Breadmaker replacement

Cruixer

Hi,

I have had a cheap no brand breadmaker for over 10 years. I use it every week to mix sourdough pizza dough and on average every couple of weeks I will make a basic, yeast based loaf. I sometimes make sourdough loaves which tend to be tastier, but as a basic machine I need to wait for it to rise as it takes a lot longer than any of the programmes, then start the bake manually. 

The old machine seems to be on its last legs and I am thinking of buying a Panasonic SD-YR2550 which seems pricey even on sale at £160, but is obviously on another level to the old machine. Looks like it would probably let me set a timer to delay the bake for fresh morning bread, which would be nice. 

That's it really, wondering if anyone can recommend this model or thinks there is something better out there. I'm not under any illusions around this saving money, but I get far better bread out of it than the supermarket, and my pizza is better than anything I can buy for takeaway etc.

Thanks

flaneurs_lobster

I've got a 15yo Panasonic breadmaker, still fine but it really only gets used when a need for bread the next morning is remembered at 9:00pm. Really is of not much use for sourdough - think there's a starter warming or maybe a proving setting but I've never used it. The actual sourdough bread recipe is just using standard dried baker's yeast with some sourdough starter in there for "flavour" (bit like supermarket "sourfaux").

Been making my own sourdough bread (& pizza) for over 10 years and what I really couldn't be doing without is my KitchenAid stand mixer.

Do you have a stand mixer? If not I'd prioritise that over the breadmaker. I'm lucky in that the kitchen is large enough to give my BM counter space, if things were tighter it'd be retired.

Cruixer

Thanks. Do you mind me asking, what advantage does the stand mixer have over just using the breadmaker for making dough?

I think for sourdough overnight I could probably mix the dough, then do a bake setting with a delayed start if it allows this, but the problem with sourdough is that the rise time isn't all that predictable. The ability to do a delayed start for a yeast based bread so that its ready in the morning seems nice though. 

flaneurs_lobster

Cruixer said:

Thanks. Do you mind me asking, what advantage does the stand mixer have over just using the breadmaker for making dough?

I think for sourdough overnight I could probably mix the dough, then do a bake setting with a delayed start if it allows this, but the problem with sourdough is that the rise time isn't all that predictable. The ability to do a delayed start for a yeast based bread so that its ready in the morning seems nice though. 

No great advantage when it comes to breadmaking but, of course, a stand mixer is a general purpose machine for all those other mixing, beating, whisking, kneading er, needs. 

Maybe it's a bit "folklawish" but I like to knead my bread by eye/touch but using the mixer, I'm one of those annoying bakers who say "knead 'till it looks/feels right" that drives novices crazy. 

Get your point about the delayed start though, even my old thing does that - does require you to enter the required end time as "number of hours:minutes from now" which requires doing sums. I'm sure the user interface is a little more friendly these days, probably connects to your router and has AI smarts.

Cruixer

Thanks. To be honest I find my pizza dough turns out really well using the breadmaker as a mixer, although with sourdough pizza I tend to mix a bit then stop it, leave it a bit then let it run a full dough cycle before leaving overnight for the bulk rise. I've tried mixing/kneading by hand and hybrid approaches, but I don't think it makes a noticeable difference for me personally and as my family demand my Pizza every weekend and won't order it in restaurants every weekend, I must be doing something right! I can see that it might be different for bread and other things though, I am no where near as experienced with bread and other baking. 

Having looked at it in more detail I'm not sure about the Panasonic SD-YR2550 as it doesn't seem to allow a delay before the bake cycle, which means I wouldn't be able to do an overnight rise for sourdough. I'm surprised at this as it would seem to be a fairly basic function to be able to customise the rise time. 

millie

The Panasonic breadmakers are good. I have the SD2530 and have never had a failure I always use it on the timer overnight. There are several Facebook Groups for the Panasonic machines and you will find everything you need to know from one of those groups. I had an older panasonic before this one and it was just as good as the new one. I only changed it because I wanted one with the seed dispenser. this is the group I use

Panasonic Bread Maker Recipe Group UK & Ireland

Private group

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