Breadmaker

A breadmaker is a home appliance for baking bread, it handles the process from ingredients to a finished loaf automatically. The machine consists of a bread pan with a paddle mounted in the centre, in a special purpose oven, with a control panel.

To use the ingredients for bread, flour, water, salt, sugar, yeast, butter, and milk powder (or fresh milk) are measured, and added to the bread pan; the pan is placed in the breadmaker. The machine takes a few hours to make a loaf of bread, first by turning the ingredients into dough using the paddle, then baking the loaf. When it has finished baking and has been given a chance to cool down the pan is extracted from the breadmaker, and the bread freed from the pan. The paddle is now in the bottom of the loaf, and has to be removed, leaving a small paddle shaped hole.

Generally, the bread goes stale faster than bread from a commercial baker because it doesn't have the same additives. However, it is possible to use a sourdough starter in breadmaker dough recipes. Sourdough contains a symbiotic brew of yeast and lactobacteria cultures. Lactic acid produced by sourdough's lactobacteria greatly preserves bread, as well as enhancing its flavor.

Breadmakers are equipped with a timer, so that they can be loaded at night before going to bed, and be set to start in the early morning, so the user has a freshly baked loaf ready for breakfast. The machine can sometimes be set to just make the dough, not to bake it, in which case it is baked in an oven. Pizza dough is another option.

Packets of bread mix are available, designed specifically for breadmakers, they consist of the ingredients pre-measured. The only one that needs to be added is water.

The first breadmaker was released in Japan in 1986. They became popular in the United Kingdom in the late-1990s.

Using a bread maker is a convenient way to avoid the hydrogenated vegetable oil that supermarkets add to their bread to make it bake quicker.

Some breadmakers can be set to make other things besides bread, usually jam.

Manufacturers of breadmakers include:

• Panasonic
• Black & Decker
• Kenwood