Recommend me a bread maker!

Get the Panasonic one within your budget. They just work.

A panasonic something. Ours pre-dates everything and still works just fine. Well it's needed a new blade in that time but nothing else.

Panasonic </thread>

I'm on my second in 20 years, the non stick coating has now improved and seems more robust and after several years use is showing no signs of wear. Great for bread / pizza dough, only problems are when I forget to put some ingredients in or the wrong proportions - can't really blame that on the machine.

I was looking too. A tefal comes highly recommended, makes pasta and pizza dough too and for reasons beyond my ken yoghurt.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/product-reviews/electricals/g23859755/best-bread-makers/

Panasonic.

I was looking too. A tefal comes highly recommended

Who by ? Every time I look into it Long term users all seem to say they tried the others- they broke then they bought a Panasonic and never looked back.

I never actually press the button and go back to making my loaf by hand. As such it ends up a nice treat than the staple it probably should be ....

Ditto the above, our Panasonic will have averaged something like 3 loaves a week for 15 years. It's still works though the inside housing is rotted away in places. I've been waiting for it to die before replacing but I'm still waiting.

+1 for a Panasonic, even I can turn out a decent loaf & I'm not usually allowed near the kitchen

I was going to buy one in the January sales then discovered a recipe on the BBC, 5 minutes weighing and mixing, 10 minutes kneading, hour and a half rising and 25 minutes in the oven. Easy to  adjust wholemeal/white ratio to your taste and no extra machinery to find space for. Relaxing too!

+1 Panasonic. Ours is doing sterling work occupying space in the loft.

Honestly, a bit like soup makers, rice cookers and a load of other kitchen gadgets, you don't really knead one! 🙂

Making bread by hand is satisfying and dead easy. Also, you are not constrained by the size and shape of the bread maker. A simple white dough could be a cob, rolls, a tin loaf, pizza bases etc. I know he's a bit of a plum, but Paul Hollywood's book "Bread" is a great intro on how to make it.

Making bread by hand is satisfying and dead easy

While in principal I agree . It's not dump and go .  I enjoy the process but like many things life gets in the way and we buy processed shit far more than I'd like..... That's why I keep looking at the idea...... But never commit. My parents are converts because they are coiliacs and shop bought  gluten free bread is pants

Making bread by hand is satisfying and dead easy

I agree, but it doesn't compare with the convenience of tipping the ingredients into a pan, pressing a button, and waking up to freshly baked bread.

Oh, and another vote for Panasonic. Bought ours second hand about ten years ago and it's had plenty of use.

I just make it by hand as well, don't need a machine. Just a bowl and one of those non stick silicon bread spoon things. Makes much nicer bread than I ever managed with a bread machine.

And with the machine I lost track of how often I forgot some vital ingredient (eg water) and came down in the morning to baked flour or a solid lump of baked play dough.

So taking the premise that I want a Panasonic - is there a model that is good for small loaves (ie for one person rather than a family)?

As if by magic sliced bread podcast talking about... Dough

Think all the Panasonics use the same size tin. You can choose 3 sizes, medium, large and x large. So it’s the height of the loaf that changes. My personal preference is to go for the large (500g of flour) and when baked and cool slice and freeze about half of it.

Other than on holidays I haven’t bought a supermarket loaf since getting it.

I bought a Panasonic after reading old threads on here.

It's been good it takes 5  min per loaf 

Panasonic. Think it was £200. I like doing the smallest loaf size as it comes out more like a normal loaf of bread shape instead of being too tall for it's width. Make 2 loaves a week for 2 of us.

I'm following this with interest. Can anyone be bothered to explain to me how one Panasonic machine is better or worse than another?

TIA

Ambrose

I did a thread on here last time after my ancient Panasonic started playing up, assuming that someone would have done basically a cheaper copy of the Panasonics by now. They haven't apparently, literally everyone said "get another Panasonic".
Mine is a 2500, it's a hundred years old and it's probably quite telling that the newer 2510 version is damn nearly the same.

To be fair I think it only really came into its own with frequent use. I had a Kenwood before which made equally good bread, it's just, it was totally built for infrequent use. Which is fair enough,most bread machines probably get like a month of enthusiasm then get put on a shelf and used a few times a year. I'm coeliac so I do my own bread every couple of days. It's also turned out to be quite servicable- parts are expensive but the whole thing's easy to work on.

The 2510 is a perfectly good machine tbh. Go up a step and you get slightly better manual options and a couple more presets but the standard programmes are already going to be fine for most people. "Fully automatic" basically adds the seed/yeast dispenser which some people might really want but I don't miss it. I'm really not sure what the top end one is for, I think it gains literally one more preset for spelt?

Basically the cheapest one is so good that they struggle a wee bit to make the expensive ones look good, dropper aside.

Cheers for the info, much appreciated.

As with 279 other responses - Panasonic.

