Russell Hobbs Electric Bread Maker, 12 Program Settings inc Gluten Free, 3 Crust Settings, 13h Timer, 2 Bread Sizes 750g & 1kg, Viewing Window, Auto 1hr Keep Warm Function, Energy Saving, 550W, 27260

I'm giving this five stars *for the price*. You will find "better" bread machines, but with commensurate higher prices. Buy with confidence, but you might need something to hold it on the worktop. Read on for more details. I owned a Panasonic PM-SD106 for many years, even going through a replacement bin and stirrer (not sure of the correct terms). This was a solid piece of machinery and produced good bread with regularity. What bugged me was how the bread was kind of tall and square at the base. I started cutting the bread from the bottom, but it was a pain. The stupid tall slices wouldn't toast evenly in a toaster! Anyway, fast-forward to about six months ago when the Panasonic finally died and we decided to buy a new one. We chose the Russell Hobbs 27260 because it was quite cheap and seemed to be quite big. Here's what I like about it (especially compared to the other one): * It makes a big loaf of bread. Actually, I've only ever tried the "small" 750g setting so far, and that does our family of four for about five days (mostly breakfast toast). NB: Home-baked loaves go off more quickly than supermarket stuff because of the lack of preservatives, so whatever you make you need to eat within a few days. Therefore, there's a direct relationship between the amount of bread you eat and the amount you should make, unless you freeze it. If we were planning to have sandwiches for lunch, I'd go up to the 1kg loaf setting. Compare this to the Panasonic, which produced a loaf about 1/2-2/3 the size. * It's cheap. No elaboration needed. You'll break even on buying supermarket / bakery bread before this thing breaks. * It's simple. The old machine needed quite a lot of settings. This new one has about 10 basic modes (of which I use two: white bread and wholemeal), and then you choose crust colour and size. Very simple U.I. that can be used by a child, with no language ability needed. * The stirrer doesn't mess up the bread too much. So, if you've not bought a bread machine before, you need to know that the little paddle / stirrer thing that kneads the bread for you has to stay within the machine throughout the baking process. This means that your loaf of bread will have a 1-2 inch gouge out of it in the base of the loaf. This means that if you slice your loaf into 10 slices, about 2-3 will have a raggedy missing bit at the bottom. This doesn't bother me at all, but it's worth knowing. Compared to my old Panasonic, the stirrer gouge is slightly smaller. Somehow the stirrer comes out more easily than it did with the old one, and leaves less of a hole. This machine comes with a little hook to take the stirrer out of your loaf if it gets stuck, which it seems to about 2 times out of 5. * It doesn't have a separate yeast dispenser. See below. The things that might put you off are: * It's big. It takes up almost the space of a microwave. This doesn't bother me because I can pack it away and put things on top of it when it's not in use, but people with small kitchens might want to take this into consideration. If you're diligent and clean it and pack it away each time, you'll be fine. * It feels cheap. Compared to the thick, non-stick metal of the Panasonic, the ingredients bin feels very thin. This doesn't affect the baking for me, but if you drop it on the kitchen floor you're probably looking at replacing it. Similarly the hinge of the lid is very wobbly. Again, this is only opened and closed maybe twice per loaf, so I don't think this is a problem, but other machines feel more sturdy. * It wobbles. Owing to the massive torque imparted by the kneading stirrer / paddle thing, the whole machine moves around quite a bit. I bought a silicon sheet a few years ago (goodness knows what for), and I find that this anchors the machine to the worktop quite well. You will need to do something similar. Again, pricier machines probably don't have this problem. My old Panasonic didn't, but it made loaves with a much smaller footprint (base size) so that probably explains the exponentially smaller movement. * It doesn't have a separate yeast dispenser. I like this feature. The yeast dispenser of my Panasonic was quite annoying - it would get gummed up with old yeast and it made a big clicking sound when dropping the yeast into the dough. The Russell Hobbs machine lacks a separate dispenser and I find no problem with the final loaves. The reason for dispensing the yeast separately is that the salt that is needed in a loaf will kill some of the yeast, so adding it later will mitigate this. The RH machine manages this by suggesting you add the yeast at the very top of the ingredients (the recipes specify the order things should be added), and I find this doesn't make a big difference. If you want to add the yeast to the water (with the sugar), you can. You can even open the machine and sprinkle in the yeast after the first knead. The point is that I don't miss the separate yeast dispenser at all (well... I miss cleaning the damned thing!) Similarly this machine doesn't have a separate dispenser for things like seeds, but instead it has an alarm to remind you to add them. This doesn't bother me at all. For the difference in price, I'm happy to wait for the alarm. Conclusion. Buy with confidence. I waited a few months before writing this review, but the improvement of this machine over my previous one was evident quite quickly. If you want a machine that looks fancy and holds your hand, go for a more expensive one. If you want something that bakes bread for a busy family, get this one. Just don't drop it.

