I’ve now been an owner of a bread machine for 5 months, and now I think it is time for me to write about my own experiences about the pros and cons in my opinion when you bake bread with a bread maker.

First and foremost, it has meant that I have started to bake my own bread, instead of buying them at the local baker. It is incredibly easy to get started, especially when you choose to bake a type of bread that has been baked several times before, so it takes only 1-2 minutes to put the bread maker in the process of baking.

First a little bit about the disadvantages I have experienced:

• It is noisy. The kneading process is a reasonable noisy affair that lasts 30-40 minute’s total. It is perhaps not possible to avoid all the noise from the bread maker, but if you live in a small apartment or house, you cannot put it somewhere noise will not bother you. This means that you will most likely be awakened by the noise if it starts to knead the dough 3 hours before you have to get up in the morning to the wonderful freshly baked bread.
• Holes in the bottom of the bread. In the beginning I just had get used to that there was a hole in my bread but now I’ve gotten used to it, so I will not even call it a disadvantage, since it is so minimal. If people have had to discard the bread because of this, they must have done something wrong.
• Unbaked top. The top is obviously not baked as much as the sides and bottom, but it is baked enough. You cannot make bread with golden brown crust on top, but it is baked.
• Shape. Bread baked in a bread machine is square and not like the bread we know from the bakery or supermarket. It has taken a little getting used to for me and my family.
• Bread size. If you are a large family you must be aware that standard equipment on the market probably does not bake a big enough bread. Some machines, however, are big enough in size and can cover most family needs, but the price is unfortunately also often higher.

Advantages:

• Cleaning? Very easy – it’s only the baking dish that need to be cleaned but since the bread always let go easily, it is often unnecessary to do other than removing the piece of bread, which sits on the shaft to the dough hook. Most bread machines are fitted with Teflon coating and the parts can easily be removed, and usually be put in the dishwasher.
• Kneading. The bread maker can also be used to knead dough for other types of bread that you do not want to bake in the bread maker. I have successfully put it to knead the dough into buns, cookies and cake.
• The smell of fresh bread. It’s wonderful that with the timer you can be sure that there is always freshly baked bread in the morning or evening with your cup of coffee. The smell of freshly baked bread from the baking machine makes it certainly easier to get out of bed in the morning.
• Baking Master. If you, as I do, love to experiment with creating various new breads and invent new recipes, so you feel like a real baking champion, then a bread maker is an absolute hit. So far I have tried with Graham flour, cracked wheat kernels, walnuts, rye bread mixture.

Apart from the noise, I’m really happy with my bread maker. It makes excellent bread. It is easy to clean, and as I said, incredibly easy to set up. One will soon find their favorite recipes, but it’s also quite fun to experiment with kneading / raise / bake times and ingredients.