Reader Help: Buying a bread maker

by Elsha

You guys, I've tried to make bread a few times and it turns out I'm not so good at it. I mean, the results have always been edible, but not exactly enjoyable. But I really, REALLY like fresh bread so I'm considering getting a bread maker. The thing is, I don't know anything about bread makers. I've never actually used one (although, I've seen my mom and my sister use one, does that count?) so I have literally no experience with them.

So you tell me: do you have a bread maker? Do you like it? Is there one great one out there, or do personal preferences make a big difference? Should I just suck it up and get someone to teach me how to do it by hand? Help me out guys! I need to know what bread maker I should be adding to my wish list!

Comments

[jennielynn]

I love my breadmaker, but I would recommend only using it for dough. I have found that I get much better texture and flavor when I bake the bread in an oven.

[Sharon]

I have one, and totally love it. I use it all the time. It was a hand-me-down from my grandma, however, and it's one of the first North American models that was on the market. So it's as old as the hills, but it works great (even though it's super noisy). I can't say what any of the new models are like, though, but I'd be interested in hearing too, since I'm sure this machine will eventually bite the dust.

I'm too damn lazy to do it the long way, so I really like the convenience of throwing everything into the mixer and letting it do all the hard work for me. :)

[HereWeGoAJen]

I love my breadmaker. It's just a standard one, I got it from my mom years ago. But I use it all the time. I don't love baking bread in it, so I mostly use it to mix and knead the bread and then I bake it in the oven. I also use it all the time to mix and knead homemade noodles for me.

[natalie]

Everytime I go to my MIL house she tries to push her never used before bread maker on me. She has no idea how to use it, so how would I figure it out either! Good luck, bread is so tricky to make!

[Allie]

My mother in law recently gave me her 20 year old bread maker. I was a bit intimidated by it at first but once I gave it a try I was hooked. I now make fresh homemade bread every 3 days. No more store bought bread for my family! We love it! Sandwiches and toast have never tasted so good :)

[Ashleigh]

i have a bread maker that we got as a wedding present 8 years ago. i think it's a sunbeam,and mostly i just use it to make doughs and then bake in the oven. i use it to make bagel dough, pizza dough, you name it! it's very convenient!

[Meredith K A]

You're always going to get better bread by hand than you would from a bread maker, no matter how much you spend on the bread maker. There's that finesse of how long you knead it, and letting it rise, and just the whole process, that isn't identical for every loaf, so a bread maker is never going to get it just right. That said, if you just want to bake some basic, everyday sandwich and toast bread, I think that most decent bread machines are going to give you indistinguishable results. We got ours at a thrift store for $15, and it works great! It's a Red Star (same as the company that makes yeast). It didn't have a manual with it, but it's so identical to other bread machines that it was no problem to just look up another manual online and translate it for our thrift store machine. So my advice is, if you want a bread machine, get it used!