Any bread maker recommendations?


 
JohnTak

JohnTak

TVWBB All-Star
Does anyone out there use a bread machine? I love the smell of baking bread but is it worth spending $200-$300?
 
We had 2 of them. Gave them away to our local charity resale place. With a wife that can bake a truly fantastic loaf of French bread. Almost Artisan like quality I saw no need for a machine to replace her :D
 
I did it because I felt I'd rather not be bothered with another single purpose appliance and I'd rather buy a loaf than have what I felt was not nearly as good a product as what my wife turned out
 
I've thought about asking her to try it. But, I love the black steel French loaf pans she uses. Bakes a beautiful loaf. We bought them at a cooks supply store back when we first got hitched and were living in Chicago. IIRC it was a place straight out Edens Expressway up to Highland Park or near there
 
JohnTak said:
Does anyone out there use a bread machine? I love the smell of baking bread but is it worth spending $200-$300?
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I did a little research and decided to go with Zojirushi. I thought about buying one used - Facebook marketplace and Craigslist, but eventually decided to just buy new.

The one pound loaves this breadmaker produces is just right for our family.

Pizza dough is easy.

It’s around three years old and still works perfectly.

It cost around $300 if I remember correctly.

IMG_7970.jpeg


fwiw
 
John_NJ said:
I did a little research and decided to go with Zojirushi. I thought about buying one used - Facebook marketplace and Craigslist, but eventually decided to just buy new.

The one pound loaves this breadmaker produces is just right for our family.

Pizza dough is easy.

It’s around three years old and still works perfectly.

It cost around $300 if I remember correctly.

View attachment 97170


fwiw
Click to expand...
My friend bought a Zojirushi about 25 years I think when they first came out. I was blown away with the bread when we went over for dinner. I think they were the first if not in the first 5 to come out with them.
 
Joe Anshien said:
My friend bought a Zojirushi about 25 years I think when they first came out. I was blown away with the bread when we went over for dinner. I think they were the first if not in the first 5 to come out with them.
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I had never heard of that brand before researching bread makers.

When our Sanyo rice cooker finally stopped working, we bought a Zojirushi rice cooker to replace it.

That machine also does a good job.
 
I had Zojirushi rice cooker that was over 30 years old and still worked perfectly. The batteries for the clock were still good. We bought a new one because the white had turned to a dingy cream color. Amazing!
 
We've had a West Bend, very much like the one below, for close to 20 years and it still works. It does up to 2 1/2 lb loaves with the pan shown and we also have a 2-pan setup for smaller loaves. It got a lot of use the first few years until I started making sourdough by hand and baking in a Dutch oven.
Now the machine is used primarily for various rolls using the dough setting. Once the dough is finished, the rolls are hand formed, allowed to rise and baked in the oven.



1722690247076.png
 
Okey, so the recipe. Its inspired by a german book called "Brotbacken in Perfektion mit Hefe"

No idea if there are international translations.

Mind you, its a recipe for a 24h fermentation at room temperature. There will be homeopathic amounts of yeast involved. It does not have to be exactly 24h. +-4 hours is Ok. Its a bread I often do during weekdays. Prepare it the night before, and bake it for dinner. You can knead it in the 24h period for best results. But this is a minimum effort recipe, so I don't do it.

Ingredients:
500g wholewheat flour
135g whole rye flour
12g Salt
15g of vinegar
210g of Jogurt
210g of water
And 0.3g of fresh yeast. Yes, a third of a metric gramm. Form a ball of fresh yeast about the diameter of your pinky nail. That's all it needs.

Add all the ingredients, except water and yeast, to the bowl of your kitchen aid. Dissolve the little ball of yeast in a little bit of your measured water.
Start kneading.
Add yeast.
Continually add water.
Knead for 5-10 minutes, until the dough has a uniform consistency. It will be on the wet side.
Cover the bowl airtight with plastic foil for example.
Rest for 24h.

The next day, preheat your dutch oven in the oven at 250° Celsius for 30minutes. The dutch oven should be piping hot.
Take out the dutch oven, and sprinkle flour on it as non-stick.
Pour the dough in the dutch oven,
Sprinkle flour on top and put the cover on.
Bake for a total of 45minutes on 230°C. In the last 5 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven to form the crust.

This works for me, because I already own all the gadgets necessary. I do it in the winter to heat up my kitchen. Baking bread this way releases a lot of heat, but I love the results.
 
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Jonas-Switzerland said:
Okey, so the recipe. Its inspired by a german book called "Brotbacken in Perfektion mit Hefe"

No idea if there are international translations.

Mind you, its a recipe for a 24h fermentation at room temperature. There will be homeopathic amounts of yeast involved. It does not have to be exactly 24h. +-4 hours is Ok. Its a bread I often do during weekdays. Prepare it the night before, and bake it for dinner. You can knead it in the 24h period for best results. But this is a minimum effort recipe, so I don't do it.

Ingredients:
500g wholewheat flour
135g whole rye flour
12g Salt
15g of vinegar
210g of Jogurt
210g of water
And 0.3g of fresh yeast. Yes, a third of a metric gramm. Form a ball of fresh yeast about the diameter of your pinky nail. That's all it needs.

Add all the ingredients, except water and yeast, to the bowl of your kitchen aid. Dissolve the little ball of yeast in a little bit of your measured water.
Start kneading.
Add yeast.
Continually add water.
Knead for 5-10 minutes, until the dough has a uniform consistency. It will be on the wet side.
Cover the bowl airtight with plastic foil for example.
Rest for 24h.

The next day, preheat your dutch oven in the oven at 250° Celsius for 30minutes. The dutch oven should be piping hot.
Take out the dutch oven, and sprinkle flour on it as non-stick.
Pour the dough in the dutch oven,
Sprinkle flour on top and put the cover on.
Bake for a total of 45minutes on 230°C. In the last 5 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven to form the crust.

This works for me, because I already own all the gadgets necessary. I do it in the winter to heat up my kitchen. Baking bread this way releases a lot of heat, but I love the results.
Click to expand...
Seems a bit similar to "no-knead bread" popularized in the States by Jim Lahey after he studied bread making in Europe. Though this recipe looks much more interesting than Jim's basic (white) flour, water, salt, and yeast recipe. I second using a a cast iron dutch oven, but for those thinking of trying this type of bread making, make sure that your dutch oven (including its handles) can take the heat (hint: don't use a dutch oven with plastic handles). Like you, I prefer to do this kind of baking in the winter, when the heat produced by the oven aids my heat pump in keeping me warm, rather than fighting my air conditioning trying to keep me cool.

Edit: 250C is 482F, which is just a bit warmer than the 450F to 475F temperature that I bake bread at.
 
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