I'm not much of a baking enthusiast. There are several reasons for this. First, most baking is formulaic; if you want to succeed, don't screw around. Do EXACTLY what the recipe tells you, and you will (possibly) produce good bread, cake, or whatever. Experiment with the ingredients, however, and your baked item is almost certainly doomed before it even goes in the oven. I use recipes for ideas, and then almost never follow them. I prefer to put my own twist on things when cooking. Baking does not allow me to do this.

Second, I don't own a stand mixer, and the amount of baking I do would not justify my laying out the hundreds of dollars to buy one. Which, of course, is kind of a Catch-22. If I already had a stand mixer, I'd probably do more baking. And, some people really enjoy spending hours making dough; mixing it by hand, letting it rise, punching it down, and so forth. I do not.

But a bread machine allows me to bake bread without a stand mixer, or all the labor and time involved in doing it by hand.

The other day I was in a local thrift store, and what should I see, but a bread machine. And, it was a bread machine with a price tag of six dollars. Further inspection revealed it to be a Breadman Ultimate, which is a pretty cool one, capable of producing a two pound loaf, with all the bells and whistles, and furthermore, it may have been actually used once. There was a little baked bread evident in the gap between the paddle and the shaft, but the protective plastic was still on the control panel, and aside from the tiny bit of residue inside, it was as clean and perfect as a brand-new display model in a store. Not only that, but inside the baking area was all the documentation that came with it, or at least all the documentation I need. (I had one before, but lost it along with a bunch of other stuff. I'll let you guess where all this stuff went. :P )

With a cry of "MINE!" that drew a few stares, I scooped it up, carried it to the checkout stand, and subsequently took it home.

I dawdled a bit after this regarding getting yeast, but today I finally made a loaf of simple white bread. It came out perfect, tasted wonderful, made the kitchen smell great, and all I had to do was dump some water, oil, salt, flour, and yeast into the cooking vessel and turn the machine on.

So, I guess you can count me as being firmly in the "yay" camp when it comes to bread machines. At least at this point in my life. However, as life, for me, is a journey of nearly constant learning, if you are firmly in the "nay" camp, I would certainly like to hear why.

If one gets plenty of use out of a bread machine, yay, but most people will receive them as wedding gifts, Christmas, B-days etc..... They will use them a few times and then it goes to the kitchen graveyard next to the crockpot, and popcorn maker.

Well, obviously some people use them once or twice, then give them to the Salvation Army, or whatever. That's the way I got mine.

Have you ever used one? And if not, do you make your own bread by using a stand mixer? Do you make your own bread at all?

I was rather hoping for some specific opinions from people who love them or hate them based on personal experience.

Not to get off subject... but why is your crock pot in the kitchen graveyard? I love mine for slow cooking in the winter...

Sorry, did I say somewhere that my crock pot was in the kitchen graveyard? If so, I must plead temporary insanity. Aside from the usual making of soups and so on, I also find it a wonderful vessel for sweats, and I used it fairly frequently.

We received our bread machine as a wedding gift and it sat for 5 years (seriously) untouched. We tried it out finally - and we LOVE it. L-O-V-E it. I recently made pound cake in mine and it's SO easy!! Throw in the ingredients and let it do it's thing. It really works for my busy schedule. I always make my cinnamon rolls dough in it. As for bread - I've found I like to use the dough cycle and then transfer it to a bread pan because I like the "normal" shape of freshly cut home made bread. Plus, I can monitor baking time easier too.

Okay, ThAT'S what I was looking for. Someone with actual experience with a bread machine. Thanks for braving the stigma that might be attached, and saying what you really think. Anyone else?

I'll brave the stigma and say what I think Kelly, again. NAY! If one is going to use it then get one, but everyone I've known used it once and then it's forgotten. I didn't think that was so hard to understand for someone appearing to be so intelligent. In the movie "Old School", Will Ferrell's character tries re-gifting the bread maker several times because bread makers suck. I have a bread maker, it runs on gas, it's called an oven.

Hmm. What I don't understand is why you think I didn't understand your original post. I thought it quite clear.

The stigma I was referring to was in admitting liking bread machines, not in disliking them. I generally try something like this before deciding I don't like it.

But, of course, who could possibly disagree with Will Ferrell?

Kelly I didn't get what you were trying to say,my bad.

I have made batch after batch of delicious bread in my $50.00 no frills Oster machine I bought 8 years ago. The secret is to find good recipes for bread machines (I have a great book by Jennie Shapter) and follow them. It does matter what type of yeast and how much you use, the order ingredients are added, the type of flour and the proportions of wet to dry. The only failures I've had were when I didn't do this.

I also use my machine for all doughs, especially pizza, and they are so easy and good tasting.
You can argue that hand or machine mixed is "better", but that is really splitting hairs. All the machine made doughs and breads I have made are far better tasting and fresher than anything I've purchased and that's what matters to me. They are also incredibly easy to make and clean up. I often use the bake cycle to time the bread to be done right before a meal and the house smells great. (The delayed baking cycle seems to give people trouble and I confess to not using it).

