Yes, but just get whichever one you find at a thrift store. They’re usually <$30 US near me and in near mint condition. I think people get them as gifts and then get bored of them really often.

For best results with sticking to using it and not caving and buying bread, make pre-measured batches of dry ingredients you can easily toss in the machine and then you only have to measure the liquids.

Finding one with a timer function is a nice luxury as you can set it up the night before and wake up to fresh bread.

However, if you’re making it while awake, it’s worth taking the paddle out from under the loaf right before it starts the bake cycle so that the hole in the loaf bottom is minimized.

They’re great for making the dough as well. So you can do fancier bakes and still get the benefit

I have a pretty big kitchen, but I wouldn’t sacrifice the space.

High hydration, low yeast bread is absurdly easy to prepare. No kneeling, just a few minutes of work every half hour until the gluten forms. Throw it in the fridge or leave it on the counter for a while, and bake in the oven.

You really don’t need half the crap we enthusiasts use.

I never thought it was more convenient than just having a mixer. Same amount of countertop space, but only a single function. I never was a big fan of the loaves they made, either. Always kinda weird shaped and with that hole from the paddle.

My sister bought a bread maker and gave it to me after realizing it’s not her thing. I’ve been using it to make white bread for years now. Maybe about 100 loaves already over a five years.

If you’re not using it for that purpose, but instead prefer to make buns or French bread, id skip it.

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First of all, you need to know that bread machine bread is nowhere as good as something actually kneaded.

Secondly, bread machine bread is very similar, regardless of which of the 32 variants on the machine, it will have mostly the same structure, and mostly the same crust. People who have baked bread often enjoy the variety, bread machines won’t help with that.

Thirdly, bread machine recipes are always bad, you will need to experiment. Even if the recipes are with products available at your local store, humidity and quality will differ enough that you’ll have to give it a few trials to get it right. Or at least find recipes for your machine from your area.

With that behind said, they’re very convenient, and you’ll be making a lot of bread as you’ll have no excuse not to eat it fresh. Within the limitations of the machine there’s still a lot to explore as well, with different types of flour, nuts/seeds, fruit, sweetener, leavening, etc.

How hard are they to clean? Seems easier to just use a stand mixer.

Only if you are ok eating lots and lots of bread. Because they are pretty fun. Your mistakes are often still delicious.

If you know someone who has one you could borrow for a few weeks, that would be ideal. I mostly use mine to make dough and then bake in the oven. For regular sandwich loaves that’s because the bread machine pan makes loaves that are too wide for my taste.

For recipes, King Arthur Flour’s website is a good resource.

I use mine to mix doughs and they’re ideal for resting and rising.

I make loaves too but if you don’t want to hand mix a load of doughs or cake mixes and your house is too cold for rising then they can be more useful.

I’ve had mine two or three years and have bought bread only a couple of times since. It’s probably still someway off from paying for itself but the bread is much tastier!

If you buy one, I recommend one with a separate yeast dispenser.

Yes it is extremely convenient. If you want even more convenience you can even buy full bread mix bags that have yeast / fat / seeds already added and you just add water. The bread that comes out using the mix is quite a bit better than regular and it’s an easy way to rid animal products from a large part of your diet (if you eat a lot of bread like me)

I was given one and haven’t used it once. You can have mine. Not sure what I am supposed to do with it.

Bread machine is fantastic: just drop the ingredients and press go. I picked one up during pandemic (paid way too much since everyone else did too) and it became a game night thing with my kids: play video games until the bread machine beeps. I also used the scheduling function so I could awaken to fresh bread, although it limits the ingredients to things you can leave out

While the bread isn’t as good as scratch made bread, it is SOOOOOO much better than store bought. It was months before we got a loaf with any slices left for the next day. Actually I’m intentionally avoiding it now because it was so good that I found myself eating way too much bread.

I never found a recipe that was good for sandwich bread, plus the shape isn’t right, so it was never a practical choice, merely a treat. I did have a co-worker bring in a sandwich on bread machine bread everyday, so it can be practical too

It’s very easy to clean.

I never tried the dough function or the dessert/sweet bread function

I have never seen the point. I made some simple bread rolls tonight.

With the dough hook it took me 5 minutes to mix the dough.

The another 5 minutes to form it into rolls and they just came out of the oven.

Literally took 10 minutes of effort to make them. While I was drinking a glass of wine and playing on my phone.