CategoryBread Machine

Best Bread Machine Brands

Food is a very cultural experience.  You go to one part of the world and they have their own specialties or delicacies.  However, there are some types of food that simply envelopes all cultures and all countries.  One of the few types is bread.

True, there is no universal way to cook bread.  There is wheat bread, white bread, garlic bread, baguette and the list goes on. In fact, depending on where you go, the taste of bread can be slightly different depending on the ingredients added for extra flavor.  Even the texture differs from hard to super soft.

bread machine brandsThere is one thing that bread has in common though.  Aside from the basic process of baking, there is nothing like eating freshly baked bread.  Sure, you can keep bread for several days or even put it inside the refrigerator but nothing beats eating it straight from the oven.  Its texture is simply perfect and the aroma is like no other.

Surprisingly, many people are deprived of eating freshly baked bread.  More often than not, we pass by a bakery or the grocery, grabbed our bread and go.  That is because there is a misconception that baking your own bread is difficult and requires a lot of time and effort. But what if that is not the case?  Maybe all that you need is a trusty bread machine so you can make your own bread just the way you want it.

When you go to the department store or look online, there are so many types and brands of bread machines that it is difficult to tell which one is worth buying.  These are the certified best bread machine brands that simply would not let you down and will give your palette a thrill with every bite that you take.

The Panasonic is one of the best bread machine brands.  Panasonic is a well-known and trusted brand all over the world.  However, there is a bigger reason why it is one of the best bread machine brands.  Did you know that they are the very first to manufacture such an amazing invention? The other brands simply followed suit so you can expect that they know exactly what they are doing.  One specific model, the SD-RD250 has 5 baking modes and enables the baker to choose the kind of bread crust that he or she wants.  Some want it light and others want it dark.  Whatever your preference is, this Panasonic bread maker can surely make it for you.

If price is a main concern for you, then one of the best bread machine brands that will not cost you an arm and a leg is Oster,  for example the CKSTBRTW20 2-Pound Express Bake Bread Maker.  For its price, you get an amazing array of features including the capacity to bake huge loaves of bread plus its ability to bake bread, real quick.  If you are always on the go but still want freshly baked bread, this is probably one of the best bread machine brands for you.

Another top brand is Zojirushi, these Japanese bread makers are extremely high tech and durable and have made a very reputable name for the manufacturer. A little more pricey than some of the others but Zojirushi’s really do provide a luxury kitchen appliance.

Notable Mention Brands

Other brand names that need to be mentioned when it comes to the top bread machines on the market are:

Cuisinart – a wide range offering good quality and features.

West Bend – a more budget but still good quality brand.

Bread Man – another lower budget bread machine brand.

Breville – manufacturers of loads of kitchen appliances, Breville also make bread machines.

Best Basic Bread Machine Recipes

With the price of a daily loaf of bread rising higher than the dough in the oven, the bread making machine has become an important home appliance in many kitchens across the world. To get that perfect loaf of bread you will need to add a variety of ingredients into the pan (often positioned at the bottom). The solid ingredients go on top, which means you will need to add the liquid in first on the bottom.

This order is an important part of bread making because the yeast will react with the water, so it’s imperative to keep these two elements apart until you are ready to go. It often takes around three hours for one loaf to be made and the ingredients are mashed into dough by a series of moving paddles. Next, the bread making machine will reach an ideal temperature that makes it ready for the baking. Do remember that because bread making machines do not add preservatives like the big manufacturers do, your bread will only last a few days before its shelf life expires.

The most popular and best bread machine recipes are standard dinner rolls made from country white bread. These rolls make an ideal lunch bun when you add a slice of ham or an egg mayonnaise mix in. But the best bread machine recipes are the ones which serve a wide variety of purposes. Home made burger rolls and buns are ideal to use fore barbeques or a kid’s lunchtime snack and basic French bread is also very easy to make.

If you are looking for something like the best bread machine recipe with a more Mediterranean touch then try the pizza bread recipes but most Europeans will agree that the French bread recipe is the best bread machine recipe for taste, simplicity and quickness when baking in your bread making machine.

