Is a bread maker a sound investment ?

[UndertheOcean]

or is it simply a waste of money.

[Duer 157099]

1. You can have mine if you come pick it up

I guess that tells you my opinion

[Patiod]

2. I guess it depends. My friends use theirs every week

have pretty much stopped buying store-bought bread. He's Romanian, and could never adjust to American bread. After tasting his "peasant" bread, I can see why. So tasty!

But so many people don't use theirs at all - have you checked Craig's List or your local Freecycle pages? I'm guessing there's lots of people like the previous poster in your area.

[grasswire]

8. do you happen to have the recipe for Romanian bread?

I would LOVE to have that. A family member visits Romania regularly for church business, and raves about the bread.

[Patiod]

12. Grasswire -- I will email my friends and see if they have one

or if the husband just sort of eyeballs it. It is absolutely amazing, which is good, because I am not a fan of most other Romanian foods I've tasted (they seem to have 3 food groups: pork, cheese, and pork)

[grasswire]

14. you forgot cabbage

:-)

Keep in mind that much of Romania is very poor and they have a short growing season.

[Patiod]

18. Of course! Cabbage!

Dan grew up very poor, but on a farm, so they were always fed, even during the darkest days of the Ceauşescus.

The typical Romanian diet is fine for people working hard on a farm with little modern equipment, burning lots of calories. But for a newly-naturalized American who does NOT work on a farm, it has led to.....Zocor!!!

[alphafemale]

3. Depends I guess.

To me, though I don't do it that often the tactile involvement of hand kneading the warm dough and watching it swell to life on the counter is a vital part of the process.

And to me, bread that comes out of a bread maker doesn't match the real thing. Though better than most store-bought preservative laced balloon bread. (Funny how most people don't seem to grasp the idea that bread staying fresh for a week or more on a counter isn't really a good thing.) :scared:

They also take up a lot of counter space, and yes they do cost quite a few pennies.

Maybe you could see if you could find a used one to try it out first. If you like it, then you could consider a larger investment if you liked it.

But I may be a bad one to give advise on such matters...I recently dropped roughly a C-note on a Turkey Deep Fryer. And there is almost no way I will ever deep fry a turkey.

But we will use it for steaming shellfish for parties a couple times a year.

And I keep having visions of how much soup or chili I could cook in the thing. The idea of what I when i would possibly need that much soup or chili has not yet occurred to me. :hi:

[PassingFair]

4. Look for one at a garage sale....

There are TONS of them available that have only
been used a few times. They usually are in the
original box with instructions.

We get a lot of use out of ours, but the desire
to bake and eat bread kind of comes and goes....

[sarge43]

5. Spend the money on a baking stone and make multi grain artisan bread

Nothing else will satisfy again.

[sammytko]

6. It depends

can you knead your own bread? Some people have problems with their hands and a bread maker can knead the dough for you. You finish the rest - rising and baking in the oven.

I didn't like the little loaves it made. I like the kneading process.

[AngryAmish]

7. No. Get a stand mixer instead.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. It's not a sound investment. It's a tool.

If you like the smell of fresh baked bread and think that you'll actually use it, a bread machine is a nifty device. Passing Fair is right though -- look for a gently used second hand one at sales or a thrift store. You'll save a bundle that way.

[HopeHoops]

10. Hell yes! You can make a loaf of bread for about 1/4 of the cost of a store-bought one.

Sometimes less. Either way, it costs a WHOLE lot less and tastes a WHOLE lot better. The boxed mixes are about the same cost as a loaf, but if you use raw ingredients (easy) it is far cheaper. Check out HungryMonster.com for some really good recipes (hundreds of them).

[Book Lover]

11. The reason why so many people use theirs only once is because they just don't make good bread

If you want to make bread, get a stand mixer for the kneading, which is more versitile anyway. If you want to put everything in a magic box and whoosh! out comes delicious bread, just forget it. Bread machines make poor bread.

[Dr Morbius]

13. There is one other slight benefit to the bread maker: your cleanup is greatly reduced.

Versus making bread the old fashioned way. I hate the clean-up part but it's part of cooking.

1. If you aren't preparing food for more than a few, skip it. Families that automatically start with two pounds of spaghetti will more likely finish the loaves when they're hot and still good.

2. If you're just intending to dabble, skip it. This is a small investment, after all.

3. If you don't like to be really precise with your cooking, skip it. Temperatures and exact amounts count for a lot when making bread in the machine, more so than by hand (when doing it by hand, one might add more flour if it is sticky. The bread machine doesn't think, and therefore won't tell you).

4. If you're in love with bread and you're a purist about it, skip it. You can make decent bread in a bread machine, my mother did all the time, but it won't ever be great.