makes great bread, easy to use. pro-tip is to remove the bread before it starts baking (about 1h15m before the end of the French Bread cycle) and put it in the oven at about 200 degrees celsius for about 40 mins instead, with a light coating of olive oil

First of all we need to understand that is a cheap bread maker. I'm Portuguese so I'm used to having very good bread. This machine can do that kind of bread? Hell no. What this machine does very well is the dough, that you can use for almost everything, and finishing in the oven.

Back in early 2000's my parents had one of these, And it was amazing. Freshly made bread as a kid was just So good, So I decided to finally buy one myself, Honestly, I wish I bought one sooner, works absolutely amazing, all the ingredients are used is, 250g flower, salt sugar, yeast, qnd it makes absolutely amazing bread. Not only that you are not getting bread from supermarket with 20+ different ingredients in now. 10/10 would recommend,

Quite a nice little bread making machine. A little noisy for a while at the beginning as it stirs up the ingredients, but am producing some nice gluten free loaves with no problem. Make sure you use the correct ingredients and amounts I would say for good results. Easy to clean afterwards, great value little machine.

Great machine and the bread turns out fine every time, for me the loaves are small so I've used it to make the dough and then transfer the dough to a bread tin for a bigger loaf, it's great for 1 or 2 people but not large families, easy to use and clean doesn't make too much noise as I have an open plan kitchen I didn't notice it working loud over the TV

Brilliant. Makes fantastic Brean. Only criticism is the buzzer at the finish , impossible to hear unless you're standing in front of it , works well as a Dog alarm, at least they can hear it and they come and tell me it's ready.

I like the process of making bread by hand so I wasn't sure I'd gel with this bread maker but I also knew I'd eat more home made bread if I had a machine doing some of the work for me. But I have found it easy to use. I initially thought I hadn't been given the paddle as I couldn't find it in anywhere in the box despite a long search. It was only when I was throwing out the polystyrene bits that I realised the blade was bedded (intentionally) almost completely in one of them. I imagine a lot of people have accidentally thrown it away - would be helpful if the instructions told you where it was. Apart from that was easy to put together. Capacity - the machine makes 750g and 1kg loafs - it would be easier for converting recipes if the two sizes had been the standard 1lb (400g) and 2lb (800g) but I use the Wright's, Tesco and Sainsbury's own label bread mixes using the instructions the packages give for 2lb loaves with the larger 1kg programme and it's worked fine keeping an eye on it near the end. The loaf in the picture was my first attempt using a recipe of my own, bit wonky but tasted great. Not had any problem with texture. The instruction book tip of getting the right temp for added water is worth using in order for the yeast to work at its best - use 2 parts cold water to 1 part boiling. Not had any problem cleaning this or getting the bread out with a good shake and a spatula to ease the edges free of tin but the paddle nearly always sticks in the loaf. Not difficult to get out - they include a hook to do this - but it means a slight deformity in the bottom of a couple of slices ish. My friend tells me you can stop the machine at a certain point after mixing is complete to remove the mixing paddle and then no hole will be visible but I generally don't bother. Comes with paper instruction booklet with several recipes including for jam, a cake, and gluten free bread. I've only tried the basic white loaf from that and it was nicely textured and tasty.