Recommend me a bread maker?

[wiigirl]

I am looking for an automatice bread maker for around $100-$175. My main goal is to make different kinds of sweet and savory breads along with plain sandwich bread. I have been looking online and I see reviews and there is always that one or two review that says that the model I am looking at is horrible.

Does anyone have one that they just love?

 

[lizabu]

I have a bread maker that I got a goodwill and it works great. I just wanted to mention goodwill because I never fail to see at least one there. Sometimes new in the box. People buy them or get them as gifts and they are so big to store and most people hardly use them. You can get one for a steal. I'm not convinced one is better than the other. My mom has a different model than I do and her came from GW too and it works fine. With it being right after Xmas my guess is you are likely to find lots of them out there.

 

[Northernlites]

Black and Decker is the best, mine is 10 years in and still going strong, you can get it on amazon for $50

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Zojirushi

 

[Swimalie]

Zojirushi

Second this! We are on our 2nd bread maker in 15 years and the Zojirushi is the best. We make bread about once a week and this one is so worth it.

 

[DawnM]

My Zo is over 10 years old.

I would love a new one that makes larger loaves and makes them in loaf shape, but can't justify the expense since I already have one.

Dawn

Zojirushi

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We have a Cuisinart breadmaker. Absolutely love it. We make GF bread in ours. While it has a GF setting we dont use it for our bread mixes. The white bread setting is what most of the GF bread mixes call for. It also has great reviews. We bought it through Amazon.

 

[nancycg56]

I have a Zojirushi and just love it! I use it all the time and have never been disappointed

 

[Gigi22]

Just purchased a Zojirushi a couple of weeks ago, from Amazon. Price was good. It has taken me one or two tries to get onto how all the features work, but I like the bread it produces. So does DH. One of the things I have had to adjust to is the Quick setting. I have to buy Bread Machine flour for this machine, not all purpose (could be the high gluten in our Canadian flour).

 

[North of Mouse]

I am looking for an automatice bread maker for around $100-$175. My main goal is to make different kinds of sweet and savory breads along with plain sandwich bread. I have been looking online and I see reviews and there is always that one or two review that says that the model I am looking at is horrible.

Does anyone have one that they just love?

I'm sure you will find bad reviews about *any* breadmakers out there, because there will be *lemons* in any appliance usually.

Case in point - I had a Zojirushi, and hated it, was absolutely horrible from the get go, returned it, but so many other people love it.

I have had a Breadman Ultimate for several years and it has been a good machine.

Good luck! You'll just have to choose one, try it, but make sure they have a good return policy!

 

[tlkgt76]

I am looking for an automatice bread maker for around $100-$175. My main goal is to make different kinds of sweet and savory breads along with plain sandwich bread. I have been looking online and I see reviews and there is always that one or two review that says that the model I am looking at is horrible.

Does anyone have one that they just love?

Around here they sell at Goodwill for around $5 and you can tell most were either never used or only used once.

 

[pjlla]

Making bread from scratch isn't really that hard or time consuming. Bread makers are HUGE and take up a great deal of counter/cupboard space. If you have a good mixer with a bread hook you may want to think twice about this.

That being said, I do have one that was a gift from my MIL many years ago. I was convinced I would NEVER use it, but I did when the kids were little and we weren't eating as few carbs as we do now. It is quick and easy, but doesn't make a very big loaf and the mixing paddle makes a huge dent/hole in the bottom of the loaf, making it not ideal for sandwich slices at the bottom.

Mine is a Toastmaster "Bread Box", at least 10 years old. I used to love the idea of setting a stew to cook in the crockpot and bread to bake in the bread machine and coming home to a fully cooked warm meal with very little work! .....P

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I love making bread from scratch, too, when I have time. Especially baguettes. It's not too labor intensive with a food processor or a stand mixer but it does involve time for rising. I use the bread machine so when I arrive home from work there will be fresh bread waiting to go along with whatever dinner I make.

