White Elephant ..or Useful Healthy Option ???

Go for it! Supermarket bread is such rubbish and artisan loaves a bit expensive. Sourdough a little more work but worth it. Good luck.

Had a panasonic for the last nine years, use it most weeks, it has a timer and waking up to the smell of fresh bread is lovely.
They are quite large so would take up alot of cupboard space but you can make bread that doesn't have so many additives & less sugar and salt. Doesn't use much electric, also makes lovely dough. Occasionally I make a malted fruit loaf and bread rolls.
I've never seen one in a charity shop.

You can find instructions for just about anything on Google

Nobody has really mentioned sourdough. I used a Panasonic bread maker for years and was pleased to eat natural bread without additives. Then my daughter gave me some sourdough starter. It’s been a game changer. Yes it does take 36 hours to make a loaf but the hands on time is barely 15 minutes. I make 2 loaves every 10 days and freeze what I don’t immediately need. So healthy, so delicious! I am75 years old and don’t intend to buy bread ever again.

Hmm on balance then, I think there are more yays than nays.I'm now swaying in favour of !!

Just to add my vote for a breadmaker (Panasonic), I've had one for many years. When they visited, my grandchildren liked my bread so much that their parents have now bought one as well.

Just like others, I put the ingredients in the bread pan at night and set the timer for a loaf in the morning. We have it fresh then slice the rest and freeze it in sandwich-sized quantities.

I have also baked cakes in the breadpan.

I do not use any sugar when I make my loaves, just flour, salt, butter, water and dried yeast. I mix different flours in different proportions. I have only had one failure - I forgot to add the yeast!

Anneeba

Male? No, same husband, different make of machine 🤣

I had a different male at first

Don't we all remember the one that got away! Or that we let go! 😂

Male? No, same husband, different make of machine 🤣

Panasonic here, which I use about three times a week using wholemeal flour (Carr's is lovely and Allinson) plus mixed various seeds. Keep everything in a cupboard above it, all together, and it takes me about two minutes. Delicious and you know exactly what is in it. Easy to freeze, though it tends to get eaten. I had a different male at first, where the paddle always seemed to get stuck in the loaf. Never happens with the Panasonic.

I love my breadmaker. I’ve just started using it again after several months of not bothering and buying bread. It really is so much nicer than bought bread. I do sometimes have spells of making it by hand, but the breadmaker is so much quicker. It’s on at the moment. Bread will be ready in an hour. Mine is a Panasonic. I’ve had three, and this is definitely the best. It’s a few years old, too. I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and it was suggested that I go back to making my own bread - less sugar and olive oil instead of butter.

I had one many years ago,and I wasn't enamoured of it. I suspect they are a lot better than they used to be. My Sister in Law has one ,and she swears by it. Good luck

Definitely not a white elephant.
I love my bread maker because the bread is excellent and I know what's in it. Also, it's economical compared with anything but the basic supermarket bread. (DiL pays £4 for a loaf of bread. I say nothing.)
I live alone, so I put half the loaf in the freezer so I don't have to eat stale bread.

I go through phases. I have the recipe off by heart - I’ve made a few tweaks - eg I use far less sugar than the recipe and it literally takes 2 minutes to put everything in the pan. I buy white flour, granary flour and wholewheat and make the bread with any combination of these.
The pan is easy to clean. Only drawback the paddle sometimes sticks in the bread and causes a hole.
The biggest problem is it doesn’t last either because there’s no preservatives or it gets eaten quickly!

Mine was a Panasonic, which made lovely bread. I have never eaten much bread, but my late DH did and enjoyed “making” his own bread when he ran low.
When he died I gave it away as it would have taken too much space in the tiny flat I moved to soon after.

cc

I have a Paul Hollywood recipe for bread which you don’t knead, leave to prove overnight and then cook in a covered cast iron casserole, taking the lid off for the last few minutes to brown. It makes a lovely open textured loaf with a crisp crust that isn’t as thick as sourdough (which is too tough for me).

That sounds amazing!

I loved mine, but a bit of experimentation required to get a loaf you love.

Ziplok

Yes, you do get a hole where the paddle went, but it really doesn’t affect the slicing up of your loaf - it’s not a massive hole, it doesn’t go up the full depth of the loaf, so your bread won’t collapse into a crumbly heap 😁. It only affects a couple of the slices, really, and as I say, it’s not a huge problem. Don’t let it put you off.

It is only a large hole if you make it bigger trying to dig out a paddle which is still stuck in there, Some pans the paddle sticks in the bread, some it comes out of the bread and stays in the machine. If you know that the paddle on your machine sticks in the bread, you leave it in the pan for 10 minutes to cool a bit after taking it out of the breadmaker, then hold the pan on its side in oven gloves and shake it from bottom to top over a cooling rack. The loaf will slide out sideways and the hole will be a minimum size - just big enough to hold the paddle. I

f you dig around the paddle to get it out, you will get a lot of mangled bread and a large hole

Jeanieallergy21 We have a Panasonic. That's a good idea, thanks.

I have a Panasonic. I bought a small loaf tin that fits inside, so when I want only a small loaf I use the dough function to mix it, then take the dough out, shape it into the baking tin, then (after removing the mixing bowl and paddle) put the baking tin in the breadmaker standing on an inverted tuna fish tin and bake it using the bake function.

crazyH

It’s a white elephant for someone on their own. You can get fresh bread from the Bakery.
But a bread maker is worth every penny, if it’s for a family

We don't have a bakery nearby so we have to rely on supermarkets. We use a breadmaker because we know what ingredients are going into it.

As the for the hole left by the mixing blade, it only affects the middle slices of the loaf. We don't find it a problem. A modern breadmaker is so easy to use and you can experiment with recipes. We wouldn't be without ours and my partner's daughter has just bought one for her young family too.

I have a Paul Hollywood recipe for bread which you don’t knead, leave to prove overnight and then cook in a covered cast iron casserole, taking the lid off for the last few minutes to brown. It makes a lovely open textured loaf with a crisp crust that isn’t as thick as sourdough (which is too tough for me).

Yes, you do get a hole where the paddle went, but it really doesn’t affect the slicing up of your loaf - it’s not a massive hole, it doesn’t go up the full depth of the loaf, so your bread won’t collapse into a crumbly heap 😁. It only affects a couple of the slices, really, and as I say, it’s not a huge problem. Don’t let it put you off.

I’d suggest that you pick one up from a charity shop or on EBay rocketstop, there are always loads of good ones available.

I don’t like the hole in the bottom of the loaf that’s left by the mixing blade

Thanks for all your replies, I've found each and every one interesting, mind you, I'm still no nearer to making a decision, anyone would think I was buying a new house !!

Back to the machines, do they ALL leave big hole in the bottom of the loaf, and doesn't that make the slices fall apart ?