Which is the best home breadmaker?

cooking-mama

Merrywidow wrote: »

:T The latest Which reports says that the Kenwood BM450 is the best bread machine by a mile that it has ever tested. I wonder what Pansonic will do to beat this?

.

I have splashed out and bought the Kenwood-450,and i can honestly say it is fantastic(my little £23 Argos cookworks one was a good starter BM and made a lovely white loaf,but wasnt too great with the cake recipes,but i would still recommend it for basic bread,and it was good for "practising with",had a couple of disasters with BM's over the last few months,but ive finaly found "The one";))
Only had the Kenwood a couple of days and already made a packet mix loaf,a light wholemeal and 2 basic white,all of which have been perfect ,quite an extensive recipe booklet supplied with BM too,and its possible to buy a round baking pan as an extra accessory.
This BM definately beats the panasonic hands down(altho a big bigger and noisier) I think its maybe the convection fan that helps with the finish giving the bread more of an oven baked texture,I can see why Lakeland now sell this one,and why WHICH voted it best ever.
PS,i got mine in Argos,where its currently £97,but i had £35 worth of vouchers collected from recent promotions,so got it for £62...and i still got another £10 voucher back in return-Bargain.(bringing it to £52 in theory)
Amazon have it for £87.49-but out of stock,they will Email you when back in...Dixons have it instock,with free delivery for 87.49 too---havent seen it cheaper anywhere else,Still £97 in Lakeland and Argos.(tho theres a free £14.99 breadmaker book with it from Lakeland)

Merrywidow

Hi cooking-mama - Well done. Mine arrived last evening from Amazon on an £87 pound deal, so I havn't had chance to test it out but I am very excited. I am so tired of the bread on offer in supermarkets and shops, tasteless cardboard. You are an old hand, so what can I do with the "Artisan" program - the book doesn't explain. The longer raising time would be good for ciabatta. I would love to hear of any favorites you have. This is my first bread machine so any tips would be appreciated. Happy baking.

csarina

I am on my second panny and can only highly recommend it. I have just upgraded to the 255 got it at John Lewis for £87.50. Its cooking a Panettone just now, smells delicious.......my old one I recycled to a chap who needed to make gluten free bread, he is over the moon with it.

Many years ago I had an Hirani???? spelling, the bread tasted of yeast, it used a sachet of dreid fastbake yeast where as the panny only used a teaspoon. The only failure I had was with a bread mix which I think really needed longer cooking........

cooking-mama

Merrywidow wrote: »

Hi cooking-mama - Well done. Mine arrived last evening from Amazon on an £87 pound deal, so I havn't had chance to test it out but I am very excited. I am so tired of the bread on offer in supermarkets and shops, tasteless cardboard. You are an old hand, so what can I do with the "Artisan" program - the book doesn't explain. The longer raising time would be good for ciabatta. I would love to hear of any favorites you have. This is my first bread machine so any tips would be appreciated. Happy baking.

Hello merrywidow,sorry,ive not got that far yet-been too busy at work,so just been doing the kinda basic recipes just now..tho i have a 1kg French loaf in the BM on timer just now--hopefully will be ready at 8am---i like the way with the timer you dont have to count down and include baking time etc when programming it,you simply put in how many hours later you want the bread ready..EG,i programmed mine at 11pm for bread i wanted at 7am-so i only had to set the machine to 8.oo,ie 8hrs later,it then calculates itself as to when to start the programme.
Im on holiday next week so planning a lot of experimentation..want to try a rustic loaf too,and a lot of the cake recipes--its great how it can do all the mixing etc too,other BM's only do the bake part.il let you know how i get on.

gettingready

Oh - here you all are, bread making specialists

Will you find a space in the corner for a beginner? Proud owner of a little Cookworks Signature which I bought at Argos for £35 last week:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4229399/Trail/searchtext%3EBREADMAKER.htm

Treis a few receipes from the enclosed booklet but the bread feel a bit hmmm rubbery kind of? Followed the receipes exactly, waited for my bread for those nearly 4 hours (how much electric does it take? :eek:) and was nto that great really...

Is it the breadmaker? Are those the receipes? Or is is me?
:rolleyes:

vickster*arsenal

Hi all. Just read the last few pages on here, but wondering if any of you have baked gluten free bread and if so, which breadmaker would you recommend?
My mum has coeliac disease, and is after a bread maker, so I said I'd do some research for her....
TIA for any advice you can give.
Vicky xx

cooking-mama

gettingready wrote: »

Oh - here you all are, bread making specialists

Will you find a space in the corner for a beginner? Proud owner of a little Cookworks Signature which I bought at Argos for £35 last week:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4229399/Trail/searchtext%3EBREADMAKER.htm

Treis a few receipes from the enclosed booklet but the bread feel a bit hmmm rubbery kind of? Followed the receipes exactly, waited for my bread for those nearly 4 hours (how much electric does it take? :eek:) and was nto that great really...

Is it the breadmaker? Are those the receipes? Or is is me?
:rolleyes:

Gettingready- Did you leave it to cool long enough before slicing?,it honestly does make a difference,i found the bread to be kinda stodgy if i tried to slice it while still warm,its best if it can be left until completely cold...I found the little cookworks one did a great white loaf,but was disappointed in wholemeal ones,if i remember correctly theres a french loaf recipe,this is the one we preferred,,In fact is there a kinda 50/50 recipe?,we realy liked that one too,I thought it was great value for money,tho I was fortunate and bought it for just £23,practised on it for a good few weeks,then upgraded to a kenwood BM450,the difference is quite unbelievable,but for a basic white loaf(or 50/50)I thought the cookworks one was realy quite good,at least as good as the panasonic SD254 id tried.
Is your water too hot or too cold?and are you putting all ingredients into the pan in the order of the recipe?? I got a recipe book from the library and found some of those recipes worked too.Oh another thing is,if you leave it too long in the pan after baking it cand become stodgy.
Vickster*arsenal,I imagine gluten free bread may be more difficult to make than usual bread,therefore i would advise buying one of the more expensive models,the main two seem to be Panasonic SD254/255 or Kenwood BM450-My particular favourite,lovely bread,and without the cakey taste/texture that some other BM's can leave.

gettingready

cooking-mama, thanks for your reply

I may be a bit guilty of slicing the bread while still warn I have to say...... hmmmmmm

Everything else I think I am doing ok - ingridients in correct quantities and in the right order etc. French is probably the best from the "white" in the booklet, that is a fact. Made wholemeal too and was not too bad - apart from that spongy feel (all the ones I have made.... so maybe the slicing 5 min after it is done LOL)

Will any other receipes work in any bread maker I wonder? I quite like breads with seeds inside or herbs etc... Hmmmm

Also, where can I but a thermometer to check the water temperature? I just use water as it comes from my water filter (not from the fridge or tap) and my water filter I would assume is at "room temperature)...

Thanks again

cooking-mama

Yes other recipes will work-might be trial and error tho-i cant remember the name of the book i got from the library,but i made a banana and chocolate layer cake in breadmaker using a recipe from another book,might be worth trying some of these other cookworks recipes too,altho i never got around trying them,so unsure how successful they may be.
http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z178/cookworks/

gettingready

Oooo - thanks for that