Breadmakers offer a quick and easy way to make not only your own bread, but often a range of other products too, ranging from pizza bases to croissants. Using one also means you know exactly what is going into your food, and they can also provide versatility in the way food looks, for example crust colours. Their basic mode of action is to knead and bake either your own or pre-packed ingredients into bread, but many have additional options which you can take advantage of. Breadmakers needn’t be expensive, and the following tips should help you decide which model is right for you.

Style and Colour

Not all breadmakers are white and chunky – there are some compact versions on the market, and a variety of colours, so choose one which suits your kitchen’s style and space.

Settings

These can also be referred to as 'cycles' and are basically the number of variations in dough, grain and cooking type which the breadmaker can perform. Thus they include settings such as 'raisin bread', 'fast cook' and 'wholegrain or whole-wheat', allowing you to customise what your end product. Generally speaking, the higher the number of settings, the more versatile the breadmaker will be. Breadmakers are potentially capable of producing a wide variety of products such as dough for: pizza bases, croissants, loaves of bread (with crust/type control), rolls, scones and raisin bread…

In particular, look for 'fast cook' settings, which will allow you to bake bread in an hour or so. Settings are an important feature to look at if you want to be able to make bread and other products that look exactly as you want them to look.

Some models have ‘dough only’ facilities, which will stop when dough is kneaded – particularly useful when baking products other than loaves of bread.

Capacity and shape

When buying a breadmaker, you should take into account how much and what type of bread you will be baking. Bread capacity varies quite a lot (from 1lb to 2.5lb), as does the size and shape of bread that can be produced - whilst some machines will produce a standard sized loaf, others will make three or four different sizes. There are also horizontal and vertical bread pans, as well as ones producing square or rectangular bread.

Timers

Most breadmakers can be programmed at least 12 hours in advance - select one with a simple to use timer. Features which you may find useful in addition to this are a keep warm facility, which will keep bread warm on finishing cooking and an 'add in ingredients' signal, particularly helpful if you're using your own mixture. A window in the breadmaker will allow you to see how cooking is progressing if the model you choose has one.

Extras

Although it might all sound simple enough, look for extras like recipe booklets and non-stick pans, which will help make life a little easier.

Spare Parts

These seem to be hard to come by for some breadmakers. So, if you are the type that would rather fix your breadmaker than replace it, do your homework first. Also, if you do come across some information or suppliers of spare parts that you think other breadmaker users will find useful please let us know by sending an e-mail to infouk@pricerunner.com with the subject "Useful breadmaker tips".