Back in 1999 after we were just married, we bought a Breville bread machine. We use it a lot on a fairly regular basis. It has been easy and the results have been good. The instructions are easy to follow and the recipe book covers a lot of types of bread and dough and our machine also has a jam making function.

We also use it to make pizza dough and Hubby has been perfecting the art of making sourdough bread, which is a longer and more complicated process - not for beginners, I think. I paid for him to go to a sourdough breadmaking class a few months ago and it made a lot of difference.

(The class was run by a descendant of Arnott's biscuit company which started production in Newcastle NSW, Oz in 1865, and then had a factory in my home town of Maitland. Sorry, back to the story!)

I just did a search of all Mudcat threads on "bread" because I know there was at least one discussion about bread making machines, but there are a few threads in the non-music section which are probably worth reading.

Our machine is still going strong after 23 years. It's one of the most useful appliances we own, and there is nothing quite like the smell of fresh baking bread wafting through the house. We don't always bake the bread in the machine. Sometimes we use it to make the dough and then bake the bread in the oven.