A few years back I spent some time at a friend’s house where they had a breadmaking machine. Now I love (good) bread, but I didn’t expect that a machine that both mixed and baked the bread, all in one, could turn out really good bread, turns out I was wrong.
I still haven’t picked up a breadmaking machine of my own, but I’ve had more time for cooking lately, and with fall here in New England already, and winter just around the corner, the idea of fresh baked hot bread is becoming mighty apealing. So, anyone have the skinny on what’s hot and what’s not in the budget breadmaking machine market?
Good links/Recipies for bread?
Mmmm, the thought of some fresh hot sourdough bread is making my mouth water…
I’ve eaten decent machine-baked bread, but really for me the whole point of making bread is to get your hands in there and do it yourself. There’s something timeless and ancient about the process of breadmaking by hand, and I love kneading the dough. But I work at home, which means I can start a batch in the morning and tend to it off and on during the day as needed. A bread machine would take all the fun out of it for me; if I want good bread and don’t have time to make it by hand I’d rather buy bread from a bakery.
If you can get your hand on The Bread Builders, by Dan Wing, it’s an inspiring read. Once you’ve eaten bread from naturally fermented dough, baked in a wood-fired masonry oven, it’s hard to go back.
Thanks for the book recommendation Brad. I’ll see if it’s in the Boston Public Library system.
Yeah, I’d love to have the time (on a regular basis) and brick oven to bake my own bread from scratch. However there usually just aren’t enough hours in the day to work, exercise, practice music, return email, cook the rest of the meal (so far I haven’t found an “entree machine” worth a spit), do the food shopping, and on and on. For me, using a bread machine to handle the kneeding and baking, gives me the option of making fresh bread from healthier and/or more interesting ingredients than simply buying the same old, stuff you find at the store, and leaves me more time to do what a machine can’t - make nice Risotto etc.
Besides, good like finding a kick-butt cinnamon raison bread in the local supermarket.
Ahh, no need to bother you mom dude, I just thought I’d check to see if anyone had been shopping for them lately. I can do some searching on-line for reviews and stuff.
To me, a great advantage of a machine is that–much as I enjoy the real down and dirty feel of kneading dough–I’m crap at getting yeast to do what it’s supposed to do, and often have ended up with a disappointing lump of amorphousness.
I’d much rather blame failure (and there are very few) on the machine.
We have an older Hitachi model (at least a dozen years old). Still works fine. The basic white bread recipe works quite well, but I like to go beyond that with whole grains, herbs, etc. We usually make 1-2 loaves a week.
And - important point for the lazy - it can also be used to mix and knead dough. Makes very nice pizza dough, pita, etc.
BTW - if you bake a lot, you can save a quite a bit of money buying bulk-packed live yeast (a huge bag is 6-7 dollars at Costco) rather than the individual packets. I stick the opened bag bag inside a gallon ziplock bag in the fridge and it stays good for months - and even if I end up throwing some away it is still a LOT cheaper than buying the packets.
Gotta remember to bake a loaf or two for the next SF area C & F party.
Edit/Adendum: Making real sourdough, the most important component is the starter. You can get an OK approximation with one of the pre-mixed “sourdough” kits, but if you’re willing to cultivate a starter you get a superior product, IMHO. I’ve got to get a new starter going - I had a decent one, but it went off when I was away from home for an extended period. Starters need to be divided and fed on a regular basis to keep 'em healthy - the easiest way is to get in the habit of baking sourdough once a week or so - each time, you use about half the starter and feed the rest.
http://www.consumerreports.org
Loren, do a search there on bread machines and they’ll make some recommendations. I remain stunned at how a simple machine can do an impressive job! There are WAY too many kitchen machines these days, but this is one that makes sense. Have fun.
A buddy of mine bought one for his wife for Mother’s Day and, instead of wrapping it up, he set it up the night before in the basement. Put in all the ingredients, struggled through the manual, and set it to be ready in time for breakfast. Nice silent surprise for breakfast, you’d think.
Well, in the middle of the night the thing started beeping and his wife absolutely freaked out. Woke him up in a state of terror, but when he listened the beeps were done and he couldn’t hear a thing, so he walked all over the house to investigate the source, and they went back to sleep. Well, he did, but she lay there listening intently. A while later, the machine started to make a “whir whir whir” sound which, of course, had her screaming and about to call 911. So much for the surprise.
Yeah, I’ll check CR, good idea. And I’m with you man, I’m usually not one for kitchen machinery, but like you say, it’s surprising how well these breadmachines work.
I’ve not made sourdough before, although a strong sourdough is one of my very favorite types of bread. I had read a little about it, but I’ve still got a lot to learn, both about sourdough, and bread baking in general.
We have an old hitachi too. I’d send recipes your way, but heck, you called me a geezer a few days ago. . . just kidding. I’ll send you some stuff this weekend.
We were just talking about breadmaking machines last weekend. The top seller on Amazon seems to be a Panasonic model for 119. —They even have a deal, if it’s still on, where if you buy 125 worth of kitchen stuff you get 25. off the order. This led to a little diversion trying to pick out something for $6.00. I ended up thinking the Black and Decker food chopper for 15. would be nice. Problem was since the breadmaker didn’t qualify for their usual free shipping, the additional items would have to amount to 25. to get the free shipping on them. So I ended up putting 2 foodchoppers in my cart. They seem pretty cool and I figure I could give one as a gift. …I kind of wish they would have just charged the 125 on the breadmaker but amazon very clever that way.
A lot of bread machines are crap. They get bought, get used once or twice, the bread isn’t much better than store-bought, and they aren’t used again. Check at your Goodwill to see the evidence lining the appliance section . . . shelf after shelf of almost-new bread machines.
A lot of the trouble with bread machines is the mixes you have to buy, which are also crap, although expensive crap. What good is making your own bread if it’s made with the same ingredients – stale flour and chemicals – as commercial bread?
My belief is that the whole concept of the bread machine is flawed . . . bread is a living thing. You can’t expect a living thing to develop in a machine.
I’m firmly entrenched with BradHurley and Innocent – making bread by hand is a wonderful thing. It’s restorative and redemptive. We should deliberately create time for it in our lives. Meditate and relax with it.
That being said, if I were going to buy a bread machine, I’d want expert advice. My experts on bread are the fine folks at King Arthur Flour (www.kingarthurflour.com). I have absolute, unquestioning faith in them. Their products are spectacularly good–I wouldn’t use any other kind of flour.
Here’s the link to their catalog, where you’ll find this:
The machine that won all the plaudits in the UK was the Panasonic SD253. We bought one and it makes superb bread. Shop bread is just not in the running for us any more.
All the breads I make are from scratch and with the best ingredients I can get. I tend to agree about plain white bread - though the bread machine version is better, it’s still just plain white bread.
My homemade sourdough white (when I make it) is a lot better than any commercial white bread I’ve tried. Ditto for my homemade oatmeal bread, or dried olive-onion bread, or any of the other favorites.
And there’s something addictive to waking up in the morning to the scent of just-baked bread, even if it’s the relatively plebian white loaf.
So is the flour you spend twice as much on really that much better than the local supermarket brand? I’d have to taste it to believe it. It’s all powdered wheat.
the one on amazon I’d mentioned that got the best reviews is the SD250…sounds like it might be basically the same model SteveShaw mentioned.
I’d probably get it but will be spending any disposable income on the great motorola deals the guy on the traditional instrument forum is offering now.
Great story Jef!