Do You Have a Breadmaker?

[cschin4]

I am an absolute sucker for kitchen gadgets. I am currently looking at a Cuisinart Breadmaker. I would love to make pizza dough in it along with assorted breads. Do you have a breadmaker? Is it worth getting? Do you really use it and enjoy it?

[Aleta]

I don't have one either, but I would really like to make my own bread as well. I'm a bit concerned with all the chemical additives added to food. I'm sure there are good machines out there that are reasonable. Someone told me that bagels are delicious.

[rob62521]

I bought a Cuisinart breadmachine two years ago after using a Magic Chef one for years. I wore the Magic Chef one out. I love the Cuisinart. It's a far cry from the previous one, and very easy to use. I've used it a lot since I bought it and it seems to work very well. I like the loaf size and the fact the paddle doesn't rust and is easy to get out. It has a beep to tell you when the bread is ready to bake so if you want to take the paddle out, you can do that and not have the huge hole in the bottom. If you think you would make bread, I would highly recommend it. I'm including an easy recipe I have been using that uses all purpose flour that works exceptionally well in this machine. The machine comes with a great recipe book too for bread, pizza dough, even jam!

Soft Oatmeal Bread

1 1/2 cups water (70 to 80 degreesF)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

In bread machine pan place all ingredients in the order suggested by manufacter. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color and loaf size of 2 lbs if available. Check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed. Makes one 2 pound loaf.

[rduell]

I have a Sunbeam bread maker that I got for Christmas 2 years ago. I don't use it as often as I probably would if it were actually sitting on my counter where I would remember to use it. I do love making bread in it though, when I think of it. I like putting the ingredients in and using the delay function to have warm bread when I get home from work.

[disneysteve]

We love our breadmaker, though honestly go through long stretches when it doesn't get used. Our main problem is probably the amount of counter space in our kitchen. We can't keep the breadmaker out all the time, so we tend to forget about it. Once we get it out, we will use it regularly until it gets put away for some reason and forgotten again.

Nothing better than fresh homemade bread.

[jodi]

We also use ours sporadically. I tend to make dough most (i.e. buns, rolls, stromboli, pizza dough) rather than actually using it to bake bread. I would probably never make any of these things from scratch without the breadmaker, so it's definitely a plus for us. I've had it for at least 5 years with no problems, but we only use it, on average, once a week or less. I can't recall what brand we have...and it's currently stuck back in a cupboard, or I would go look

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We have a breadmaker but we got it dirt cheap used from a friend. Love it and use it quite frequently. However it's been used less since we got the KitchenAid Stand mixer which is way more useful. We knead the dough in there and shape it and let it rise and bake in the oven instead of the bread maker. My favorite bread is milk bread. We also use the mixer for making pasta.

I think you should get the mixer and get all the attachments. We also use it for grinding meat and making ice cream. One thing I would like to have but it's really expensive is the pasta roller. Currently we have the by hand roller so we can't justify spending another $100 for the attachment. But if we didn't we would have bought it.

The ice cream is fantastic and the meat grinder is awesome. I know you asked about bread, but there is a mixer attachment specific for kneading bread.

We bought our bread maker for $25 or something less.

[threebeansalad]

I love our bread maker! We probably use it most often for pizza dough. Ours is old and VERY large-- I hear the newer models are much more compact. Sadly, our machine is actually making weird noises and sounds as though it may be on its last legs. When it finally dies, I will definitely buy another.

[gackle]

We have a West Bend bread maker and love the hot fresh bread. But since you mentioned making pizza dough, I have to let you in on a great discovery I made. For pizza dough, instead of combining ingredients from the breadmaker instructions, I use Hawaiian Sweet Bread mix with about a scoop of flour added to the mix before starting the dough cycle (makes the dough kneadable). Then follow the rest of the breadmaker instructions on how to knead it/let it rise, etc. It is enough dough to form around an entire large pizza stone and make into a pan pizza. Man is it good!

[nanamom]

i have a breadmaker and once in awhile I use it. It really isn't much more than something that takes up space. I didn't buy it it came with my DH (who rarely used it). That is a good brand of appliance but how often do you make bread. I keep mine because I keep hoping i will get inspired to make "real" bread complete with grinding the grain, I'd settle for using the grain. But realistically probably won't. Do you make bread now? Somewhere I have a great recipe for homemade pizza dough (whole wheat) that doesn't need a bread maker. but never make that either

[genmed]

I would argue for a breadmaker for me as I use mine weekly, but as posted earlier a lot of people buy them, but don't use them. It might be something worth seeing if you would use first -- make your own bread (pizza dough) or whatever first, then see if you would still want it. If you don't tend to cook from scratch generally for dinners, you'll probably find it sittig on a shelf and not worth the price.

[fairy74]

I want one really bad....

[Homebody]

I burned out my first one using it so much. I usually just made the dough and plopped it out to make rolls or calzones or pizza.

I bought a new one at our church rummage sale and have only used it once, but then the girls are all grown and gone. I followed the recipe book to make foccacia and it was really good.

[Daylily]

I wanted one but didn't want to pay for something I wasn't sure whether I'd like or not. Fortunately my parents found one at the church sale and I think they paid $6 for it.

It's okay and I use it sometimes but I am glad that I didn't spend any more than $6 on it. I can't remember the brand name but it is not the cuisinart that you are talking about.

[My English Castle]

I have a West Bend one that was purchased at a garage sale for $10.
I really like it. It makes great pizza dough, fabulous whole wheat bread and came with a good recipe book. I've found that the speciality breads featured in the recipe book make great hostess gifts too.
The foccaccia is fabulous.

[cschin4]

I have been eyeing this breadmaker for the last month. I am just one click away from getting it. But, the Zorijushi brand seems to get great reviews as well. Of course that costs even more!

[OhioMom7]

I've burned out a couple of bread machines. I probably use mine about twice a week. I don't use the bake feature I just use it to make dough that I take out and shape and bake in my oven.
I probably use the bread machine more than my Kitchen Aid.

[cschin4]

Which brand and features did you like best?

[crazymom]

I have a bread machine. I used to use it all the time to make bread. I recently had to buy a new paddle and bucket because the machine is over 10 years old. I used it a few more times, made a bad loaf, and accidentally threw out the brand-new paddle! And I have to buy another bucket in order to get the paddle, so it is now sitting in my basement and I've been using my kitchenaid mixer to make dough for bread. I don't really miss it because so often it didn't turn out good.

[trillium]

Found this:
Bread Machine Manual

While I dont use my breadmaker for bread (dunno why! - dont ask) I do use it to mix the doughs for the calzones I make.

Use a pizza dough recipe (usually whole wheat) and it turned out great!