A bread maker is heaven,it does all the work and is lovely having fresh hot bread at home,also great for pizza dough,

I bought a bread maker from a second hand place – it is great.

My sister in law used to make bread from scratch , but she told us that for some reason there was always a problem with the dough ( perhaps not kneading right ) and the bread turns out tough . She did the lazy thing of buying a breadmaker and now throws all ingredients in , put on the timer and wake up with fresh bread in the morning . I am not sure what brand but browse around and you may find one on sale and make sure it is an easy function one you can follow .

Great! Really interesting reading the comments to this!

Definitely go for the bread maker. You have beautifully made loaves every single time, no mistakes. You can use spelt flour in a bread maker. I’ve got one, best present I’ve ever got for usefulness. It makes jam too as well as pasta and pizza doughs. Love it!

Personally, I like the kneading of the dough. Makes lifes’ (little) frustrations a little bit easier to bare. lol. It also helps knowing that you did this yourself – and you also learn valuable skills as well. If the machine breaks down, you don’t need to rush around trying to fix it and go without your daily loaf. Also, you can bring your knowledge to outside the home,Think camping!

I love to fresh bread bought bread tastes like cardboard to me. I’m not sure what you have at home but I love spelt as it’s gluten isn’t as strong as modern flours and has slightly more nutritional value. There are 3 things to consider with spelt is 1. you cannot knead it for as long as premium bakers flour weaker glutens mean it is easy to over knead. Rule of thumb knead anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of time you would knead bakers flour. 2. It absorbs more water so you will need a higher water/flour ratio and 3. In my experience spelt bread tends to go dry/stale much quicker then white flour. Therefore either freeze portions or make smaller loaves that you will eat in 24 hours. To get the best of both worlds I knead 60% white flour with 60% water for the 2/3 of the time and then add 40% spelt and same again for water for the rest of the time. I end up with a healthier tastier loaf that lasts longer then 100% spelt loaf.

I have a sunbeam bread maker! It is AMAZING and so worth it! It can just do the kneading for you, cook the whole lot breads, sweet breads, scones, cakes, James, damper etc! Very worth the money you spend! Nothing compares to the smell of bread baking when you wake up! ( it has a timer!)

do whatever is the most convenient. fresh bread is so delicious and while it is baking, the house smells nice

a lot of bread makers have timers on them so you can select when to start making the bread etc, I have a aldi bread maker and its good

I don’t have bread maker, only used Kenwood Chef. It is work and no messy.

there are some good comments here

we used to just use the dough hook on the mixer – worked well

we might get one ourselves

a breadmaker takes all the work out of it for you but if you dont mind baking it in the oven you could just use a mixer with a dough hook to help with the kneading. my kids love to help me bake (2 & 3). sometimes i just have to make little jobs for them but it’s great fun. they love sifting flour and mixing.