Making French bread requires water, flour, salt and dry yeast. Pour the water in first (about one and a half cups) then add two cups of flour and a tea spoon full of salt, then pour on another half a cup of flour before putting the dry yeast (about two and a half tea spoons full) on top. Use the normal or rapid speed cycle on your bread making machine and cook for 3 hours and 5 minutes for the best bread machine recipe you will ever taste.

 

Bread Making Tools

best bread making tools

Whether you use a bread machine or not, it is good to be equipped with the best bread making tools to help you along with the job. We live in a world of hi tech kitchens, and therefore are able to get excellent tools and appliances that years ago would’ve seemed outlandish. If you’re a master chef they can help to make your life a lot easier, and if you’re a beginner baker then they will turn you into a pro in no time. We have listed some of the best bread making tools here for all eventualities in the baking process.

Electronic Scales

Baking requires quite a lot of precision, and using a Jamie Oliver style method of just bunging everything in probably wont yield the best results. Recipes will usually be really quite detailed, and ratios are key for a high quality loaf, and when you start increasing or decreasing sizes for either your bread machine or just to suit your needs, you’ll be glad to have electronic scales as your sidekick.

Baking or Pizza Stone

Sometimes called a pizza stone, this is designed to turn your standard home oven into a hearth style oven, perfect for baking all sorts of different things, such as pizza of course, but it is exceptionally good for bread too and if you’re not using a machine, or are just using a machine to make your dough, you can use a stone for making a mean ciabatta, pita breads or just about any other loaf.

A “Bench Scraper”

These are designed to be able to chop without damaging your counters, and though they’re hardly going to cut through tough meat they are absolutely awesome for cutting up dough or even other ingredients you may wish to include in your bread.

Danish Dough Whisk

I wouldn’t call this an essential tool, but a very useful one there’s no denying. Designed to help with the making of artisan breads, the danish dough whisk turns kneading and mixing a completely different ball game, very helpful for the budding baker.

A Good Bread Cookbook!

This is the most important of all bread making tools, and one you might well overlook, without a good cookbook you’re going to struggle with recipes and definitely struggle with finding variations and different types of breads to try out with your family and guests, a lot of the tools mentioned are designed for making your life easier, but a cookbook is utterly exceptional for the beginner breadmaker.

Bread Machine Tips

bread machine tips

We love bread machines for so many reasons. Regular visitors to the site will know that we are huge advocates of using bread machines to take the tedious aspects out of baking, save you money and improve the quality of bread eaten in your home, nothing beats a fresh loaf! I have compiled some bread machine tips to help you to get the most possible out of your model or even choose the best bread machine (you also have our reviews to help with that).

Getting the Right Size

When we go to a shop to buy a loaf of bread, we think about the size. You may have a huge family and need to go and buy huge loaves that only last a day or two, alternatively you might get a small loaf and still find yourself with extra. Fortunately there are varying sizes of bread machine and some even allow you to alter the size based on what you need. The important thing you need to remember is that you will need to add different amounts of ingredients depending on how big a loaf you need, something that your manual will usually tell you.

Yeast

Getting the yeast right in a bread machine mix is something of an art form. There is specialist bread machine yeast that you should buy, which is designed to activate quicker and suit your machine’s cycle. This is sometimes simply called ‘bread maker/machine yeast’ or may also be known as rapid rise, quick rise or fast rise; you can pick it up in a lot of supermarkets. For the perfect loaf you want about 1/2 a teaspoon per cup of flour used in your mix.

Temperature of the Bread

This is where you might want to step in a little and not just leave your bread maker to it. Before your ingredients go in, they should be at room temperature. Generally your bread machine will know to preheat to around 400 degrees, and when the bread hits the 200-220 mark it should be done. A rough estimate for every pound of bread is roughly 22-28 minutes of baking time.

Loading

It is important to load ingredients in the right way and the correct order, this could mean the yeast last and liquids first followed by all other ingredients, or you might add the yeast first, other ingredients and then the liquids. Follow your bread maker instructions with caution.