Making bread from scratch isn't really that hard or time consuming. Bread makers are HUGE and take up a great deal of counter/cupboard space. If you have a good mixer with a bread hook you may want to think twice about this.

That being said, I do have one that was a gift from my MIL many years ago. I was convinced I would NEVER use it, but I did when the kids were little and we weren't eating as few carbs as we do now. It is quick and easy, but doesn't make a very big loaf and the mixing paddle makes a huge dent/hole in the bottom of the loaf, making it not ideal for sandwich slices at the bottom.

Mine is a Toastmaster "Bread Box", at least 10 years old. I used to love the idea of setting a stew to cook in the crockpot and bread to bake in the bread machine and coming home to a fully cooked warm meal with very little work! .....P

 

[pocomom]

I had a bread maker and I did enjoy it. But I find to was too bulky to leave out and I didn't use it if I didn't leave it out. Mine used to bake the hook into the end of the loaf (do they all do that?) and I didn't like the way that looked, plus I got tired of basically being stuck to one shape, unless I was just using it just for the mixing and then I might as well make it in the mixer. So it was the first to go when I decided to make my kitchen free of singular purpose appliances (except the coffee maker, hubs would kill me ) This is one of those purchase I would think over.... If you will use it alot and wouldn't otherwise make bread go for it and enjoy! But homemade bread is just as delicious, pretty easy and you have a lot more options if you stick to good old fashioned oven baking.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Our breadmaker alerts you if you want to remove the kneading hook before it continues on to the next cooking cycle. We just leave it in. Also, you don't have to have a breadmaker to make home made bread. It's just such a mess to mix the bread mix with a beater. That's the beauty of the breadmaker, everything is done within the machine.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

My Zo is over 10 years old.

I would love a new one that makes larger loaves and makes them in loaf shape, but can't justify the expense since I already have one.

Dawn

I have the Zojirushi 2 pound bread maker which makes the loaf shaped breads - love it. Got it in a great Amazon sale 2 years ago ($175.00).

 

[lizabu]

What you can do too is let the bread maker do all the mixing and rising and then put the dough in your own pan to bake. You can make cinnamon rolls, baguettes and braided loafs (all kinds of things) this way. I make pizza dough in there too. Couldn't be easier.

 

[wiigirl]

I am looking at the Zojirushi, but can you do specialty breads easily with it?

 

[Swimalie]

I am looking at the Zojirushi, but can you do specialty breads easily with it?

Yes. You can do almost anything with the Zo. We use it to mix the dough and then put the dough in our own pans and bake. My husband (he's the baker, not me) has about 10 different pans based on the bread.

By the way, you can also make starter, jam and oatmeal among other things in the Zo.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I love my Zojirushi too...so much that I bought one for my sister too. I bought hers off of ebay (still pretty expensive for a breadmaker, but it is totally worth it!)
The Zojirushi is heavy duty and you can customize the settings. I make my bread from organic whole wheat that I grind into flour just before baking. This is the only machine that can handle that. I also love that I can make jam with the bread machine. We make fresh strawberry jam all the time in the summer (when the strawberries are fresh.)
I sometimes bake in the machine for convenience, but I often use it to mix then make rolls or put it in a long thinner pan that makes smaller slices for sandwiches. I also make cinnamon raisin bread in it a lot and then divide it into 2 loaves. I actually take half the dough out before I mix the raisins in because some of my kids don't like raisins. This is one of their favorite recipes.
I also mix dough for tortillas, cinnamon rolls, etc. in the Zoji. It's awesome!
If you really want to have fun...look at www.breadbeckers.com. They have tutorials on how to make all sorts of stuff from freshly ground wheat. And they sell the wheat and ship it all around the country at a price that I can't beat locally. It's amazing how delicious baked goods from fresh wheat taste. And the health benefits are amazing (far beyond using whole wheat flour from a store.) It's addicting...my laundry room looks like a small grainery now with all the different types of wheat and other grain I buy.