BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:34 PM

I'll repeat what I always do when this comes up: be careful where you put it. We had ours on the counter, and it "walked" off and smashed onto the floor. Watch it make bread once or twice, see which way it "walks" and then position it so it can't fall off the counter.

Alex

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:20 PM

Thanks for the additional info John and Jon.

John, your point on the mixing is well taken. We get a lot more of Karen's homemade since I bought her a Kitchen-Aid. Man, what a great machine that is!!! They don't back up to the price, but the damn things are worth every penny....SOLID piece of equipment!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:14 PM


No thread is worthy without a little strife and dissension.

Our use of the bread machine fell drastically when I got the S.O. a good counter-top mixer. Not actually a heavy duty, and corkscrews instead of real dough hooks, but I caught a Farberware on sale for about $60 (US), and it will do the heavy mixing on the dough.

Of course, if you raise this possiblility, you'll end up needing to get her both(?) - I did.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:09 PM

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

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:06 PM

I know Spaw, it has been AGES since I have had time to bake bread. I think it's time I made some time. I miss it. It's always very exciting when it works!

I have not tried the frozen bread dough but I have heard other reports that it is pretty good.

Now, just about everyone on this list knows that I think bread machines are the devil. However, I will concede that they might possibly have their good points. One, they do save time. Two, they are probably a godsend for people who have allergies to certain grains & such & can't eat regular storebought breads. Three, you have the flexibility to make whatever the hell you want. (but you have that anyway, when you make something yourself)

Justa Picker, the thing is... I have NEVER had a bread machine loaf that tasted like it was a real homebaked loaf of bread. Real homebaked bread has a certain density to it that the machines just can't seem to duplicate. A real homebaked loaf doesn't have the same kind of big fat holes in it that storebought or machine bread has.

It just ain't the same. It just ain't!

However, people that I know who have a machine love it, probably because they don't know any better. lol Anyhow, I think The Bread Machine is supposed to be pretty good. Is that the Black & Decker one? I don't know. But B&D has a good reputation, so I think you could trust anything they make.

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:06 PM


My S.O. occasionally uses her Hitachi (HB-B201) which is a fairly unexceptional machine. Like most, it makes a small loaf with a hole in the end.

The biggest benefit we've had from the thing is that the "acceptable mediocre" loaf you get out of it has prompted me to dig out the recipes and make some "real" bread - which has shamed her into doing the same occasionally.

Look for a machine that has at least two "rise" steps in the cycle. The pre-pack mixes use "fast-rising" yeast, and the makers' claim is that two rises is enough, but my favored "scratch" recipes generally use at least 3, and up to 5. Hurrying the process makes large "pores" unevenly distributed through the loaf.

My main objection to the "machine breads" is that most have the same inferior crust. Not much you can do about it - it seems to be the nature of the beast method.

Stand by for the S.O.'s rebuttal of anything I've said.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: jeffp
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 02:05 PM

Some people just don't have the time to make bread by hand all the time. Also, you need a counter at an appropriate height for kneading and shoulders that can take the strain. Another consideration is that it takes less energy to heat the relatively small volume of a bread machine versus the oven. Of course, in the winter the oven gains in this balance as it creates a nice warm spot in the house and tends to gather family and cats to its environs.

I know that we get home-baked bread more often than we would without the machine.

Additional details about the Breadman -

1 1/2 pound loaf, but they make a 2-pound model also

Loaf is a rectangular solid with square cross-section, about 6 inches by 6 inches by 10 inches long (going from imperfect memory here)

There is a hole in the bottom caused by the impeller that mixes the ingredients together. It only spoils one slice though.

When a loaf rises more than expected, you get a mushroom cap on the top that sometimes forces the lid open. No harm is done, and the "mushroom" is usually eaten by whoever takes the bread out when it's done.

The machine has a timer so you can put the ingredients in and set it to finish just before your meal.

It will never replace homemade bread, but it beats store-bought loaves, unless you go to a bakery instead of a grocery store; and even then, you just can't beat that baking bread aroma!

Hope this helps

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: MMario
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:59 PM

I have to admit - given my 'druthers' I would make bread by hand - and usually I make bread when I really need to knead, pummel, etc. But the bread maker comes in handy in that with it, I'm not the only one in the house who bakes bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:55 PM

Yeah, don't people just make bread with their hands? Why would anyone design a machine to do it?

Oh...to make money...oh, yeah...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: kendall
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:52 PM

Save your money. Your local super market sells raw frozen bread dough that is every bit as good, and, it is a hellava lot cheaper.

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:42 PM

See Kim, that's the way Karen feels too and she likes doing it.....Unfortunately it's not as often as either of us would like. We haven't seen one yet that could really do what either of us would consider "good homemade bread."

Any more details folks? Loaf shape, taste?

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:32 PM

Your SO already has a breadmaker - a pair of hands. :-) They make bread far superior than any loaf made by a machine.

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: alanww
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:21 PM

Try the Panasonic top of the range. Mine is an SD-206 (I think it was approx £150 in the UK but no doubt it would be half that in the USA). It produces great bread and I use it several times a week!

Round goes the wheel of fortune ...
Alan

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:16 PM

I'm interested here too JP. Karen has never expressed any interest in one because 1)she makes outstanding bread, and ejoys it, and 2) Neither of us have ever found one that anybody else was using that we liked!

We both love homemade bread (far too much) and would probably ise a bread machine that made GOOD bread, especially bread that looked like bread! So many of the things make wacky shaped loaves or have a big hole up through the loaf. I know it's partly the recipe and all, but I'd like to hear the comments by people who actually believe they know of some that make reasonably good bread.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: jeffp
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:14 PM

My wife has a Breadman - 1 1/2 pound capacity. She loves it and so do I - we get homemade bread more often this way.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: MMario
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:11 PM

we have a 'NoName' - and since the first two paddles broke - haven't had any problems with it. But getting those spare parts was murder!

Subject: Absolute BS - Bread-Makers
From: Justa Picker
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:06 PM

Yes, I could go to consumer report online websites, but I'd like opinions from Mudcatters who have bread-makers, as to which is the best, and most reliable.

My S.O. has informed me she would like a bread-maker for Christmas, and so I begin my research as I do with any purchase. Price is not an issue. I want something really good, and considered the best in its class and something long lasting and not prone to breaking down or requiring a lot of maintenance. Any 'Catters who own bread-makers, tell me what you have and why and how much you love it. (Friends have suggested the Black and Decker.) Thoughts? And my thanks in advance to those that respond. (The rest of you, just ignore this thread.)