Who here makes bread (breadmaker, not by hand)

IrishCoffee7

I'm thinking of buying a bread maker.  I just feel like it will be less processed, taste better, be healthier, etc.

So...pros and cons?  How long does it take you to throw it in the bread maker in the morning?  What is clean up like?  What is the shelf-life?  Is it cheaper than buying loaves from the store?  And are there some good-tasting but healthy recipes out there?  My big concern is finding a recipe that DH likes, that slices thinly (I'm calorie-conscious and don't want to eat huge hunks of bread!), is healthy, and doesn't fall apart when making sandwiches etc.

Also, recs on an actual brand to buy?  How much do you need to spend to get quality?

Thoughts?

MaineWifey

::lurker with a breadmaker::

 I have the emeralwear by T-fal bread maker.  

Pros - easy clean up, comes with recipes, easy set up, adjustable crust settings light or darker.  You can also supposedly make some desserts and baguettes in the machine, but I've never tried. 

Cons - The crust setting doesn't go as low as I would like so the bread always has a bit of a bite to the crust, which when I'm just making a plain PB&J or something I don't really care for. 

The kneeding paddles leave holes in the bottom of the bread.  You can take the paddles out before the baking cycle begins but you have to time it just right and be very careful not to jostle the dough too much. 

A 2.5lb loaf takes about 4 hours if I remember right to bake.  It takes about 15 minutes to get the ingredients out, measure, throw them in and put them all away for a regular white loaf.  

It took me a bit to adjust the recipes just right based on the fact that my room tempurature yeast is always slightly colder than it should be, and I have to use bottled water because the water at my hosue is so hard it messes up the loaves. 

It is cheaper to make the bread than it is to buy it. 

The shelf life however isn't all that great.  I find that it gets hard pretty quickly.  I've taken to storing it in the fridge whole, and slicing it as needed, which is kind of an annoyance when I'm in a hurry and just want to make a quick sandwhich.  Maybe with a couple kids it would get eaten fast enough, but for just the two of us I end up throwing away at least 1/4 of the loaf.    

For slicing the bread I use a bread fiddle:

 http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Woods-Adjustable-Fiddle-Cherry/dp/B0001P2HIW

 

sarahelisabethm

I have one.  I haven't used it much lately, but I'm planning to start again.

How long it takes to put together: About 10 minutes.  I recommend using the time delay feature if you aren't going to be home so you can take the bread out as soon as it's done.  If you don't, the steam will make it soggy.

Clean up: Very easy.  My bread machine's pan is non-stick.  The beater sometimes gets some bread stuck to it but if you soak it a little bit it will come off just fine.

Shelf life: I have no idea.  Bread machine loaves are pretty small and ours never lasts long enough to go bad.  However, you can freeze bread if not eating it quickly enough is a concern.

Price: Much, much cheaper than buying bread from the store.  When I buy bread I like Arnold, which is about $4 per loaf where we live.  You can buy, like, 2 whole bags of flour for that much.  And bread doesn't really have any expensive ingredients with the exception of yeast, which lasts a LONG time if you buy a jar instead of the little packets.

Good-tasting but healthy recipes: Lots.  You can buy entire cookbooks with only bread machine recipes.  I would check your local library.

I'm not sure what brand mine is.  It's actually from a thrift store and works just fine.

The thing I find most annoying about the bread machine is the little hole that it makes in the bottom of the loaf (from the beaters).  However, I find that to be a small price to pay for having homemade bread. 

MrsWindyCity

I have a breadmaker but honestly, I haven't used it in ages. I used it a bit more when I first got it but now if I make bread, I just do it the old-fashioned way (though I by no means make it as often as I should in terms of ditching store-bought bread altogether). One issue I have with breadmakers is the bread size/shape of the loaf - which you may have, too. So, you can cut slices thinly but the loaf is just so big and square-ish that you end up with really big/high pieces, if that makes sense. You can allow the bread to rise and do its thing in the maker before reshaping it and baking it in a regular oven to combat that, though.

It doesn't take long to mix in the ingredients at all and it's probably a little cheaper than the store but I haven't done the math. FWIW I have a Cuisinart and it works really well and everything - but right now it's especially great at collecting dust.  

UDscoobychick

I've done both ways (completely by hand and with a bread maker).  I've never actually baked in the bread maker, but I use BF's bread maker to make pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, etc. all the time.  It's much, much, much faster and easier than making dough by hand.  You toss the ingredients in and forget about it for 2 hours.  There's no kneading, no timing the rises, etc...it takes care of all of that for you.  It knocks almost an hour off of the process (for me) to not have to do all the mixing, kneading, etc. by hand.  I really like it, personally.  As I said, I've never baked in the bread maker because I don't usually make loaves of bread, though, so I can't speak to that.

aamadore

While it was nice to have in theory, the big con was having no space to keep it, so I had to keep bringing it in and out of the closet which became old real quick.  Therefore, I stopped using it.  We just got rid of it a few months ago. I also had trouble keeping the bread fresh.

IrishCoffee7

Thanks for the responses ladies .