You will use the bread maker for 1 month and then go back to buying bread at the store

Got a bread maker as a gift and make soups and bread all winter. Make bread by hand for special occasions but just don't have the time during a busy week and despite busy intentions it just never gets done. Would never have bought one for myself and could never have seen myself getting one but now that I have it, love it. No, not as good as when I make it myself, but still great to walk into the house and smell fresh bread and have a slice of hot fresh bread and a cup of hot soup for dinner.

Anonymous wrote:Get artisan bread in 5 minutes a day or just check out their website. Really easy techniques for really great bread -- no breadmaker required.

If you follow the no-knead technique (from this book, or Mark Bittman had a version too) then making bread really isn't very much work at all, and the bread is as good or better than bread made with a lot of effort.

Making your own bread is better than bread maker bread, but it is a lot more work. Bread machines are super easy, and we also use it for dough for pizza etc.

Make your own bread. It's easy and so much better than bread maker bread

LOVE our bread machine (Zojirushi). It is super easy.

FWIW, we baked bread by hand first and will never go back. My DC has food allergies and I'm so not a good cook. The bread machine has been a miracle.

You can also buy frozen loaves of dough at the grocery store. You just put them in your bread pan, let them rise, and bake.

Love our bread maker. You dump ingredients in, which takes five minutes, and in three hours you have awesome bread. Also makes pizza dough with very little effort. I am not a good cook and I do t enjoy it, so the bread maker is a great appliance for us.

My suggestion is to learn to bake before buying the bread machine. See what types you like and see if the machine makes them.

Get artisan bread in 5 minutes a day or just check out their website. Really easy techniques for really great bread -- no breadmaker required.

Its not hard its just a bit labor intensive.... or at least theres a lot of steps. The nice thing is that now, you can find a lot of youtube videos on how to do it. That way, you know exactly how the yeast should look when its bloomed instead of guessing and hoping you arent rushing it etc

Easy, lots if books on it. May take a few times to get it right, but well worth it. Had turkey on fresh baked bread tonight. There is a book called something like-baking bread in minutes a day.

Baking bread is really easy. But it's kind of like doing laundry--you have to tend it. You mix it all up and knead it and that takes 10 minutes or so. Then you need to find a warm place for it to rise and keep checking on it until it doubles. Depending on your yeast and the temperature that could be a couple of hours. Then you punch it down and form it and that takes another 10 minutes (more if you are doing rolls, less if you are doing loaves). Then it has to rise again, you have to check on it, and then you can bake it. Nothing about that is very difficult but it is a time commitment.

The bread maker can do the whole thing for you, or it can make the dough and you can form it and do the final rise and bake. I made bread the original way in my younger days but now I use the breadmaker. It's not as good and the loaf is a weird shape but it actually gets done instead of my having good intentions but never making bread.

If you can bake sugar cookies you can bake bread. I suggest giving it a try before you buy a bread machine.

I am really picky about bread, I don't like how the store bought stuff is full of preservatives. I don't like to cook and I'm not good at it, but I can bake a few things okay because I am slowly learning to follow recipes. My husband suggested I learn to make bread, but I have no idea how complicated this is. Is it hard? Should I get a breadmaker or no? Or does this sound like a bad idea and should I stick to sugar cookies???