When it comes to cooking or baking I am not that particularly good at it, the limits of my cooking skills are beans on toast & heating up soup from a tin. I rely totally on my better half. I heard many good reports about bread makers & decided after reading an alarming report on what is actually in an average loaf of bread that you buy in a supermarket, to start making my own.
Any bread maker I purchased would need to be utterly idiot proof, make a selection of different breads to suit the family's varied tastes & I wanted something that could be moved around the kitchen so that it doesn't take up too much space.
I purchased a Panasonic SD255 bread maker form John Lewis for £99.00, it's one of two Panasonic models they had displayed but this one had more features & could make a larger selection of breads. In size it didn't look too big in the shop but once you get it home it's not as portable as you think & takes up more space than I anticipated. Its dimensions are approx 37cm high, 28cm wide & 33cm in depth. It will tuck under an average wall mounted cabinet in a kitchen but you cannot open the lid fully. So my best advice is to measure up before you buy it.
The instruction book doubles up as a recipe book & I have to say it is really 'idiot proof'. Firstly, the bread maker is able to make an incredible selection of breads. White loaf, wholemeal loaf, spicy fruit loaf, brioche loaf, apricot & almond loaf, wheat germ loaf, oat & bran loaf, pizza loaf, five seeded loaf, brown loaf, malted loaf, curry & mango loaf, cheese & bacon loaf, pesto & pine nut loaf, olive loaf, spicy fruit loaf, rye loaf, gluten free loaf, French loaf, ciabatta, tomato focaccia, cakes, & much more.
It features a nut & seed dispenser, which many of the cheaper models didn't have & full timer facilities.
Panasonic really couldn't have made the machine any simpler to use, provided you use the simple instructions & follow the ingredients listed you can bake a rapid loaf in less than 2 hours. The bread maker comes with a measuring spoon, water measure jug, two kneading blades (that mix the ingredients) & removable bread pan. Once you have added the ingredients to the bread pan & simply inserted it into the machine, you simply choose the size of bread you want, how you want it baked (e.g. rapid) & the type of crust (light or dark) that you wish & then set the timer. The timer can be set to switch on during the night & be ready for when you get up in the morning or you can just set for baking right away. The machine will 'beep' when its ready & all you do is remove the bread from the machine, let it cool down & enjoy eating it.
You must remember to us non self rising flour, also the machine cannot slice the bread & because the bread can be really soft I would advise buying a decent bread knife or you end up with slices the thickness of a door step that won't fit into a toaster.
The proof is in the tasting & I have so say that the end product was absolutely gorgeous.
If you are serious about making your own bread, which in the long term will prove to be cost effective & are concerned what bread companies are putting into your average loaf, consider this bread maker. You won't regret it.