Upkeep

I’ve already written a big piece on the site about the upkeep of your machine and how to clean a bread maker. It is important to clean regularly and preferably try to do so after each use, which will make sure there is no build up of crumbs or other nasty accumulations in your model of bread machine.

Black and Decker Bread Maker Reviews

black and decker bread machineBlack and Decker are not necessarily a name you would associate with bread machines and bread makers, in fact they manufacture everything from strimmers and hedge trimmers to power tools, perhaps you could be forgiven then for wondering if this foray into kitchen appliances is simply a way to add another revenue stream, and that these makers of garden and DIY tools should stick to their original trade, so does the Black and Decker range of bread makers hold its own in a market full of Cuisinart, Oster, Panasonic and other big name kitchen appliances.

 

 

Black and Decker Bread Maker Price

Currently the black and decker 1 is selling for around $70. A price comparable with some of the cheaper models on the market, but you can still buy a machine of great quality with a budget of less than 100 bucks, so is this the answer for your kitchen?

Features:

  • Power outage protection feature. Even if your power cuts out your bread will be fine as this machine is intelligent enough to read the situation and compensate.
  • Two different loaf sizes, something offered by many of the top machines on the market, but perhaps not a feature you’d expect at the pricing point.
  • Twelve excellent modes including gluten free, jam, basic, french, whole wheat and sweet. A versatile machine which is great even for those of us on a specialist diet.
  • 13 Hour delay timer for fresh bread whenever you please, set it before bed and wake up to fresh bakery smells.
  • Non stick baking pan for easy clean up and no awkwardness when it comes to removing your loaf at the end of the cycle.
  • Audible signal for adding fruit and nuts at exactly the right time for the perfect loaf.
  • Large viewing window for viewing your bread as it bakes.
  • LCD display for maximum control.
  • Control over the crust.

Example Review From Online Retailer

“I totally recommend this in comparison to Oster and other makes. The main difference is that this has a tall loaf and other makers create flatter longer loafs, but that just makes cutting easier. Does everything I need from my bread maker and always provides an excellent loaf”

Conclusion

The main comparison for this machine are the likes of the Sunbeam, Cuisinart and Breadman machines, this is an extremely cheap machine in the grand scheme of things and in spite of some gripes I have heard about how well the machine works, it seems to do the job very well, plus you always have your warranty if something does go wrong in the early stages of you owning. If you’re in the market for a budget machine I definitely recommend the Black  and Decker 1 as a good way to go.

How to Clean a Bread Machine

bread machineIt is all very well having the best kitchen accessories and appliances, and a bread machine is an amazing utensil that you’ll want to use all the time, so inevitably from time to time it will need a good old clean. Every machine is of course slightly different and will get dirty in different ways, but generally there are a few simple rules you can follow to keep yours spick and span, all you need is some hot soapy water, towels and some elbow grease!

Cleaning The Bread Pan

The bread pan part of your machine will probably be the easiest. In most machines they are designed so that you can simply remove it and either put in your dishwasher (this is definitely my preferred method!) or you can wash in the normal way, in your sink with hot soapy water. Be sure to clean both inside and out to make sure any spillages are dealt with.

Cleaning Up Your Crumbs

This is where things can start to get a little bit tough, inevitably crumbs might well get in to the mechanism and other parts of your machine and aren’t as easy to remove as the pan, so I have a couple of top tips for you.

  1. You can use a paint brush. The bristles will get all the crumbs out of the tough spots easily and you can put them into a pile and sweep out of the machine. As most of these areas will not come into contact with the bread it doesn’t matter what you use really but I’d suggest buying a new paint brush to stay safe.
  2. You can use a hoover. I’ve never done this myself, and do so at your own risk, but I can see how the detachable nozzle of a hoover would make this process so much easier!

