Help Me Decide Which Bread Machine to Buy!
@vera5d (4005)
United States
December 4, 2009 10:49pm CST
Hello Mylotters! I feel like I haven't been on here in ages, we've been so very busy. But I need to buy a bread machine and I know you guys are always the best in helping me decide what to get :)
To make a long story short we are going gluten free after the holidays - need a few weeks to plan exactly what we're going to be eating and to slowly go through all the other stuff in our pantry. I expect it to be a challenge, but I'm pretty excited about it.
Unfortunately, buying anything "gluten free" where I live is extremely expensive - a single 8 oz box of rotini gluten free pasta cost $4 (whereas the "normal" version is only 69 cents) - people here don't believe gluten intolerance is real - they think its some made up disease. So, to help defray the costs, the only logical thing to do is to buy a bread maker, since I can get the ingredients at a much more affordable price - plus I'll know exactly what goes into all of it to make sure we're as gluten free as can be hopefully. If you've ever read my other posts you know that cooking is not my strong point, so anything that is as automated as possible is always a plus!
Ideally I'd like one that has multiple capabilities and is affordable - and one that can also mix and make pasta. I think I would get the 2 lb loaf one simply because we have 5 people so bread goes pretty quickly around here! But as for the other perks and options, I am totally lost and don't know what to do! The MOST important thing however to me is that it has to be easy to use and easy to clean - I don't have a lot of time for reading directions or scrubbing pans and a million little parts :)
So far I've looked at Sunbeam, Oster, and Breadman. All of them are pretty cheap, but the reviews are all mixed on them - some of them very good and some of them all bad, so that makes it hard to decide.
Anyways, if any of you experienced bread machine users have some tips I'd love to hear your suggestions for what kinds to get!
Thanks!
2 responses
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
5 Dec 09
My sil has a gluten intolerance so she buys spelt bread, which has some gluten but not as much. Some people cannot have any gluten or wheat at all, neither one, whereas do ok if the baked goods are made with sprouted grains or some of the unrefined grains that are not as well known in the US as wheat. I think buckwheat is an example, which is not wheat at all the is delicious in those yam noodles called Soba. I love those! I used to use my electric breadmaker a lot but I also made bread with a VitaMix which grinds the whole grains into flour and warms it to the exact temperature for adding the yeast and then kneads the bread, and you just leave the bread in the machine to rise, too, but then you take it out and bake it in a regular oven. Flour mills are expensive, but so is buying healthy flour which does not have any kind of shelf life. So with the vitamix, you have inexpensive very fresh flour that keeps a long time until you grind it and all the steps perfect up to the baking part. Then the machine washes itself -- you just add a drop of detergent and hot water put the cover on and press a button to self-clean. Unlike a bread machine, you can make your bread any shape, pizza dough, hamburger buns, round loaves, mini loaves, braids, or tradition shapes.
But for the bread machine, I would say the most important feature is a good viewing window because you do not want have to open the oven to check on it. Then you have to choose what shape loaves it makes. If you want traditional sandwiches, then a round vertical shape would not work. It might not fit under your cabinets, either. But will a horizontal machine take up too much space on your countertop? With some of the square pans, I have heard that dough gets stuck in the corners. With some machines the paddle leaves a big hole in the dough so the loaf does not come out right.
I think convection baking is a good feature to have on a bread machine. That is what the commercial bakers use because the crust comes out better. Also you will want a cool-down cycle so that if you are not there to take it out right away, the bread will get soggy.
Whatever machine you buy, even if it is not a perfect one with every feature, you will like it. There is nothing to compare with the smell of fresh baked bread, and a bread maker allows you to experiment with the assurance that every loaf will turn out good.
@vera5d (4005)
• United States
20 Dec 09
I wouldn't have thought of making sure it had a viewing window :)
That vita-mix though is really looking interesting...I can't complain about a product that would clean itself, lol. Might have to look into that a little more!
