bread machine - yay or nay?

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 8:31 am

I have been thinking about this for a long time and I would love to know what people think.

I want to know if a bread maker is a good investment. We have started using bread for sandwiches every day. Would this be a good investment? Does it come out cheaper than buying a loaf of bread every few days?

Also, is it hard to use? Or is it something that I can learn very easily?

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 8:39 am

Tamiri wrote:

If you or your husband have self-control issues when it comes to food, I vote nay. Fresh bread is impossible to resist and you can end up eating way too much. Also, it's hard to slice as thin as the supermarket bread.

So, like for my 3 year old daughter it may be too big of a sandwich you are saying?

farmom

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 8:44 am

I vote nay. I make all my own bread, but I find that bread machines are a pain in the neck. After you put all the ingredients in, you already did half the work. And my bread came out decent, but never that great.

Instead, I recommend this book

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

It works, and I find that the bread is better than bread machine bread. Plus, more customizable.

They have a website with the recipe I think:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 8:50 am

It depends on the breadmaker.

I had a cheap machine (<$50), and the bread came out yucky. Not worth the effort.

I have heard that high-end machines ($$$) make good bread. See if you can taste some bread from a good bread machine, and decide if it's worth the upfront price, then do the math to determine the break-even point.

Personally, I enjoy making bread from scratch but don't care for kneading by hand. I bought a Bosch mixer (also $$$) and it has been a wonderful thing for my family. We frequently have home-baked bread that we enjoy very much.

Homemade bread is definitely less expensive than store-bought. The mixer "paid for itself" in about two and a half years. Larger families that eat more bread might break even in one year.

As for slicing, it just takes practice. Use a good quality serrated bread knife. I have no problem making sandwich slices as thin or thinner than store-bought.

Hope this helps!

Liba

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 8:50 am

I am happy with mine. I have a child with a soy allergy who can't have commercial bread. The other kids aren't excited to eat home made bread though, they want store bought bread that looks like everyone else's.

I use it for dough for things like kokosh cake, bagels, and bagel dogs too. I find it much easier to clean than my other mixers because it has a non stick coating. I also don't have to babysit it like my other mixers, because it kneads and stops at the right times and there is no risk of dough coming up over the top or little fingers getting in.

All in all I have had mine for a year and still use it on a very regular basis.

Chayalle

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 9:24 am

I have a breadman bread machine and I love it. I have it for about 4 years already. Like Liba, I also use mine for mixing as the non-stick coating makes clean-up a breeze.

I don't think it's in place of store-bought bread...more like extra treats for my family. I use it to make special breads, like whole-wheat banana (whenever our bananas are overripe - my kids LOVE this bread, soft and sweet), or whole-wheat zucchini (my favorite - my SIL says it tastes like going gourmet), and also regular bread but I can't say I do it all the time - more like special. Sometimes I make a loaf on Friday that we eat for Seuda Shelishis - especially in the summertime - yum!

I also use it for pizza dough (fabulous!), babka dough, rugalach, garlic knots, etc....

nylon

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 2:12 pm

I just use my mixer because I don't need another appliance. If I didn't have time, a breadmaker might be convenient. It's hard to find much kosher bread where I live (regular American bread is all dairy...) so if I want much variety I have to bake my own.

You can buy a slicing guide which makes it easier to slice even, store size slices instead of doorstops. I can slice fairly thinly, but not perfectly straight, and the guide makes it easy to keep the knife straight.

But yes... it is hard to resist fresh, hot bread. Especially if you can put butter on it.

EmesOrNT

Fri, Sep 02 2011, 4:39 pm

I got a bread machine, but I havent used it yet. its for my new house (iyh next week). I got it becuz I hope itll make breakfast easier. I can put in a loaf at night and the next morning they have a healthy breakfast waiting. my mom used to have one and she made us diff types bread all the time. I loved it. my fave was cinnamon raisin. I cant wait to start using it.

shaini

Sat, Sep 03 2011, 5:48 am

I got one for my birthday recently and I find it just great. Do your research first and make sure you can buy all the ingredients needed to make bread otherwise it's a waste. It does cost less per loaf than store bought bread, is easy to clean and use - doesn't need much practice.

RachelEve14

Sat, Sep 03 2011, 2:23 pm

I use mine all the time.