The Inside of the Machine

A tough area to deal with, the inner workings of your machine can see everything from crumbs to spillages, and they can be really tough to remove if they have overflowed during cooking and therefore cooked onto your maker. I would suggest that anything that won’t come off with a firm rub of a paper towel could be handled with a rough ‘brillo’ style pad. Failing that a wet cloth may get rid of tough and stubborn, burnt on dough.

Conclusion

I have found that they key to cleaning bread machines effectively is to make sure you do so often, preferably after every use, though you don’t have to do a ‘deep clean’ by using the techniques mentioned above, which I would suggest around every 10-15 uses.

What to Look For in a Bread Machine

Buying a bread machine can be a difficult thing to do! We don’t want to spend all that money and make a commitment to buy something that should last us for years and then regret the choice we have made, so it is important to make an informed decision and weigh up all of the options and everything you need to look for in a good quality bread machine. So what are the aspects that make up a good bread machine, and when you’re in the market, what will you be evaluating?

Capacity

This is actually a really important aspect of your bread machine. The capacity of the bread tin will of course dictate the loaves it outputs, so if you have a big family, you might well be looking at one of the larger machines in the market, if your family is small or you’re often cooking for one or two then you might not need to make large 2 lb or 2.5 lb loaves that some machines now offer. Fortunately, lots of the models now on the market offer multiple modes and sizes so you can make a choice each day as to how much bread you need to make!

Modes and Cycles

If you’re looking for a straight down the middle, white or brown bread maker then you don’t need all of the amazing functions and features that some of the luxury makers offer. However, you might be like me and want all of the top technology available to you and an amazing bread machine with fruit and nut dispenser and much more! An important thing to think about is any dietary requirements, as some machines will come ready to create gluten free or other specialty breads.

Warranty

Things do go wrong, and the world of electronics and kitchen appliances isn’t perfect, so you should make sure you get yours from a manufacturer that offer a good warranty so if there are any problems you can get them sorted and get a replacement.

Value for Money

We can’t all buy the top of the range, and even if you do have money to burn you probably still want to get the best bang for your buck. This is why you should make sure you don’t just splash the cash on a machine and make sure you pay a fair amount for your features.

Reviews!

We’re all about bread machine reviews as you’ll probably guess from the name of the website here! What better way is there to judge your purchase but on other peoples experiences? Websites such as ours will give you a good evaluation of all sorts of different models, and you can also look at online retailers such as Amazon to see what consumers have had to say about their purchase, as they’re bound to give a fair and honest assessment.

Bread Machine Pita Bread

Bread Machines have become more and more versatile as time goes on, and allow us to make all different kinds of bread. What I’m going to talk about here is using your bread machine to make Pita bread. Store bought pita bread has nothing on the kind that you can make at home, it is often tough and tastes like cardboard, whereas warm pita that comes straight from an oven at home is absolutely delicious. Don’t take my word for the difference being noticeable though, try it for yourself by following these steps.

Now when we say bread machine pita we are bending the truth slightly in that the pita bread does not come out of the bread machine cooked and ready to eat, but that the machine does the prep work and makes the process a heck of a lot more simple! You still need your oven to complete the baking. So what do you need to follow this process? Simply a bread machine with a dough setting to allow you to do the kneading and get the mix ready for the oven. Even some of the cheaper bread machines have a dough setting so you don’t have to be right at the top of the market for this.

Recipe to Use

  • 3 cups flour (white or whole wheat are both fine)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons yeast
  • 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, kept at around room temperature
  • 2 tbspoons olive oil

The steps to make the bread in this way are pretty simple:

Firstly, add the wet ingredients to your machine followed by the dry ingredients.
Next up, we set the machine to our dough setting.
Let the mixture knead the bread, it will tell you when it is ready.
Using the mix, create dough balls about the size of a plum, before using a rolling pin to flatten the pitas.
Put them in the oven to cook, they won’t take long at all, 5 to 10 minutes should be fine, you may then want to toast them before using them to make a kebab or for stuffing with your filling of choice!

Let me know how you get on using this recipe to make your own bread machine pita bread! There are of course ways you can vary it in order to add a bit more interest, or may I suggest cut up toasted pitas dipped in home made hummus for an exceptional party nibble!

