I'm thinking of buying a bread making machine.

I use mine weekly, and I got it 10 years ago.

Thing is, I don’t use it to bake bread. I use it to do all the hard part of making bread. A bread machine is lovely for the mixing, kneading, and rising at a steady temperature.

I especially like it for soft-pretzel/bagel, baguette or dinner roll dough.

After mixing and first rise, you take out the dough, shape it how you want, and carry on in your oven (as if you’d done all the hard work).

I haven’t actually baked a loaf of bread in the machine since a year after I got it, but people are always asking for my pretzel and roll recipes.

Years ago, I heard that you have to buy bread making mix, that you can’t put it together like a recipe. I am not sure if that is true now.

I always felt the regular oven is way better than the bread machine. The bread machine makes good dough, but I was not happy with how it bakes. For baking I guess regular oven is the best. But bread machine does make things easier for the person new to bread making.

We had one and my EX used it for a while then it got put away. I didn’t think it was terrific bread.

I had one and used it for a while because it was a novelty. The bread wasn’t very good and I got bored with it. I think I sold it in a yard sale.

Why not make bread the old fashioned way? It will be much better.

I have one that I used for a while. It made okay bread – but not as good as that baked in the oven. It now sits on a shelf, taking up space.

I have a Breadman.

I really enjoy making bread in it. It’s quite simple – wet stuff in, then pile in the dry stuff, yeast on top, turn on. Mine even has a place where you can put in fruits or nuts or herbs to mix in to the final dough automagically. Mine has a timer, so I can set it to start the cooking cycle at a certain time so I can come home to freshly baked bread.

The worst part is waiting the 3½ hours for it to finish, haha.

Oh, and the jam cycle is awesome.

I usually add extra gluten to my breads, at least the whole-wheat breads. Makes them softer.

Do not buy one retail. They are available second hand at thrift stores for pennies on the dollar.

I have one and I love the bread they make. The ingredients make the bread, whether it’s scratch or machine. There are some great recipes out there and I made a bread with blue cheese and garlic that was heaven.

That said, I bought mine 2–4 years ago and I’ve used it maybe 6–8 times. That’s why I say not to buy one retail. At one time everyone in America had a bread machine and most of the experiences were like mine and @GoldieAV16.‘s Dust collectors. They have no resale value. Buy or borrow (you can have mine, lol) one and try it for a month. If you love it and use it all the time, then buy your dream machine.

I do think the advice to use the machine to make the dough that you bake off in your oven is sound.

WELCOME) @anniemdaffodils, BTW!

“Or is another small appliance that gets used a few times and then starts collecting dust? Bingo!

Find one on CraigsList. A lot of people buy them, then never use them. My wife, for one…

Great solution @Blueroses, making the dough in the breadmaker then baking in the oven !
Just guessing, is the crust from the oven more crisply satisfying than the countertop kind?

What do people perceive to be the differences in the qualities of the loaves?
Is there a difference because the top of the loaf in a breadmaker isn’t heated the way the sides and maybe bottom are heated in an oven?

Do you run the breadmaker several times to make several loaves then bake a batch in the oven?
If you have several loaves to bake, I’m wondering if a batch in the oven is also an energy saver over the same number of individual countertop bake cycles.
There is probably some break-even number of loaves that heating the whole volume of the oven up for a batch is worth it vs the singles.
(Or is a single loaf in the oven energy-efficient over the breadmaker for the baking phase?)

We have had several over the years, and I love them. Our bread always turns out delicious, preferable to store bought. I wonder if it depends on the quality of the ingredients, and following the directions properly.

Mine is on a shelf, I have the kind requiring pre_mix & my own is much better.

I’m a hands-on, do-it-yourself type, I have a fabulously easy recipe for no-knead bread, perfect for the complete novice, or anyone for that matter, just ask and I shall post it.

@Adagio Please do!

Yup. Let’s see that post, @Adagio.

For those that asked:

NO-KNEAD BREAD: A recipe outline

Before the advent of ‘breadmakers’, when humans baked bread, there were other quick methods for producing a good, wholesome loaf. There still are!

In a large bowl, dissolve 1 tablespoon of honey in 11/4 cups of boiling water. Add ½ cup of rolled oats and ¾ cup cold water. Stir. Sprinkle ½ tablespoon of dried yeast (not Surebake) over the surface, without stirring, and leave for 5–10 minutes, until frothy.
Stir in enough flour (see note) plus 1 tsp salt to form a dough which resembles a wet scone dough. Well oil a 1kg bread pan and spoon dough in. Smooth the surface with an oiled spatula, pulling surface edges towards the centre a little as you go. If desired, sprinkle the surface with some seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, linseed or poppyseed and press lightly onto the surface. Place in a 120F oven (if using a fan oven, do not engage the fan at this stage, or switch the oven off once it has reached the desired temperature) to rise, until the dough has reached the top of the tin and formed a slightly domed surface above it. This takes approximately 35 minutes. When risen, increase oven temperature to 370F and bake for 50 minutes. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before loosening the sides with a knife, if necessary, and sitting the loaf crosswise on top of the tin to cool.
*If using a fan oven, the final cooking time may be reduced by approximately 10 minutes. Experiment (the ultimate key to successful bread making).

Flour options:
This bread may be baked with innumerable combinations of flours and grains. To start with try ⅓ white and ⅔ wholemeal. Vary this combination and add other ingredients as you become more familiar with the process.
Other possible additions:
Try whole or ground linseeds or pumpkin seeds, sunflower seed, wheatgerm, ground millet, dried fruit and spice (makes great toast), kibbled grains. Let imagination be your guide.

Sounds good, @Adagio, but the recipe seems a little schizo. F vs. C, but K vs. #.

I have no idea what wet scone dough looks like.

There should be a baseline for flour? 1 cup or 5ish.

@ibstubro 120 F = 50 C and 370 F = 190 C we use Celsius here in New Zealand but I changed it to accommodate US bakers
The dough should look something like this
Flours vary so much but it is approximately 4-ish cups
Hope that helps : ^)

Thanks. Looking at the dough is making me hungry. It’s 11 p.m. where I am so I won’t be making any runs to the store for yeast, etc., tonight! Hubby and I have stuff going on the next 3 days, but later in the week I’m determined to pounce on this recipe. AnnieM

Recipe addendum:

the dried yeast I refer to is not the yeast used for bread makers, it is active dried yeast and looks like this

Thanks. Last time I made bread, I was wondering why it wasn’t rising. I put it in a fan oven…learned something new. I’ll try this recipe sometime this week.

Oh, and I think “fan oven” is known as “convection” in the States?