Bread Maker - worth it?

Andy_Hamilton

Your all looking at the small picture. Mine costs 24p per white loaf including electricity but the big saving is keeping me out of the supermarkets!!

Saying you need 2 loafs (sp) per week, did you buy them together and freeze one?

The average trip to the supermarket to get milk and bread normally ends up spending around £20. Stay at home!!

After reading on here about how good the panasonic bread maker is I started looking. I found a second hand panasonic for £25 on www.adtrader.co.uk My family went mental because everyone has one in the back of a cupboard but i'm not one for stodgy home made rubbish.

I have not had a bad loaf.


I still have a look down the bread isle at asda like tonight when I got 6 cheesey bread buns for 12p.

If my bread maker went bang I would happily buy one new the next day.

Mellika

I used to make my little white rolls by hand, but then, breadmakers are unheard of in Argentina. I haven't thought about buying one yet.

Question: When you guys say you've calculated the cost of electricity for the breadmaker/oven... how do you do this?

Andy_Hamilton

Mellika wrote: »

Question: When you guys say you've calculated the cost of electricity for the breadmaker/oven... how do you do this?

With a plug in energy monitor. Mine was under £10 and if you enter your unit costs it give you a price in £

Before anyone points out it costs £10 to check the price of 5p energy used, mine is normally plugged into my fish tank which costs £19 per month just in electricity:eek: . The meter allowed me to drop the cost down from around £45 so paid for itself.

squeaky

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

I think thse figures aren't right.

Cost per loaf
SWB Flour 1,5kg is 48p, cost per loaf 16p
Yeast okay 2p
sunflower oil instead of butter (healthier) £2.98 per 3litres. Use approx 25ml so 2.5p
TOTAL 20.5p

Even the basic hovis loaf is now 96p. So this makes a difference of 75.5p per loaf.

I also use mine for pizza bases and for ciabatta bread too. And mostly I don't do regular white bread I do it with seeds, wholemeal etc as I feel like it so it's very flexible

Finally it prevents the 'nipping to the shop to get bread' phenomenon.

And you know what's in it...

And if you do as I do and get free yeast from Asda bakery and use value plain flour at 32p per pack you can reduce those costs from your total of 18p to a total of just 11p - which makes my final loaf price a mere 15p and my power meter tells me that the electricity to cook a loaf on standard is just over 5p.

JennyW_2

OMG - Yes, Yes, Yes

I got my panasonic just over a week ago and I'm a convert. Made the lovliest fruit loaf the other day and it's just so scrummy and the pizza dough is to die for.

For me it's not about making the cheapest loaf of bread at home but more that I know what's going into my bread and the control I have (less salt if I want etc) and containing nothing artificial - you cant beat that!

addictedtosoreen

sara_501 wrote: »

Forgive me the infidel but what's dough improver? what's in it? how does it work?

not sure whats in it to be honest! i dont like overly crusty loaves so the improver makes it quite soft. also makes really nice rolls.
they sell simalar at "lakeland ltd" worth a look for a better explanation also means i dont have to mess around with milk powder, butter and salt ect.
hope that helps?

sara_501

squeaky wrote: »

And if you do as I do and get free yeast from Asda bakery and use value plain flour at 32p per pack you can reduce those costs from your total of 18p to a total of just 11p - which makes my final loaf price a mere 15p and my power meter tells me that the electricity to cook a loaf on standard is just over 5p.

So you can use plain flour instead of strong white bread flour?

And how do you go about getting the free yeast? need a strategy

Andy_Hamilton

sara_501 wrote: »

So you can use plain flour instead of strong white bread flour?

And how do you go about getting the free yeast? need a strategy

I have used normal flour (one step up from smart price) and it worked fine but I know people on here have had problems with the protien/starch content.

As for free yeast, go to the bakery section, knock on the door (normally quite open to let the smell out) and ask if there is any chance some fresh yeast. If they say no then you have not lost anything. I think it's entirely down to each branch reagrding the rules for giving it away or not. My asda have never been a problem and I normally get around the size of 10 cigarettes double sealed in a bag. Half is frozen and half is kept in the fridge. When you get to the till just be prepared when the numpty is trying to scan it, before they start calling for there manager and taking ages just say it yeast which is free from the bakery.

pigpen

I usually half and half my flour..

2 cups plain flour ( tesco value)
2 cups tesco bread flour

knocks a bit more off the cost.

I love smelling it.. and the number of people that say they love coming to my house as it always smells of fresh bread or cakes or something delicious!

Biggles

If cost is an issue, why on earth buy a breadmaker?

I make mine by hand and find it very rewarding, plus you can be as flexible as you want in the recipe and the shape and type of the loaf, or choose at the last minute to turn it into loads of buns instead of one loaf etc etc. Our favourite at the moment is the flat Italian focaccia. Try that in a breadmaker! Or if you want to save on electricity, you can even make two at once and freeze one.