Bread makers. Worth it or not?

[stan the man]

I am considering buying a bread maker, mainly because I want to start making my own pizzas and I am a little too lazy to knead it myself and also too much hard work involved. I will use it to make my own bread has well but its more for kneading dough.

 

Was just wondering if someone could advise me on whether they are any good and maybe advise me on a specific machine I could buy?

 

Thanks in advance for any worthwhile responses.

 

Ash

[Moosey]

They do make very good pizza bases. I must make some again soon actually!

 

That said, we don't use it very often at all.

[Chris_Sleeps]

It's easy by hand. I made 2 bad loaves before I cracked it.

[stan the man]

What machine do you have? There are so many to chose from, some expensive, some cheap, some look good and some look ugly.

[Rupert_Baehr]

I think they're good. I've got a Cuisinart in the US (I don't know whether they're available in the UK) and a Morphy-Richards that I use in Germany.

 

If you do get one, you might want to look for one with a mixing paddle which folds flat at the end of the mixing cycle (the paddle is hinged, rotates clockwise during the mixing cycles, but just before it starts to cook rotates a couple of turns anti-clockwise and folds the paddle flat at the bottom of the loaf (instead of leaving it in the loaf) If the paddle folds, when you take the cooked loaf out of the breadmaker you don't end up with a large hole in the bottom of it.)

 

I prefer a breadmaker to an oven, because it uses less power and once the ingredients are in, you don't have to do anything to it.

[stan the man]

I think they're good. I've got a Cuisinart in the US (I don't know whether they're available in the UK) and a Morphy-Richards that I use in Germany.

 

If you do get one, you might want to look for one with a mixing paddle which folds flat at the end of the mixing cycle (the paddle is hinged, rotates clockwise during the mixing cycles, but just before it starts to cook rotates a couple of turns anti-clockwise and folds the paddle flat at the bottom of the loaf (instead of leaving it in the loaf) If the paddle folds, when you take the cooked loaf out of the breadmaker you don't end up with a large hole in the bottom of it.)

 

I prefer a breadmaker to an oven, because it uses less power and once the ingredients are in, you don't have to do anything to it.

 

 

What model morphy richards do you have?

[Ting~Tong]

We have the morphy richards fast bake bread maker, we just use it to make the dough then make bread cakes, ours makes jam aswell and got to say it was very nice.

[Rupert_Baehr]

It's a Morphy-Richards 'Fastbake ll'. Stainless steel.

 

It's about 4 years old now and I think it's been superseded.

 

This one is the nearest I could find on their website. (It's a bit better than mine ... mine doesn't have a fruit & nut dispenser - it beeps when it's time to add extras.

[kckc]

We've got the Argos Value Breadmaker...which is brilliant and cost <£30, but doesn't appear to be available now

Don't think you'd go far wrong with their Cookworks model though

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4229399/Trail/searchtext%3EBREAD+MAKER.htm

Think about the dimensions of the machine, as some can be quite large.

[GoGo_dancer]

We bought the cookworks one as a tester and it's been great. We use it at least once a week and I can't actually remember the last time we bought a loaf from the shop!