Make Your Own Bread the Easy Way

Bread; it really is the staff of life. The smell of bread baking ranks in the top five list of all-time best smells. With the cost of a loaf of bread these days going from $1.19 for the processed stuff to $5.00 or more for bakery breads, it's making more and more sense to go out and buy your very own bread baking machine. There are quite a few on the market to choose from. Which is the best choice for your family's bread needs?

I bought my bread machine back in the late 80s as they were coming into vogue. By sheer luck, I happened to pick out one that suited my needs perfectly; a Sanyo Home Bakery. This no-frills model bakes a loaf of bread for you or kneads the dough so you can bake it yourself. For the first few years, I simply let the machine do the work. Throw in the flour, salt, yeast, butter,sugar, and water, wait 3 hours and pull out a freshly baked loaf of bread. Easy! The only drawback to this was the oddly-shaped loaf of bread the machine would produce; sort of tall, rounded and rectangular with a dent in the side from the kneading paddle. Slicing it produced delicious but oversized bread slices that weren't ideal for sandwich making.

Being the type who wants their fresh bread but is short on time, I found that the Sanyo model suited me perfectly. It also had a timer feature; set timer and add ingredients the night before and wake up to freshly baked bread. Sublime! In recent years I've been using the dough setting and baking the bread myself. Still ridiculously easy and much cheaper than buying bread at the store. I spent $6.00 on two loaf pans at K-Mart. Now I add the ingredients, set the bread machine to "dough", and when it beeps I pull out my already kneaded loaf, put it in the loaf pan and let it rise once (about 20 minutes) before baking it. After 19 years of hard use, my little no-frills Sanyo bread machine is still working like a champ.

On today's market, the Zojirushi BBCC X-20* bread machine is the highest rated according to Consumer Reports. Features include Sourdough starter cycle, dual paddles, seven baking cycles, 13-hour delay timer, three-recipe memory function, 2-hour quick-baking cycle, three-level crust control, cake and jam settings and one-year warranty. This model is for the avid bread lover who wants to branch out and experiment.The sourdough starter is a convenient feature, though you can easily start your own. Retail price is right around $200.00.

If you're calorie and carb-conscious and don't want to do the homework, another alternative is the Breadman Ultimate Freedom TR2500BC* bread machine. Retailing at around $80.00 new, it is another highly-rated bread machine according to Consumer Reports. Features include 16 preprogrammed cycles with variations for crust color, dough cycles, cake and jam cycles, gluten-free and low-carb cycles, crust control, single paddle, 12-hour delay timer, power-failure backup, and one-year warranty. Perfect for those whose families have special dietary requirements.

If you're like me and just want to make your own bread, a "no-frills" model with a bread setting and a dough setting works well. In addition to costing less, it does have some versatility with dough settings. I've made pizza and bagel dough as well as bread.

Packaged bread mixes can be had at most grocery stores for about $1.19. These make it so easy you'll wonder why you didn't buy a bread making machine years ago. Add the package and some water to the machine. Turn the power on. Three hours later you've got fresh hot bread and that wonderful smell throughout your home.

Baking your own bread also brings out your creative side after awhile. I've invented 2 types of cornbread, an oatmeal/almond bread and a savory pizza crust using my dough setting.

Give yourself and your family the true luxury of homemade bread at 1/5 the cost of buying it. You'll find that $60.00 or so you spent on a bread making machine was a real investment in terms of comfort and joy!