It 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.