Breadman TR520 Review

The Breadman TR520 is one of the best bread machines available at its pricing point. Currently retailing well under the $100 mark on Amazon, this machine offers exceptional value, and an exceptional loaf of bread on demand. Breadman do as the name suggests offer expertise in the world of bread making, but does this model stack up to expectation? We take a look with this Breadman TR520 review, looking in depth at the features and quality of this product.

Crust Shades and Functions

Impressively for a cheap model, the 520 offers a load of excellent settings, 8 different functions for baking modes, including a quick bake mode that I will go into more detail about shortly. Combine this with the 3 different crust settings to set up your loaf to your perfect tastes, whether you like it light as a sheet or brown and crusty.

Fast Bake Setting and Timer

This is something I always love to see on a bread machine, an express bake or fast bake setting that allows you to fill your house with the smell of fresh bread in virtually no time. The Breadman TR520 enables you to make bread in less than an hour, perfect for unexpected guests or finding out you’re short of the white stuff. As if this weren’t great enough for a budget bread maker, the manufacturer has even included a timer so that you can set the machine up to 13 hours in advance for fresh bread when you return from work or wake up in the morning. Perfect!

Loaf Sizes

Three different loaf sizes are on offer with this machine, the 1 lb, 1.5 lb and 2 lb, so you can accommodate the size of your family whether large or small.

What I Like About the Bread Machine

There are many positives to draw from using this bread machine and it finds itself high up on my list of most recommended bread makers for many reasons. Firstly, I love the fact that it offers all of the features some machines twice its price don’t, the value for money is extreme, and Breadman can be proud of what they’ve produced for that price. To use the machine though it doesn’t feel budget, and it is really easy to create lots of different kinds of bread. On top of that it is quiet and unobtrusive so will fit nicely in most kitchens. I give this machine a 10/10, and you don’t need to take my word for it, a quick look on Amazon’s reviews will show you how highly regarded the Breadman TR520 really is.

Making Bread in a Bread Machine

Making bread in a bread machine has not always been an option and in the world of cooking these machines are a relatively new invention, but thank goodness we have them in our kitchens providing us with the best loaves available. I don’t know where I’d be without my bread maker, but how do we make bread in a bread machine, and what are the pros of doing so, and of course the cons of doing so?

This is almost so simple it doesn’t warrant a whole article about, the process of making bread in a machine can be boiled down to a very simple process.

  1. Plan your recipe, this can be done with the way you ordinarily make bread without a machine or by using a leaflet that will come with most of the best bread machines from the manufacturer.
  2. Place the ingredients in the pan according to instructions.
  3. Push the necessary buttons to select the mode and other options such as crust, style of bread and whatever else your particular model offers.
  4. Watch your beautiful bread be baked! Or, in fact as the case may be, don’t watch at all and go and do your own thing while the machine does the hard work (that’s what they’re there for).

Most machines will make bread by:

  1. Warming ingredients to the appropriate temperature
  2. Kneading twice
  3. Allowing the dough to rise in the pan
  4. Mixing again
  5. Allowing to rise once more
  6. Baking to a beautiful finish!

Some ingredients you may need kicking around to be able to make a superb bread at any time in the day are:

  • Bread Flour (wholemeal or white depending on diet and taste)
  • Butter (Margarine is an option but I much prefer butter)
  • Sugar
  • Dry Milk
  • Salt
  • Yeast
  • Variety of Herbs, nuts, dried fruit and Spices

Pros and cons of a Bread Machine

The Pros and Cons of using a bread machine is really an age old debate. The most obvious of pros is of course the ease of baking fresh loaves of bread, variation is another plus point with many recipes being very easy to implement. Timer settings mean we can prepare bread in advance on a timer setting. What’s not to like? Well, some say a little bit of the control in the kneading process is taken away and that some bread machines can become a bit samey with time, but this in my opinion can be pretty simply tackled with new recipes. Personally, as you may expect from somebody who runs a website about them, I’m all for Bread Machines!