Good breadmaker for brown bread?

thecornflake

I was looking at the Morphy Richards Fastbake one that is in Argos for £50, but a couple of reviews I read didn't rate the brown bread it produced very highly at all. As we only really eat brown bread at home, I was wondering if it would be ok or whether there is a one that would be better for making brown bread?

Lemoncurd

I find the wholemeal/brown bread from our Panasonic SD252 (now superceded by SD254 / SD255 I believe) is always great. Highly recommend it. I actually bought it two years ago on the recommendation of the Old Stylers on here, so it might be worth a look on the Old Style board. Two years on we are still using ours several times a week. Amazon seems to have one of the best prices.

thecornflake

That's a little more than I wanted to spend, I'll have to think about that one. However there's no point having one that doesn't make good brown bread.

annie-c

I've never had a fab wholemeal loaf out of my Morphy richards Fastbake except when I've used those bread mix packets which include flour improvers.

I have had more success using half and half wholemeal and brown flour. and a vit c tablet helps!

To be honest, from reading reviews, I would suggest using a mixer and baking in the oven for the best quality brown bread. The dough hook on my Kenwood Chef really gives the gluten in wholemeal flour a run for its money and the results are spectacular!

For lazy purposes I have kept my MR Fastbake and use bread mix occasionally for a similar (though fake) effect.

annie-c

Sorry, we cross posted. If you don't want to shell out a lot then you may not want to invest in a kenwood chef either, but you can get hand mixers with dough hooks that also give your bread dough a good hammering.

thecornflake

Is there a reason why it doesn't work so well with brown/wholemeal bread? I think if the white bread it produces is good enough we would probably use it, the main reason we only have wholemeal is because of the taste being so much better.

totalsolutions

Why buy a small mixer/oven when you already have those items????
You are the chef, mix in a Kenwood, place in oven.

thecornflake

I'm actually seriously thinking about the Panasonic now. I have tried baking bread by hand before, it didn't go too well and with a breadmaker the wife would be able to use it too (she's not confident in the kitchen). After reading most of what the internet has to say on the SD254 it sounds like it's the way to go, and the amount of bread we get through does justify the cost (or so I keep telling myself ).

Lemoncurd

I had the same feeling about the price of the Panasonic but was eventually convinced as I also thought there was no point in spending on something that wasn't going to do the job. We went for the non nut dispenser model to save money, you can still use the same recipes but need to listen out for the 'beep' if you want to add extra ingredients. The ingredients for a white loaf cost about 30p and wholemeal 35p so it makes a big difference to bought bread. If you were considering baking in the oven instead you need to consider the additional expense of using the oven as it's going to be a lot higher than baking in a breadmaker.

Becles

thecornflake wrote: »

I was looking at the Morphy Richards Fastbake one that is in Argos for £50, but a couple of reviews I read didn't rate the brown bread it produced very highly at all. As we only really eat brown bread at home, I was wondering if it would be ok or whether there is a one that would be better for making brown bread?

I've got that one!

Wholemeal bread isn't very good, but brown bread is fine. I make a brown loaf in it 5-6 times a week and nobody has complained about it!

I normally use Tesco brown bread flour, but Sainsburys or Hovis brown flour are good too.

thecornflake

'Tis ordered. £78 with free delivery. Can't wait. I think the family will be eating a lot of bread next week.:j