I love homemade bread but despite being an otherwise good cook have always found making it by hand very hit and miss.

When I decided to get a breadmaker after realising that they not only make the whole process very easy but save a fortune compared to hsop bought bread (a loaf costs around 30p including the electricity) I spent a long time checking online to find out about them.

Despite the higher price this one stood out amongst the rest and so I decided to invest the extra money for it.

I'm very glad I did. I've seen several other people I know have very little success with cheaper breadmakers yet I've never had a bad loaf.

In fact it constantly surprises me every time I take a loaf out how consistent it is in producing great bread.

I have also had great results on the rapid bake options - in fact the standard loaf I make is a wholemeal one on rapid bake and it's always very good.

The bread of course tastes fantastic as the only ingredients are yeast, flour, butter, water and a bit of sugar and salt.

The book that comes with it is very good and has loads of recipes for different types of bread plus cakes, pizza dough, etc etc.

Some people seem to have an issue with the blade making a hoel in the bottom of the loaf - this ends up being a tiny V at the bottom of each slice though when you actually slice the loaf so it's no problem.

I would recommend as soon as the loaf finishes taking it out and putting it onto a cooling rack wrapped in a tea towel - this keeps the crust nice.

To clean it between each use I just put some hot water in the bottom of the pan, then lightly wipe it with the soft side of a pan scourer.

Only one issue to report - everyone eats much more bread now because it's so nice so i have to make a loaf every three days or so. However it still works out cheaper than using shop-bought and it's so much nicer I would probably still use it even if it wasn't.

I would put the fact it doesn't have the raisin/nut dispenser as a negative point (the 255 does but you pay extra for it) but you can still select the raisin option - it just beeps at a certain point and then you put in your extra ingredients. Chocolate chip Brioche anyone?