My kids had no problem eating homemade bread. It took a little while for me to get the hang of slicing it thiner (like 2 or 3 loaves, not years), but I did. What I do is slice the whole loaf through the middle, and then do the slices. I find it easier to control the knife that way. Before I discovered that trick, I had thicker slices but I just cut the slice in half and made that sandwich instead of using 2 slices (not so thick, justa bit thicker).

I use the dough cycle to make rolls, challah, and pizza dough. I find it much easier to clean and to move on and off my counter than the mixer. I've had the bread machine for 4 years now and I pretty much use it at least once a week. I'd say it's paid for itself many times over Very Happy

beckster

Sat, Sep 03 2011, 10:49 pm

Chayalle wrote:

I have a breadman bread machine and I love it. I have it for about 4 years already. Like Liba, I also use mine for mixing as the non-stick coating makes clean-up a breeze.

I don't think it's in place of store-bought bread...more like extra treats for my family. I use it to make special breads, like whole-wheat banana (whenever our bananas are overripe - my kids LOVE this bread, soft and sweet), or whole-wheat zucchini[/b[b]] (my favorite - my SIL says it tastes like going gourmet), and also regular bread but I can't say I do it all the time - more like special. Sometimes I make a loaf on Friday that we eat for Seuda Shelishis - especially in the summertime - yum!

I also use it for pizza dough (fabulous!), babka dough, rugalach, garlic knots, etc....

Chayalle, can you please post the recipes for the banana and zucchini bread?

frumshopper

Sat, Sep 03 2011, 10:58 pm

I also have a bread machine (Cuisinart) and LOVE it - I have had one for 15+ years, and highly recommend it - you pop the ingredients in and then just forget about it (and for challah it is not a big deal to set a timer for 90 mins, take the dough out, shape and let rise and bake). The only drawback is the size. I cannot make a loaf with more than about 5 cups of flour, so there are times when I have to go thru it all twice to have enough dough for challah for company or chag.

farm

Mon, Sep 05 2011, 12:46 pm

Chayalle wrote:

We use ours similiarly- for "fun" breads, not in place of the rye bread or bagels we keep in the freezer for school sandwiches. We make pizza dough, kokosh cake, garlic knots, and it's good for those Thursday nights when I'm cooking for Shabbos and suddenly realize we have no more challah in the freezer (I do 5lb batches on a Sunday every few weeks)- I'll dump the challah ingredients in the bread machine, make some kugels, braid the finished dough, make a dessert while the challah dough rises, and then pop it in the oven. I can make 2 decent sized challas per batch so I'll need to do a second batch if we are having company.

aidelmaidel

Mon, Sep 05 2011, 3:01 pm

I have a williams sonoma branded machine I got in '99. I got through stages.

My machine has a timer so I can set it hours in advance and have it done by a set time.

I can make just dough or jam as well.

I find I can make the same recipe 3 days in a row and depending on the weather and which brands of ingredients, the bread can turn out very different each time.

It was also a life saver while we were in maine...

Seraph

Wed, Nov 30 2011, 3:28 am

ChossidMom wrote:

Racheleve and Liba,
please post recipes for w.w bread. I notice that most recipes list gluten as a separate ingredient? Is it available here? Do you use it?
TIA

Vital wheat gluten is the gluten separated from the grain, and yes, it's sold here. I bought some in bulk... and then discovered I'm highly gluten intollerant. If you'd want to buy some off of me, and we could find a way to get the stuff to you, that would be awesome. It would be a chaval for all the money I spent on it to go down the drain.

Gluten added to whole wheat bread gives it elasticity and fluffiness that is otherwise lacking in regular whole wheat bread. I have an awesome whole wheat bread recipe with vital wheat gluten that tastes terrific, slices beautifully, is fluffy and flexible like store bought bread. It isn't davka for bread machines, but I dont see why it wouldn't work in a bread machine.

Ruchel

Wed, Nov 30 2011, 9:44 am

We bought it and use it a lot! Pizza, brioche, bread, challa, tarts...
I recommend it to people who have time for it, and especially if there are some yeasts you shouldn't have (some give me migraines, especially those from Jewish stores).

TranquilityAndPeace

Wed, Nov 30 2011, 9:56 am

It used to be hard to slice it thin, but now I have a knife with a slicing guide like this http://www.amazon.com/Victorin.....r=8-5 I bought it locally for much cheaper than that one. Otherwise, it is hard to slice thin.

The only downside is that it makes a lot of crumbs when slicing.

Hence I now totally get the expression, "the best thing since sliced bread!"