Bread Machines

[Bird]

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]

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]

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

mark

 

[MikePA]

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]

TIGER also makes top of the line products.

mark

 

[turnkey4099]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.)

 

[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.