Bread Maker

www.argos.co.uk/product/5569106

I have this one, anniebach. It has a gluten free programme and is plenty big enough for the two of us.

Very easy to use.

My sister has one. She often just uses a packet mix. Pours it in before bed, and wakes up to freshly baked bread.

I bought one years ago, due to arthritic hands. I love it. I used an Aldi multigrain bread mix the other night (I keep as stash of mixes or make from scratch), as I wasn't feeling too great and couldn't face going to the shops. It was absolutely delicious.
However, it's starting to get a wee bit temperamental, so I too would welcome advice on a best buy.

I had one and couldn't get used to the hole in the bottom of the loaf left by the paddle so I gave it to my DD. She uses it for pizza dough.

Are there any which don't leave a hole in the base of the loaf?

I have an older version of the Panasonic breadmaker. It's excellent. It makes loaves in three sizes. You can also bake cakes in it.

The hole in the bottom doesn't worry me, though I suppose the paddle could be removed at the appropriate in the cycle, if you didn't mind fishing around in the dough for it.

I also have a Panasonic breadbasket, about 7 years old now, and I love it. It's my 3rd breadbasket; the previous ones were Prima and Breville and the Panasonic leaves them standing in terms of performance and eating quality of the bread.

I'll watch this thread with interest. The bread pan in my current bread maker has a leak. I cannot get a replacement as my machine is donkey's years old and no longer in available. I'm looking for a new one but the choice is huge and mind boggling. Merlot's suggestion looks good to me.

Hi,
I have a Panasonic model. You are able to select from 3 sizes of loaf, medium, large and x large. There is a gluten free option, plus many others and there is the choice of setting the machine to knead and bake or just to make dough. There is also a nut/raisin dispenser and a timer facility.
I really love it and it gets a lot of use. This my second machine in 15 years. Would highly recommend. The footprint is quite neat, too.

Thank you, merlotgran, does the dough bake in the machine as well as knead?

Yes it does. You can either put in all the ingredients, according to the little recipe book that comes with it, and set it to the gluten free programme which bakes the bread in the machine or use the same ingredients and set it to the dough cycle. When it bleeps you can spoon the dough (no extra kneading required) into a bread tin and bake it in the oven.

The Panasonic mentioned upthread is a superior machine and I bought one years ago when I was making bread for a family. When it conked out I bought this cheaper one.

I have tweaked the recipe they give you for GF bread though.

We have a bread maker hubby uses it every other day to bake bread. It's lovely getting up to the smell of freshly baked bread.
You don't need to knead the dough, hubby puts everything in and it does it all for you. We have a Panasonic,
You could freeze the bread if a large loaf is too much.

I have a Panasonic too. Lovely bread, cakes, dough etc. Don't use it much now though as I don't eat bread

I have Cuisinart CBK-100 bread maker. It's performance, durability, and ease of use is being excellent, also ease to operate. I got a great help from this link while buying my device. If you want you can check it out: foodgear.org/best-bread-maker-reviews/.

I have a panasonic bread maker. After several years of having a Morphy Richards.
I tried some bread made by a friends Panasonic and never looked back.
We bought ours on ebay, so we weren't spending money on something which might not have been worth it.
The result from the Panasonic was really good.

The wholemeal bread takes 5hrs but during that time the yeast and flour have time to develop a superb flavour which we never got from the quick bread in our Morphy Richards .

An alternative would be a machine with a dough hook, which I have. A Kenwood.
You put the ingredients into the mixing bowl, switch on the dough hook, then take out the dough, and shape into loaves.
Use loaf tins, or simple 'boules.'
Leave to rise then bake.
A little bit more work, but better result imo.
No holes in the bottom.

Another vote here for the Panasonic. However, although quite slim, it is quite deep from front to back. This is our third bread-maker and previous ones have been smaller. The pan locks into place as well - our previous ones didn't and stopped working because the pans started to lift off the spindle as the bread-maker was running. The paddle ‘hole’ is much smaller than previous machines too and the non-stick coating on the pan and paddles is second to none. I don't put any sugar in my bread and find supermarket bread too sweet. I always have different flour mixes in stock and ring the changes.

However, I haven’t tried making gluten-free bread. There are warnings in the recipe book about the differences and the recipe uses gluten free bread mix. Also, my Panasonic has many settings but I only use a few, bread loaves, fruit breads, rolls, pizzas and for baking cakes. I mainly make the smallest sized loaf as the medium and large are tall and even taller. Wholemeal breads don't rise as well so I may try a medium wholemeal loaf (just thought of this).

My model has a timer so we wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread, having put the ingredients in the pan the night before. Bread from the bread-maker doesn’t keep as well as supermarket bread, although, to be fair, it doesn't need to as it is so delicious. We cut a few slices off from time to time and freeze them for emergencies.

The Panasonic is expensive but we bought ours 4 years ago and think it has more than paid for itself.

Here, here for the Panasonic!

For you home breadmakers have you seen this bread slicing gadgets?

Nothing else gives such regular neat slices I certainly could not.
This is the best one on the market .

The design is as is said, "just simple" there is a certain knack involved but it does not take long to get it right .

simpleslice.co.uk/
I probably should not be advertising it but I have no vested interests .

My friend has one. Its nice but even though she can slice bread its so soft its hard to cut so is always much thicker than i would normally eat. Maybe thats why i put on 4 lbs over our 2 night stay. ,!!!

Must try that bread slicer nelliemoser. Whether it's shop bought or home made I have never been able to slice a loaf evenly. 'As ye cut your bread so ye live your life' my Mum used to say. What on earth did that mean?? Mind you she said lots of things that didn't make sense

Seeing this thread encouraged me to buy one and it arrived this evening. DH gets a migraine from the flour improver they put in a lot of shop bought loaves and his usual staple has started using the guilty ingredient just recently.i am itching to use it but DH says we should wrap it up for Christmas. We don’t give each other presents but the DGC get upset if they think Father Christmas has forgotten us. It is a Panasonic which lots of you seem to like, wish me luck.

I was in Lakeland at Gretna last weekend and saw THIS one. I thought it looked good, and is not too large for the worktop, although my worktops are a bit crowded.?

Go for it, Nandalot and make a loaf. You don't want your poor husband to have migraines until Christmas, do you? Once tasted, you won't want to go back to shop bread ... (and you can always wrap up a couple of paperbacks from the charity shop to go under the tree so no young people are upset!)

Wow, really pleased with the breadmaker now, three loaves in. Even made one overnight so came down to beautiful aromas this morning. DH loves the bread. Though it will be a disaster for me as I am on a perpetual slimming world diet!