Do bread makers save money?

[Radiance]

A loaf of bread goes for $2.5 - $3 (whole grain)
We eat about almost two a week, so it is almost $16/month.

I don't see me making my bread from scratch, so I was wandering is a good bread maker machine would be a good idea.

[disneysteve]

Bread machines have gotten quite cheap and they do a good job. We go through phases where we use ours regularly and then periods where it is packed away in the garage for months at a time. We just recently pulled it out again and have been making challah bread. My wife wanted to bring some when we go to my cousin's house this weekend for Rosh Hashanah.

Fresh bread beats the store bought stuff any day, so taste and quality is a big consideration. The homemade stuff is healthier, too, because it doesn't have all the artificial stuff and preservatives.

As for cost, it really depends. You need to find a good inexpensive source of ingredients. Buying in bulk is your best bet. Buying yeast, for example, in the little single use packets at the supermarket is very costly. If you can buy a large quantity, you'll cut your per loaf cost a lot. I'd look online for supplies.

[Radiance]

Good stuff,

Any recommendations on bread makers?

Special requirements:
1) Allow whole grain
2) Versatile, so I can also do muffins, pizza dough, cinammom rolls and more

Thanks!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

My son bought one at an estate sale when he went to college. He buys flour and yeast in bulk. The yeast costs about the same for about a pound of it at Costco as for a strip of three packets at our supermarket. On the internet he found the recipe booklet that was supposed to be with the machine. After a while, he altered recipes to make them as he wanted, including using other grains and extra gluten. Then he started using the machine only to mix and raise the dough. He would then put the dough into traditional loaf pans and cook it in the regular oven. His machine made round loaves and sometimes he wanted square slices.

He finds his bread machine very money saving compared to purchasing the kind of dense expensive bread he likes.

He tells me there are a lot of bread machines to be had for $5-20 at estate sales. He paid $6 for his.

[disneysteve]

Every machine I've seen has a "dough only" mode that lets you use the machine to mix the dough and then take it out to bake it. That allows for things like pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, etc. We do that for the Challah as we take it out to shape it or braid it.

[investingnoob]

sounds like too much of a hastle...I'll stick to my sara lee, lol.

[disneysteve]

sounds like too much of a hastle...I'll stick to my sara lee, lol.

Bread makers are quite simple to use. It usually takes no more than 15 minutes to measure everything out and hit start. The machine does all the work from there.

[sarah]

I love my bread machine when it works but often the bread falls. It will rise and then as it is baking it falls. Any idea what's wrong.

[Save Money Hound]

Bread makers are quite reasonably priced these days.

Overall i think they are great value as long as you can source the ingredients at a reasonable price. Buying the ingredients in bulk will help bring the cost of an average loaf down.

Lastly, and more importantly, you can make the bread to your own requirements eg wholemeal flour, and it smells wonderful as you wake up to the smell of bread baking in the morning.

[disneysteve]

I love my bread machine when it works but often the bread falls. It will rise and then as it is baking it falls. Any idea what's wrong.

I'm not sure but one thing to check is that the water temperature is correct for fully activating the yeast. The recipe should tell you what temp is best.

[sarah]

thanks for the tip

[Radiance]

My son bought one at an estate sale when he went to college. .

Joan, what is a state sale?

[disneysteve]

Joan, what is a state sale?

An estate sale is like a house sale or tag sale. It often occurs when someone has died and the family is clearing out the contents of the house. There are companies that come in and sell everything in exchange for a cut of the sales. So kind of like a yard sale, but usually held inside the home. You walk in and around the house and buy anything and everything.

[Cassandra]

Have you consider getting a stand mixer instead of a bread machine?

My dad was showing me how to make bread from scratch today and we used a stand mixer (Kitchenaid). It took a few minutes to knead the dough using the mixer (using, of course, the dough hook). Then we put the dough in a bowl and let it rise for an hour, kneaded it for a few minutes by hand (very easy to do once you get the hang of it), and let it rise again. Then we put it in the oven and waited for it to bake.

A stand mixer will be more expensive than a bread machine, but I think it will be more useful than a bread machine. You can use a stand mixer for so many things that you can't use a bread machine for. Target, Walmart, Amazon.com, Costco, and probably other stores I can't think of, sell stand mixers for a decent price. You can even check out eBay or thrift stores or estate sales for stand mixers. Personally, I would rather wait a little bit longer and buy a good stand mixer than a bread machine because a mixer is more versatile, IMO.

[disneysteve]

Two comments:

1. Cassandra, it is true that a stand mixer is more versatile (we have a Kitchenaid and love it), the big attraction of a bread machine is set it and forget it. No muss. No fuss. It takes 10-15 minutes to measure all the ingredients. Then you turn it on and you're done. The machine does everything else. If I wanted to knead bread by hand, I wouldn't use a bread machine. The machines also have a timer so we can put in the ingredients and set it to be ready at a certain time, like breakfast or dinner.

2. One problem that I was reminded of at dinner tonight. As I mentioned earlier, the bread is phenomenally better than store bought stuff so you tend to eat more of it. My wife made a double size challah tonight. 4 of us devoured about 2/3 of it. Had it been a store bought challah, I probably would have had one slice.