Salter EK4189 Digital Bread Maker: Review

The smell of freshly cooked, warm bread is enough to get tummies rumbling - ours anyway!

As part of a balanced diet, bread is one of the most common go-to foods across the world. With a quick Google search, you can find out that its history is rich, and is thought to date back to around 8000 BC in the Middle East.

Whether you eat toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch or have a bit of bread and butter with your soup for dinner, bread is ingrained into the fabric of our kitchens.

But, how easy is it actually to make?

We enlisted the help of baking amateur and all-round bargain hunter, Lily Anderson, to find out.

Related: Let's raise a toast to the best bread makers around

Are you thinking about making the switch to creating your own bread? No matter if it's for dietary reasons or your love of experimenting with food, baking bread is a commitment. If you're up for the challenge, I've tried and tested the Salter EK4189 Digital Bread Maker which now lives pride and place in my kitchen.

First impressions:

From the moment it was delivered, I was blown away by how big it was. I had no idea how it was going to fit on my kitchen counter or whether it could be stored away in a cupboard. I was hoping that once I unboxed the bread maker, it wouldn't take up as much room.

I'm not going to lie, even though the cardboard box was a little on the big side - I can see why it needed it. The machine itself was huge! Thankfully it did fit on the side, and I was ready to get testing.

The review:

The reason I wanted to try a bread maker in the first place was for dietary reasons. My dad has coeliac disease, which basically means eating gluten can trigger a range of symptoms. So, when it's legally safe to do so and he's able to come round my house, I wanted to ensure I was able to make him his favourite snack - toast.

But before I could do that, I needed to practice the art of bread making.

After unboxing and wiping it down, I decided to gather ingredients to make a rapid loaf. This bread maker boasts not one, not two, but 15 different baking settings. It has functions like the 12-hour delay timer so you can conveniently time baking around working from home. Or, you could choose the quick bread option, which takes one hour 40 minutes from start to finish.

The rapid option works just fine for your run of the mill white bread, but it didn't do so well with the gluten-free flour - the dedicated gluten-free option works so much better. Keep this in mind if you or someone you're baking for has a gluten intolerance.

To get this machine to work, pop all your ingredients into the bread pan and select the programme you want. All the modes are conveniently listed on the bread maker, in case you forget.

Hit the start button and a timer at the front will countdown until your bread has been kneaded, proofed and baked.

When the timer is finished, and you remove the bread pan from the device, do so with an oven glove or tea towel as it's extremely hot. Even after waiting five minutes to let it cool down, I still burnt my finger the first time.

Your bread is then ready to eat!

Oh, and don't forget that the kneading paddle will be in the bottom of the bread. Or you'll get a mouthful of metal.

Reasons to buy:

If you're a beginner like me, you're in safe hands when it comes to the Salter EK4189 Digital Bread Maker, because there's not a lot that you can do to make it go wrong. It's really simple. So simple, I was able to create a one minute video for Instagram to show you how it works.

It also is great value for money. Yes, the initial payout seems like a lot. But, once you start making bread regularly, you can see the savings. Another big plus for me is using a bread maker reduces how much plastic I bring into the house.

But, what about the downside to this bread maker? Does it have any? Well, all the initial problems I had were solvable. I had trouble trying to remove the bread making pan for the first time; I couldn't work out for the life of me how to do it. But, on further inspection, I realised I needed to use the handle on what looks like a basket and move it anti-clockwise. Result!

I also found that the instructions included were SUPER basic; it didn't even list any recipes, so I was left scratching my head for a while...

That said, thankfully I was able to find recipes and more information online. Here's where I found the recipe for rapid baking, which I put to the test in the video above.

Read the full instructions about using the Salter EK4189 Digital Bread Maker including full ingredients lists here.

Final opinions:

Is it easier to grab a loaf from the supermarket? Absolutely. Will I use this kitchen device every single day? Probably not. But, it's a kitchen tool that will allow me to get creative on the weekends and create cheaper gluten-free alternatives for my dad. For those two reasons, it'll remain on my kitchen counter for years to come.

For my next creation, I'm excited to whip up banana bread. It wouldn't be the full lockdown experience without it, right?

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Lily Anderson is a Senior Commercial Content Writer at Bauer Media, where she reviews products for titles such as Heat, Closer, What’s the Best and Mother&Baby.

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