Bread Machines

[Tdog]

Bird,

I make all our bread using a Breadman Pro. We've been making our own bread for a little over 7 years. Usually make a loaf a week or so. I've got the recipe down to a point where I can throw a batch together in 10 - 15 minutes, set the machine & go to bed, knowing what the house will smell like when I wake up the next morning. And, it is soooo much better than store bought. We usually just make white bread, but occasionally whole wheat.
We started out using a Black & Decker years ago, but like this machine much better. The loaf almost looks like a real loaf, much more attractive than the B & D breadmaker.

My wife used to make bread using her Kitchen Aid mixer, something I bought her ~~15+ years ago. She stopped making bread when I started using the bread machine - - we think it is just as good & LOTS less work. Plus, it is very easy set up ahead of time.

Jack

 

[MossRoad]

We have a Phillips brand breadmaker, model HL5231. I don't think they make them anymore. It works great, however. We buy the packaged mixes and use them. Never tried any home made recipes.

 

[Jim_Fisher]

Bird,

Seems to me that the bread machines make excellent dough but tend to fall short when baking the loaf.

I use one of the cheaper Oster machines (about $30 at Walmart) to mix the dough using the dough cycle and then knead it by hand and bake it in the oven.

Around 12 ounces of water (flour is drier in the winter - you will learn to adjust for the season) warmed slightly in the microwave. A pat of butter, 4 cups of Occident bread flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon and a half of salt, and a teaspoon and a half of Red Star bread machine yeast placed in a hole in the middle of the flour. Let the machine run the full dough cycle, then knead the dough on a floured board. Shape it into a loaf and let it rise in a slightly warm oven until it doubles in size. Bake it for a half hour at 375 on a pizza stone and let it cool on a rack.

You can also divide the dough and make several smaller spherical loaves. Cut the tops out so that you have hollow bread bowls and serve hot soup in them.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I dont like american bread and I bake czech style bread (loafes) four times or five times per month. I use KitchenAid mixer, the biggest one I could find and mix the dough from 8 cups of flour. So far - doing it for 6 years now - the mixer is holding well, except where the head attaches to the base I had to tighten the screws twice or so.

We tried the bread machine, but we never really liked the result, my bread is much better than what the bread machine can create.

 

[Egon]

So I baked a loaf of bread using our Black & Decker Bread machine. The basic recipe is from the the ones that are in the instruction booklet. I do add some seeds etc. that do not influence the water required.

Results shown.

 

[Bird]

That bread looks good, Egon, and that's an interesting knife, too.

 

[Egon]

The Knife is made for slicing bread.

Not much of the loaf left now. Maybe a couple of slices.

 

[George2615]

We have a Magic Chef breadmaker. It does OK. A little quicker than conventional but I still prefer homemade bread from the oven. Trouble is getting the wife to bake since she is a working professional who puts in more hours a week than I do. If anything happened to her, I'd be eating beans and franks, burgers, goulash, takeout, or whatever I could put on the grill.

 

[reb]

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.)

I don't remember which site, but I have come across similar complaints about newer KitchenAid mixers.

 

[Bird]

I found on KitchenAid's website that they have lots of "refurbished" mixers in a wide assortment of models and colors. It looks like a person might get a pretty good deal buying one of those, but again, the thing that concerns me is wondering where they got so many to "refurbish" if they're really that good. However, I have a Waring Pro food slicer that I bought as a refurbished unit and I've certainly used it quite a bit and like it, so I'm not really opposed to buying refurbished.