard only to be taken out once you’ve forgotten your recipe and what a pain it was.
Well, it’s more like three hours later, but you do just dump in the ingredients and let it do its thing. The machine mixes and kneads the dough, keeps it warm to rise, and then bakes the bread. You can set it to run overnight so you have fresh bread first thing in the morning if you prefer.
We find the shape of the loaf that comes out of the bread machine a bit akward, so I’ll sometimes set it on the “dough” setting, which does all the kneading and the first rising. Then I make the loaves or rolls or whatever it is we want, let it rise the second time if necessary, and bake the bread in the oven as usual. It’s also great for pizza dough.
We still use ours from time to time; soup and homemade bread makes a great winter meal.
Ours has a quick recipe, which makes the bread in an hour. You can also set a timer and load the ingredients in the morning and have it ready for dinner.
We usually stick to white bread, though we have tried others.
If you eat a lot of bread, they’re great. Otherwise, not so much. You forget how fast bread will mold without preservatives. But they are handy for whomping up different types and flavors of bread that you can’t buy. Mine gets used regularly to produce a pepperoni bread that makes a dyanamite sandwich bread.
Like flodnak, I use mine to knead the dough, and then I bake the bread in the oven. That way I can shape the loaf myself. Great if you use whole wheat or rye flour, which are heavier and take more effort to knead. Also makes good pasta dough.
Sourdough is easy. But you have to have the starter going in advance; it’s not spur-of-the-moment.
I had the same questions not too long ago so I scoured the Internet for opinions. It was pretty unanimous, forget the machine and make it by hand (or with mixing machine). So that’s what I did. It takes longer than plopping a Swanson’s TV dinner in the microwave for sure and at first I was somewhat intimidated but after a few tries, I had it down pat. It wasn’t so hard after all and boy does the kitchen smell good while it’s baking. The bread and rolls are fabulous even using the most basic ingredients. Did I just say “fabulous”? Oh god…
While I love my bread maker, the above illustrates the largest disadvantage for me. The freshly baked loaves are awesome, but you’ll need to consume it within a day. You can get away with chowing down on the 2nd day, but the quality is greatly diminished.
Also, unless things have changed (mine is like 10 or 11 years old), no matter what you’re going to end up with a big hole in the bottom of your bread. The stirring paddle needs to go somewhere, right?
My dad uses his all the time. Had it for darn near a decade now. Mix in ingredients, pull out cooked bread. He did play with the recipe a little to work on the texture, but nothing too bad.
For the round loaf, he made a guide for his electric knife so he can slice the bread.
Haven’t had any trouble with keeping it. Place it in the refrigerator, keeps for a few days.
My parents make a small loaf every day. For a while, it was the only kind my daughter would eat, so I made it every few days. I keep bread in the freezer anyway, so it doesn’t get stale. It’s very easy to make the bread, but I found slicing it to be a pain, and hard to get perfectly even slices. My parents use an electric bread knife.
I used one for a few years, then went to using it to knead the dough and baked it in an oven. Then went to Bittman’s no-knead and/or artisian bread in 5 minutes a day. Actually, the artisian bread in 5 minutes a day is about the same effort as a bread machine, and you have the dough in the fridge ready to go within a couple of hours.
Net net, bread machines are fine if you like that kind of bread and shape. If you really like baking bread, you’ll probably find it to be a gateway device.
Years ago I had a bread oven and I found it was OK, but the cooking in a “real” oven produced better results. So I would use the mixing features and then in its final form bake it in the oven.
You can make all sorts of things in a bread oven so don’t limit yourself
It’s easy. Add ingredients, push the button, wait 2 - 4 hours. You got bread!
Many recipes are available online.
Way cheaper than storebought.
It makes the house smell real good.
Cons:
(As Merijeek mentioned) That damn hole in the bottom of the bread.
Sometimes it is difficult to remove the finished loaf from the pan.
Getting even slices can be a challenge.
I’ve had my machine for about 15 years now and I’m glad I have it. If I’m planning to make spaghetti for supper I’ll start a loaf of Italian bread in the afternoon. If I’m going to visit a friend I can bring them a raisin/walnut bread. I can even make a pizza dough and let the machine do the kneading.
I say yes! Go for it! If you don’t use it all the time that’s okay. The times you do use it will be satisfying.
I gave one to my parents as a Christmas gift about 20 years ago. They loved it. I grew up with home made bread with my mother and grandmother kneading the dough by hand (Grandma had strong fingers despite being as old as Methuselah). My father, who avoided the kitchen like a cat does water and won’t even push a switch on the electric coffee pot to boil water, took over the operation. he said the recipes called for too much water and reduced the amount. I think after about 12 years the rubber grommets for the blades at the bottom of the mixing bowl wore out.
But that smell was delicious!
