Which is the best home breadmaker?

Soapy955

I bought a Morphy Richards and found the bread to be very doughy/cakey textured and not all that nice. I have since bought a Panasonic and although it was a bit more money, I think you get what you pay for.
The bread from the Panasonic is light and more-ish! Absolutely gorgeous!

So I'd suggest waiting a while to buy a more expensive machine as it will definitely be worth it in the long run.
I gave up using my Morphy Richards and went back to buying loaves but haven't bought a loaf of bread since owning my Panasonic.

Sunnyday

I`ve got the panasonic SD254, its almost three years old now and its been used every single day without fail and sometimes more than once a day.

I saved for it after reading about them and i managed to get one on special for £64.99 which i was dead chuffed with - i`ve since seen the same one for less than £50 when currys were selling off the old models, they seem to come up every so often on Amazon too if you`re prepared to wait.

I`ve not bought shop made bread since and its saved us a fortune, it goes on at night as we get cheaper electricity then so we wake to the wonderful smell of fresh bread.

It gets used for bread - the recipe booklet has loads of recipes, pizza dough, and my all time favourite sun dried tomato and parmesan bread.

The last recipe was from the booklet in my old breadmaker which was absolutely pants and went to a freecycler - i did warn her but she still wanted it.

I can`t recommend my Panny highly enough as i just don`t have the time to make it by hand.

HTH

SD

westsider

Hi There,
We've had breadmakers for the last ten years or more and make a loaf every other day on average, in fact we have two machines - one of which has a seed and nut dispenser (which wasn't available when we bought our first machine). Friends have sampled our bread on many occasions and without exception are extremely complimentary. Often they go away and tell us shortly afterwards that they have bought breadmakers. But, the only friends that seem to succeed and stick with breadmaking are the ones that have (like us) bought Panasonic machines. If you could possibly delay your purchase until you could afford a Panasonic machine I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed.

Swan_2

the ones £50 & under just aren't going to give you decent bread I had a Morphy Richards Fastbake & the bread was always 'cakey'

then I had a Panasonic SD255 & the difference was like day & night, from dense & doughy, to proper light & tasty 'bready' bread


I now have the Kenwood450 which makes bread every bit as good as the Panny, but has quite a few nice additional features that the Panny doesn't, & it's better-looking


unfortunately you're unlikely to get any of the better machines for less than £80-odd, but personally I'd wait till I'd saved a bit more, it's definitely worth it

Celyn

Wanting a breadmaker but wanting a cheap one, I reasoned that breadmakers are exactly the sort of thing that people often get (either by choice or as a present) and find that they never actually use so I got a second hand one from Ebay (Panasonic SD251, so an old-ish model now), and it is fine and very good. No problems so far and it is also very forgiving when I play at just guessing quantities for either bread or cakes. I think it can make jam too but have not tried that.

AND it just said "eep eep eep", meaning it has a cake ready for me, so I'm off to the kitchen to investigate.

Very pleased with it so far and glad I bought it. I doubt if it works out cheaper than the VERY cheap supermarket "value" bread, but it's cheaper than any other type and less hassle than going to the shop.

Celyn

Leviathan2009 wrote: »

... I would prefer one that can switch on during the nights so I can wake up to the smell of bread first thing.

I somehow think that they can all do the timed operation thing so as to bake bread at night, BUT if you had one that did not, couldn't you get round that by using a timer plug?

zippychick

As this has dropped down the OS board, I've merged it with a thread discussing which breadmaker to buy

good luck
Zip

Sui_Generis

Soapy955 wrote: »

I think you get what you pay for.
The bread from the Panasonic is light and more-ish! Absolutely gorgeous!

So I'd suggest waiting a while to buy a more expensive machine as it will definitely be worth it in the long run.

westsider wrote: »

But, the only friends that seem to succeed and stick with breadmaking are the ones that have (like us) bought Panasonic machines. If you could possibly delay your purchase until you could afford a Panasonic machine I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed.

Swan wrote: »

the ones £50 & under just aren't going to give you decent bread

I couldn't disagree with you all more. I have a £23.46 Argos model and as you'll see from the post on 11/10 I have just completed a year of not buying bread. I think if you fail with a BM then you have to vary the recipe to find one that works that you like. I usually make either part granary loaves, French white or fruit loaves and they are delicious and praised by all who eat them. I expect to "upgrade" mine eventually but only to get one that makes cakes.

Swan_2

Sui_Generis wrote: »

I couldn't disagree with you all more. I have a £23.46 Argos model and as you'll see from the post on 11/10 I have just completed a year of not buying bread. I think if you fail with a BM then you have to vary the recipe to find one that works that you like. I usually make either part granary loaves, French white or fruit loaves and they are delicious and praised by all who eat them. I expect to "upgrade" mine eventually but only to get one that makes cakes.

I thought my Morphy Richards was great until it broke & I bought a Panasonic, which was light years better

but even better I now have the Kenwood 450, a real Rolls Royce of BM's


but when all's said & done we all like different things & have different opinions :A

Swan_2

Sui_Generis wrote: »

I couldn't disagree with you all more. I have a £23.46 Argos model and as you'll see from the post on 11/10 I have just completed a year of not buying bread. I think if you fail with a BM then you have to vary the recipe to find one that works that you like. I usually make either part granary loaves, French white or fruit loaves and they are delicious and praised by all who eat them. I expect to "upgrade" mine eventually but only to get one that makes cakes.

if you're primarily interested in a machine to make cakes, I'm not sure what any of us bread oriented people could recommend

perhaps you should start a separate thread about which breadmakers make the best cake?