Funny this one should crop up as I had a play with my mother's machine this week end. Hers is a Morphy Richards. It took me 3 attempts (juggling the quantities a bit and discovering the 1st yeast I used was no good) to get what I wanted but the 3rd loaf was just about right.

The complaints I have are this only makes a 1 1/2lb loaf - I'd prefer a 2lb loaf and the stiring thing tends to stick to the spindle and be hard to get off. Also, I'm not sure - do they all just have preset programs or do some allow some degree of manual control? - maybe they don't need it.

The good side is I like it. You can get a great loaf for very little effort and I think once you have worked out the balance of ingredients to be as you want them (I find the white loaf my mum bakes strictly to the book recipe too sweet for example), it should be easy to get consistent results.

Jon