I did once do an unintentional side-by-side comparison when I needed two batches of yeasted rolls. I made one in my bread machine and one in my stand mixer. The stand mixer batch was better; lighter and rose higher, but the machine rolls were really good too and no one seemed to notice!

"You can argue that hand or machine mixed is "better", but that is really splitting hairs. All the machine made doughs and breads I have made are far better tasting and fresher than anything I've purchased and that's what matters to me."

Michelle, thanks, and that is what I'm talking about. To the people who bake regularly, it may seem an unimportant distinction made by someone who just doesn't get it, but when it comes to a choice between buying dough to take home and bake, and buying the finished product, I may as well buy the finished product. I know from experience that none of my guests will complain, either way. With my bread machine, though, I actually make my own bread, from scratch, and it turns out pretty danged good. As I stated in the OP, I am not much of a baker, and without my bread machine, I would probably never bake my own bread. Baking just isn't fun to me. In my book, formulaic = boring, although I know a lot of people enjoy it.And, I'm glad they do. It just doesn't happen to be my thing.

I certainly know that a lot of people receive bread machines as gifts, use them once, and then go back to buying Wonderbread, and for that I am grateful. It enabled me to get a pretty cool machine for six bucks. I think there might be a difference between the people who buy them because they want them, and the people who get them as gifts, though. :)

Kelly,
First, let me admit, I am an avid baker and have even gone as far as to build a wood fired brick oven for the purpose. But, I didn't start there. I too have a Breadman Ultimate (you got a steal!). When I started making bread, I used it exclusively. The results are consistent, taste fine and are an easy "hands off" bread solution. I think it is the perfect choice for those who want a fresh bread, but aren't into baking. As a plus, the model you got is programmable, so if you ever do get the gumption to experiment, it is a good tool to do so. For me, I started expanding by letting the machine just make the dough so I could free form loaves later. As I got more into bread making, I moved away from it, but that was me. I still use it, though, to do a quick dinner bread or pizza dough. I won't be passing it on anytime soon. Still can't believe you got one for 6 bucks!! :-)

Bill

Bill,

Yes, I can see a similar progression in my future, at least as far as hand forming and baking the bread. For one thing, I love sandwiches made on a good sandwich roll, and it is getting increasingly difficult to find them around here, or at least any that aren't just glorified hot dog buns. Soft, gooey "hoagy rolls," with a sprinkling of sesame seeds to make them "fancy." Blech.

As to finding stuff for cheap, when I find myself going by a Goodwill, Salvation Army, or similar thrift store with time on my hands, I fairly regularly stop and peruse the kitchen section. Of course, most of the time I only find junk, but the few times I've found gems have more than made up for the time spent. It seems that to most of the employees at such places a knife is a knife, for example.

Oh, and I once found at one of those places a virtually new pair of lizard-skin cowboy boots for $19.95, which at the time retailed for around $500.00. The only evidence that they'd even been tried on were a couple of tiny scratches in the soles, and what's more, they fit. :)

Kelly

Now that's cooking attire! :-)

Yes, yes yes. Just replaced my old one with a new one with more programmes on it and use it all the time, particularly since I discovered bread mixes.
Love getting up early, using a good quality bread mix, putting the water and dollop of olive oil in and going back to bed. Two hours later, 'ping' a fresh wonderful loaf in just in time for breakfast.

I use to make every type of bread there was. Loved to bake it. wasn't much of a cook. We got a bread machine used it a good bit. great way to wake up to bread. great to mix pizza dough then bake it in oven. great to make better than store bread from a mix.
then I GOT DIAGNOSED. I'm Gluten sensitive. No wheat. Have you tasted any of the stuff they call bread. almost all of them are worse than cardboard.
I got a Zojirushi , very expensive but double paddles and strong enough to mix gluten free bread and make a loaf that looks like a 2 pound loaf of bread. it is completly programable. I use it once a week. I throw a mix in or a bag of premixed flour to make a loaf or turn it out to make a shaped bread.
you can make yeast bread without gluten but it's a bit of work.

I use my breadmaker several times a week. I do think that hand kneading does produce a better bread, but I've got to be practical. If I have time to do it all from scratch, I just might. Done it before. But I've got to work, AND I have to get family fed. My breadmaker saves me time and still allows me to do great homemade things. I grind my own wheat for whole wheat bread, and make white bread for homemade herbed bread crumbs as well as pizza crust, but I'll use it for other types of breads at time too. I love my breadmaker!

I LOVE my breadmaker! Although I like baking, I'd rather spend my limited free time cooking (its more more creative/ fun and gets us eating more healthy dinners). So I love tossing ingredients in the breadmaker and having fresh, hot bread a couple hours later. I have a great breadmaker cookbook.
Plus it makes jam!! It's a fantastic feature! Homemade jams from my breadmaker have so much more flavor and are much more healthy than just buying a jar at the store! I highly recommend everyone give breadmakers a chance! If you don't like yours- give it to the thriftstore so others like us can great deals. :)