Meanwhile, the frozen food section of your supermarket has frozen dough, and it's better than it used to be owing to improved technology in freezing. It's simple enough to take a loaf out of the freezer, allow it to rise a bit, and then cover it with Italian herbs (or sesame seeds) to make tasty fresh bread with almost no mess at all. I would allow it to rise in a bread pan and then transfer it to a large nonstick cookie sheet; slitting the top (and applying butter so it gets crusty) gets you a French bread effect. And again, you don't have flour behind the toaster and can opener.

[alphafemale]

17. Plus one rec on the frozen dough. nt

[BlueJazz]

15. Add mine and my next door Neighbor's to yours. Too much damn trouble.

:) :)

[JitterbugPerfume]

16. I like making bread the old fashioned way

There is something about kneading the dough and watching the bread rise and espeacially the yeasty smell that can not be replicated with a damn machine.

[Kali]

19. I use mine a lot

mostly for kneading but some days I am lazy and just do the loaf in there - nice for people who work - you can set it up to have fresh hot bread when you get home (or wake up - that is nice!)

but in all honesty when mine dies I doubt if I will replace it, stand mixer is next

[carlyhippy]

20. nothing beats the smell of the bread baking....

I have one, but dont' really use it much. If you make homemade bread regularly by hand, it's a lifesaver.

[noamnety]

21. another depends

depends on your current level of cooking interest and skills. I used mine a fair amount when I was working an insane amount of hours. It is handy to dump the ingredients in and end up with a decent loaf of bread. I used it a lot for pizza dough, too - I could come home from work, put it on the quick bread cycle, and interrupt it an hour into that and turn it into a pizza crust.

I recently upgraded to a stand mixer and ended up putting the bread machine away in a cupboard. The bread maker has advantages for dough, I have a hard time getting the stand mixer to mix all the ingredients as well as the bread maker did. But in the end I was pulling the bread machine dough and baking in the oven on a stone anyway, because the machine doesn't make a great crust.

If you don't do a lot of baking from scratch get a used bread machine because it's a step up from store bought at a cheaper price with no effort. If you enjoy spending the time cooking, get a decent stand mixer.

[ohheckyeah]

22. I bought one, used it once and

gave it away.

The bread was too fluffy or something. I make it the old fashion way now.

[ElboRuum]

23. Only if you intend to actually make bread...

...and not put it on a shelf or shove it in a closet like most people who buy one do.

[struggle4progress]

24. Bread's really not hard to make. Start some yeast, mix it into some

flour and water, knead it, let it rise, punch it down and shape into loaves, let it rise again, and bake it

Might be three or four hours, start to finish -- but total work time can't be more than twenty or twenty five minutes, plus clean up

Two maybe slightly tricky parts: knead enough but not too much, and shaping the loaves (bit of experience helps)

I wouldn't buy a gadget for it: I have enough clutter

[old mark]

25. I'm too lazy even for a bread machine - I buy frozen raw loaves of bread,

bake it at home - the supermarkets sell them for under a dollar a loaf in bags of 5 or so in the freezer case. The whole wheat or French bread is great. Let it thaw and rise over night, bake it first thing in the morning for breakfast with tea and fruit and cheese....


mark

[Skip Intro]

26. Would rather have a George Foreman grill thing...nt

[OffWithTheirHeads]

27. Spend your money on a copy of The Bread Bakers Apprentice

It will change your life.

I had a bread machine. It spent most of it's time taking up space on the counter. It made bread, sort of. I gave it away.

but...

I really wanted to make home made bread. I loved the smell and the whole process seemed so, I don't know, old world? natural? And let's face it, supermarket bread sucks!

Then I stumbled upon the Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Now, baking bread is one of my favorite things to do. And when your grandson says "This is the most awesome bread I've ever tasted" it kinda makes your day.

It will blow your mind what flavor can be produced by a simple combination of flour, water, yeast and salt. No preservatives, no high fructose corn crap. Just good stuff.

I have to tell you though that this book has produced a cult following of the likes of Julie and Julia. Many blogs are devoted to nothing but this book.

For a taste of what others are doing in this area check out The Fresh Loaf website http://www.thefreshloaf.com/. More info than you need. I should warn you that most serious home bread makers don't so much measure ingredients, they weigh them in. For example, 3 1/2 cups of flour = 16 oz so don't be intimidated, just get a kitchen scale. This is done for accuracy because your "cup" of flour may not be the same as my "cup of flour but your 4.5 oz will be the same as my 4.5 oz.

Enjoy! And don't feel bad when you walk through the baked goods section of the supermarket with your nose in the air and the knowledge that you can make it way mo betta and a lot cheaper.

[Auggie]

28. +1000

I don't have that book (yet) but I know Reinhart and I make his pizza dough. :thumbsup: