Panasonic SD253

I bought this bread machine for my mother a few years ago, but now find that I use it more than she does. I absolutely love making my own bread, you know pretty much what's going into it (depending on the ingredients you use of course, though I tend to try and use products which are chemical/processing-free as far as possible). The machine came with an excellent instruction and recipe booklet which I use regularly, I love to make bread with all kinds of seeds and nuts, even lavender in, and as long as I follow the easy to-to-follow instructions, every loaf turns out well. I have had a couple of bread-disasters, but they only occurred as a result of human ...  Read the complete review

I've just been given this from a very kind freecycler so this is my first experience of making bread in a machine - I have tried by hand but ended up with a hard, lunar landscape rather than anything edible. I'm rather a strange case as I have crohn's disease so the high fibre/whole grain type of bread that we are told to eat will actually make me ill. The machine itself was bought in 2003 so I was a bit dubious wether it would work but I've been really pleasantly suprised. Yesterday afternoon it was off to the local shop to buy strong white flour and packet yeast - apparently packet yeast is much better for breadmakers then live yeast. I'm really posting this ...  Read the complete review

I bought the Panasonic SD253 18 months ago for about £90. What's in the box? ============ A breadmaker with the bread pan and blade, a measuring cup, a measuring spoon and a recipe book. My experiences of different breads I've made: Bread (like a sandwich loaf) ==== I've made white bread, brown bread, wholemeal bread and half and half bread. It says in the recipes to use Strong flour. Although I think Strong White flour gives better results, I think for day to day and if you're on a budget then Value/Basics/Smart Price plain white flour is OK. I find the bread to be good enough for sandwiches for 2 days, and after ...  Read the complete review

Several years ago we went for a meal at our friends' house and they cooked home-made pizzas for us. The pizzas were delicious, and having discovered that they'd made the bases in their breadmaker we had the first thoughts that a breadmaker may be useful. However, we were unsure how much we'd use one and didn't feel it was justified just for making pizzas! A few days later we were out shopping and a very nice lady in John Lewis offered us some bread that had been made in one of their breadmakers. I have to say it was the nicest piece of bread I'd ever had and from that moment we knew we were going to get one. After some online research, we discovered that the ...  Read the complete review

The Panasonic SD 253 breadmaker is an excellent buy. Two friends both recommended this model and so we thought we would try it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I had never baked my own bread previously and this was so easy to use. We were not sure whether to buy the SD253 or the SD252. We went for the SD253, simply because it was a newer model and we thought it would have been tested better. However, it is essentially the same as the SD252 but the SD253 has a seed dispenser. I have used both models and would recommend them both. It depends if you want to spend a little extra. Positives: Comes with a simple to follow instruction ...  Read the complete review