Ours is about 15 years old and still going strong. I reckon it'll be an heirloom for our daughter when we get put in a home

My Panasonic is about 14 and still works fine (is has the number 257 on it)

If you want seeded bread regularly get one with the seed dispenser dropper. I used to use that a lot but rarely do now.

It's fixable too. The main bearing ceased on mine (probably got dunked too many times when cleaning) and a new one was about £20 plus 10 minutes to fit using a screwdriver. Seemed expensive when I wasn't sure that was the issue but been good for a few years since.

Ok so a bit of looking and I've a definitive answer from the ladies on mumsnet.

https://www.mumsnet.com/reviews/panasonic-sd-b2510-breadmaker-review

The only thing I would say is, don't expect bread maker bread to taste like home made bread....it doesn't...it tastes like supermarket bread (IME)

While in principal I agree . It’s not dump and go . I enjoy the process but like many things life gets in the way and we buy processed shit far more than I’d like….. That’s why I keep looking at the idea…… But never commit. My parents are converts because they are coiliacs and shop bought gluten free bread is pants

I know it can't match the absolute time saving but no knead recipes especially sourdough take 3 or 4 5minute tasks dotted through the day. I generally just tick them along when i make cups of tea.

I value my small kitchen space too much for another gadget.

Worth having a go atleast before splashing out ona machine.

Panasonic 2500 working fine for 10 years here.

Make 3 loaves a week on the rapid 3 hour bake, the manual gives you recipes for the rapid bake ingredients, play around with different types of flour ratios and seeds to add variety.

Possibly a silly question, and most certainly an STW one, but can you use sourdough starters in breadmakers?

@Twodogs not if you ignore the recipes in the manual and use quality flour they don't. The manual recipes use too much yeast and sugar and some of the programmes are actually a bit long so the bread comes out too light and airy. Find a bread recipe you like and then use the rapid wholewheat setting (3hr)

If you want to get really geeky about it there is a whole Facebook group for Panasonic bread machines with improved recipes and hacks for great loaves, rolls and cakes.

@kennyp the newer Panasonic higher end models have sourdough settings but apparently they aren't great and on the Panasonic Facebook group there are hacks on how to make sourdough in them by using the french bread setting. I've only had my machine for a couple of months and haven't got around to trying it for sourdough yet.

@Twodogs not if you ignore the recipes in the manual

Cheers, but I don't use mine anymore...partly cos I eat a lot less bread than i used to, and if I do, I now have time to make proper bread ?

@myti ta, I’ll go check them out.

Possibly a silly question, and most certainly an STW one, but can you use sourdough starters in breadmakers?

Yes, but you need to mix the starter in, the mixing action of a breadmaker is not up to it and you will get weird structures if you don't.  Easiest way is to bung it all in then mix with a plastic fork.  You will also need to experiment with quantities and programmes.

sourdough take 3 or 4 5minute tasks dotted through the day

I wonder how my boss would feel if I keep my dough on my office desk ?

trail_rat
Free Member

My parents are converts because they are coiliacs and shop bought gluten free bread is pants

FWIW it's got better in the last few years- most of the Warburtons stuff is decent after a few false starts, the seeded sliced loaf is a really good everyday slice and the weird square white rolls are pretty great (they're clever about that, they've put a wee bit less effort into making it look normal and that's let them make a really good, slightly odd looking product instead of sacrificing taste and texture for looking good on a shelf). Sainsburys have a couple of really excellent own brands, Promise some good ones, Genius fell off a bit. But mainly I think a lot of the older crapper products have quietly gone away, for a while there there was a ton of choice but no real sense of quality control.

Basically I reckon any coeliac people who gave up on shop bought a few years back should give it another go. But, I still make my own, it's nicer and it's cheaper.

Good to know North wind. Slight issue is my parents live in France land of the bread.

A coeliac bakery opening in Paris was massive news not that long ago.

Anyway - money where my mouth is - after listening to sliced bread and reading again about the Chorleywood process  sat on it a couple of weeks. Spoke to the wife and we have a

<strong style="color: #011f44; font-family: Smiley, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Panasonic SD-R2530KXC_BK arriving tomorrow.  For 140 down from 180.

Anyone got any recommendations as to recipes to try ? (I'm not coeliac -prefer a wholemeal/seeded bread)

After trying lots of combinations over the last 2 months i've settled on a recipe (with flour variations) and setting I keep coming back to. Shipton mill organic flours and yeast ordered online.

200g of white 200g wholemeal (or 150 white, 50 rye, 200 wholemeal)

300ml of water

1 tsp honey

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1tbs olive oil

2 tbsp of golden linseed

Wholewheat rapid setting for medium loaf. (3hr)

Or swap the white for malted flour.

For a treat I do the same recipe but all white flour and use the basics white setting (2hr)

The recipes in the manual use too much yeast and sugar and combined with the longer settings make really airy loaves that taste too yeasty.