Ode to my breadmaker

A few of you may already know (or have heard me wax poetically) about the fact that I recently got a breadmaker. 

A little part of me hurt to get it - I actually LOVE baking bread.  I love being able to make something really wonderful, comforting and worthwhile with my bare hands, some flour and a few other ingredients.  It also brings back great memories of my dad baking bread, bagels, etc and makes me feel a little closer to home - which is a nice thing when you live about 4700 miles away!

But the reality is that I just don't often have time to bake bread these days.  Between work, school, husband, cat, and occasionally trying to get a few bike rides and runs in, there just isn't time to spend a whole afternoon kneading and rising, etc.  But I love eating homebaked bread, so I thought this might be a great solution.  I get the bread without the big time commitment and without having to really babysit the bread.

So... more about the fabulous breadmaker.  I got the Cuisinart CBK-100 Programmable Breadmaker.  Mostly I picked this one because it got good reviews on Amazon, bakes the bread so you get a horizontal loaf instead of a vertical one and beeps so you can remove the paddle and not have a huge hole on the bottom of your loaf.  (It also makes jams, although I haven't tried that part of it yet!)

The first night I got it, we made a very successful loaf of French bread (sorry no pictures of that one) for fondue the next night.  Amazingly easy - all I had to do was put ingredients in the little bowl in the right order, put it in the breadmaker and walk away!

Since the original night I've also made a hugely successful loaf of Pumpernickel bread (my FAVORITE).  I love pumpernickel bread and always struggle to find it and have never had the courage to try to make it from scratch before (lots of weird ingredients).  Out of the loafs I've made so far, this one was definitely my favorite. 

I've also made a honey whole wheat loaf, which turned out rather well as well (not as photogenic as the pumpernickel, but still tastes great!).

So from this, I've come to the conclusion that I LOVE my breadmaker.  I am a hugely messy cook - especially when it comes to anything with flour.  I swear, every time I open that flour canister, it just explodes all over me and the kitchen.  My husband finds this phenomenon hugely amusing (actually, I kind of do too - I even got the cat floured one time!).  With the breadmaker, it mostly keeps this under control.  I get a little flour on the counter but since I don't really do anything with it except scoop it into the breadmaker bowl, there's not a huge mess.  Also, there are way fewer dishes to do, again since it all happens in one place. 

I love the convenience of the breadmaker, but I think I will probably continue to make bread from scratch when I have the time and the inclination because doing it mechanically (or "cheating" as my husband has decided to call it) takes away the fun and the enjoyment.  But breadmaker bread is still way better than no fresh bread at all!