Breadmakers

[indebted]

Morning!

So, as I'm wheat, gluten and cow's milk intolerant I've been eating lovely loaves from the Genius range.

However, ..... these are very expensive. £2.48 a loaf, so a coke habit would prob be cheaper pound for pound.

Considering getting a breadmaker to try and save on bread costs. Do any HPC-ers have any good or bad experiences with making your own bread?

Cheers!

[The Masked Tulip]

No, because wheat/gluten is an inflammatory and really bad for our bodies.

No, because you can buy a bread tin for under a tenner and that, and the ingredients and some receipes from Deliah's website, are all you need.

[Sledgehead]

No, because wheat/gluten is an inflammatory and really bad for our bodies.

No, because you can buy a bread tin for under a tenner and that, and the ingredients and some receipes from Deliah's website, are all you need.

Aye, but it does automate everything for you. I make bread the hard way. It takes a lot a luv. The kneeding, the proving. It all takes time. Plus there are lots of things that can impact on the results : temp, time, humidity, flour. I don't own a bread maker, but the idea of just flopping the ingredients in and letting it remove all the variables is growing in attraction. If you are intolerant, I'd think it would make a lot of sense.

[sukuinage]

We use one as bread is quite pricy in Germany. It is very easy & even the cheap machines work ok (work better with additional rising agent though). We're thinking of getting one of the Panasonic ones as you don't need the rising agent to get a good result.

[Bloo Loo]

watched a prog last night about a chap making all the ingrediants for a supermarket sandwich.

in the bread section, he left out the "improved" home made supermarket bread, and the home made traditional bread for a week. The supermarket stuff was still edible.

My comment was that the home-made stuff never lasts a day...its so tasty.

we use a breadmaker. A panasonic. very good....takes about 4 hours to throw in the stuff and have a loaf out. and its got an overnight timer so you can wake up to fresh bread smells.

[porca misèria]

Aye, but it does automate everything for you. I make bread the hard way. It takes a lot a luv. The kneeding, the proving. It all takes time. Plus there are lots of things that can impact on the results : temp, time, humidity, flour. I don't own a bread maker, but the idea of just flopping the ingredients in and letting it remove all the variables is growing in attraction. If you are intolerant, I'd think it would make a lot of sense.

Heh. Yeah, I've done that a few times, but my results ranged from pretty poor to acceptable, never a patch on a fresh granary from a good baker. So I leave it to the professionals. But if I ever get a house with kitchen space to spare, I'll contemplate getting a bread-maker.

Last time I made bread the hard way was one evening when I'd hurt my finger playing volleyball after work. Didn't realise until afterwards that the finger was actually broken (thought it was more like a stubbed toe), but kneading the dough was a pain to remember .

[gilf]

It's one of those things that people seem to have a blind spot about, when they calculate the cost they ignore the fact they paid £100 for it in the first place. Most people I know buy one and use it less than 10 times, even those that use it 50 times are still paying £1 every time the bake a loaf.

However in your case it seems to be a good idea. Regardless of the fact people buy them and use them a handful of times they do in fact make excellent bread.

[Jadoube]

Morning!

So, as I'm wheat, gluten and cow's milk intolerant I've been eating lovely loaves from the Genius range.

However, ..... these are very expensive. £2.48 a loaf, so a coke habit would prob be cheaper pound for pound.

Considering getting a breadmaker to try and save on bread costs. Do any HPC-ers have any good or bad experiences with making your own bread?

Cheers!

I have a breadmaker. Sitting hidden away in storage. It was rarely used even when readily available.

The benefit is some small time saving in the initial kneading and proving. The time saving was partly lost since the equipment required a little extra cleaning time. Initially attempts tend to be less good, until you work out how to tweak the recipes. I suspect wheat & gluten free would require more experimentation, although there's a good chance suitable recipes might be included with the machine. (Dried milk powder seemd to be a staple ingredient of most recipes that came with my breadmaker.)

My results were less attractive (taste and appearance) than making bread the old-fashioned way. Including no crust on the top of the loaf, the heat goes through the base and sides resulting in a pale appearance on top

Overall;

Yes they work, giving perfectly good results.

Yes they automate the process.

Suspect it would require regular use to provide a return on the initial equipment expenditure .

[JustYield]

It's one of those things that people seem to have a blind spot about, when they calculate the cost they ignore the fact they paid £100 for it in the first place. Most people I know buy one and use it less than 10 times, even those that use it 50 times are still paying £1 every time the bake a loaf.

However in your case it seems to be a good idea. Regardless of the fact people buy them and use them a handful of times they do in fact make excellent bread.

We've had the Panasonic 255 for 2.5 years and it gets used 4 or 5 times per week. I think we've reduced our cost per loaf by now (and bread is relatively expensive here) and we know exactly what's in the final product.

There was a thread on this topic in late 06 sometime but I can't find it with Goooooooooooogle.

[indebted]

Cheers for responses guys. Will see how much a second hand breadmaker is on ebay!!

[1888]

well worth it imo

you can do cake pizza dough and jam as well

and the difference is in the taste

my favourite is cinnamon bread with raisins

in saying all that I havent used mine since I lost

the recipe and instruction booklet

Curse ye for reminding me

[Bossybabe]

It's one of those things that people seem to have a blind spot about, when they calculate the cost they ignore the fact they paid £100 for it in the first place. Most people I know buy one and use it less than 10 times, even those that use it 50 times are still paying £1 every time the bake a loaf.

However in your case it seems to be a good idea. Regardless of the fact people buy them and use them a handful of times they do in fact make excellent bread.

I've had a breadmaker for years. Use it almost daily. Great results. Got it on Freecycle - it was an unwanted gift and cost me nowt.

[Battenberg]

We use one as bread is quite pricy in Germany. It is very easy & even the cheap machines work ok (work better with additional rising agent though). We're thinking of getting one of the Panasonic ones as you don't need the rising agent to get a good result.

I have a Panasonic too. Not sure the model but it's the one that disperses seeds etc. It's been worth every penny.

[geordieskin]

I once read that buying a bread maker is a good way to put on a stone.

[cartimandua51]

I bought a Panasonic off ebay as an experiment, without a great deal of faith. I fully expected it to end up in a back cupboard after a couple of weeks.

It's used 4 or 5 times a week and produces (almost) invariably good bread - much better than I succeeded in making myself, though I used to do it quite regularly.

Although it's not the cheapest method, if you buy the 500g Wright's ready mixed packets from the supermarket (various types - premium white, sundried tomato & parmesan, malted grain...) ALL you have to do is tip it into the breadmaker & add 320mls of water, and switch on. Three hours later an an excellent loaf of bread is ready.

Try and get one second-hand - as you can see from the above posts, not everyone likes them so you may get a virtually new one for a quarter of the new price. The charity shops that sell electrical goods (many don't) are also a good source.

I'd go along with the weight thing- for the hour before it's ready the house is full of lovely tempting smells!

[Guest X-QUORK]

Bless-ed are the breadmakers.

[The Masked Tulip]

Have to admit, having given up bread about 6 weeks back that I feel much healthier... shame really, as I enjoy a good sarnie or crusty roll with a nice burger in it...

I think the main benefit of making your own bread is control over the ingredients... the supermarkets put so much cr*p in nowadays and it is hard to get a really tasty crusty loaf or roll in most shops alas.

I understand some bread makers make rolls also?

It is worth popping over to Deliah's website as she has numerous bread receipes and several of them don't appear to require hours of kneading.