Breadmakers with Homemade Cycles Hit the UK Market

Note: This review focuses on customisable bread makers available in the UK. For an overview of similar products available in North America, click here.

Unold's customisable breadmaker, available through Amazon.co.uk

Modern breadmakers are a far cry from the first automatic breadmakers that hit the shelves in the UK in the 1980s. These modern all-singing, all-dancing kitchen appliances feature everything from pre-programmed gluten-free cycles to marmalade modes, and some of the latest bread makers available in the UK even allow you to set up your own "homemade" cycles! While breadmakers with such customisable cycles may offer little value to the beginner bread machine user, these sophisticated machines are great for experienced breadmaker users and bakers who like to develop their own recipes. The emergence of breadmakers with homemade cycles is also great news for rye and spelt bread fans as you will have more control over the kneading and baking processes, allowing you to adjust the times (and in some cases even the temperatures) to better handle rye and spelt flours.

Creating your personalized baking cycle

If you decide to get a bread maker with one or more homemade cycles, you should first think about how much control you want to have over each step along the bread making process. For example, is a maximum kneading time of 60 minutes enough for your purposes? Do you want to be able to customise the temperatures as well, or is control over the kneading, rising and baking times enough? Once you know what you need, the following can help you figure out which programmable bread maker best suits your requirements:

Storing your personalized settings

Not only do the automatic bread makers included in the above chart let you customise each step of the process, they will also memorize your settings. In terms of memory, Kenwood's BM450 model comes out on top as it allows you store up to five of your favorite cycles!

Overview of other features

The bread makers included in this review have been singled out for their customisable "homemade" cycles, but these top of the range bread machines also boast a number of other interesting features. They all offer a pre-programmed marmalade program, gluten-free program, express bake cycle, three loaf sizes to choose from, crust control, keep warm function, viewing window on the lid and power interruption protection. But there are also some differences between the models. To following comparison chart may help you decide which of the machines has the best set of features and functions for your purposes:

*May be available on select cycles/programmes only (see user manuals for details)