The Kenwood BM450 bread maker is definitely up there with the best of them. The second best selling breadmaker on Amazon after the Panasonic SD-2501WXC, this breadmaker has been around for a couple of years and received a stamp of approval from the Good House Keeping Guide in 2009 and 2011.
The Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker is highly rated by owners and is without doubt an excellent piece of kit.
Kenwood have a solid reputation for building high quality dependable kitchen equipment (their mixing machines are legendary) and this bread maker is no exception.
So what does it do?
An extremely capable bread maker and a bit cheaper than the best selling Panasonic SD-2501WXC. Arguably it’s aesthetics are nicer, with an attractive brushed stainless steel, cool wall, outer shell.
You can bake a decent loaf in under 58 minutes, make jams and, to accommodate the more adventurous amongst you, also allows you to create custom programmes.
The Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker comes with a nice recipe book, which Kenwood also make available online.
On the whole it’s a decent package. There are however, a few negatives. The control panel is touch sensitive and a little bit complicated until you get used to it. Also, the mixing cycle sometimes doesn’t quite get into all the corners, leaving a floury residue on the corners of the loaves – nothing too serious, but worth being aware that it might take a little time to perfect your recipe. It’s quite a large machine and if you’re going to get the most out of it you’ll need to find somewhere for it to live in your kitchen. Dimensions are: 38.5cm High x 23.5cm Wide x 31.5 cm Long.
Like a lot of other bread makers the Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker can produce small, medium or large loaves, that come out at approximately 500g, 750g or 1kg.
You can produce a variety of different breads, cakes and doughs – all which are far superior to most of the stuff that you can buy in the supermarket. The ability to extend the cooking time by an hour is also a nice touch – effectively keeping the loaf crisp for up to an extra hour.
In addition, there’s a viewing window and light that allow the more nosey of you to see what’s going on without sinking your loaf – simply press the “light” button and you can take a sneeky peek and the light will turn itself off again automatically after 60s.
Timer
The 15 hour timer does exactly what you’d expect and allows you to delay the start of the cycle by up to 15hours, although it can’t be used with all the programs (including the rapid bake program).
Cleaning up
Look after the pan and kneeder! Never use anything remotely abrasive to clean anything – you’ll end up destroying the non stick coatings and rendering the machine useless.
Immediately after use, soak the pan and kneeder in warm soapy water for 5 or 10 minutes and then simply use a cloth or sponge to gently clean the non-stick surfaces. Don’t even joke about putting the pan or kneeder in the dishwasher – again this will destroy your breadmaker in no time at all!
Additional Support
It’s nice to see that Kenwood are really up to speed with providing for the needs of their customers with both the instruction booklet and recipe booklet freely available on the Kenwood website. This is handy, if like me, you’re prone to misplacing all those booklets in various drawers and files around the house!
Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker Features
- Automatic ingredients dispenser
- 15 programs
- 5 personal program settings
- 58-minute rapid bake setting
- Viewing light/window
- Gluten Free Program
- Unique Kenwood non-stick coated bread pan and kneader
- Touch-screen controls
Should I buy it?
Maybe. Possibly better looking and a bit cheaper than the Panasonic SD-2501WXC Bread Maker the Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker produces a decent loaf of bread and is packed with most of the features that you’ll need. The Panasonic SD2501-WXC has the upper hand in terms of ease of use and consistency of product so you have to take this in account when comparing.
If the Kenwood’s looks and price tag float your boat, you can get it right now from Amazon.
More product specific details can be found on Kenwood’s website. Alternatively check out what Amazon has to say.
Other Reviews for the Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker
A sample of reviews from other purchasers:
great bread every time so far!
Why you should buy this machine
If you think that you will make lots of different kinds of bread and want to be able to programme the machine to suit non-standard recipes – this is the machine for you.Why you shouldn’t
If your kitchen is on the small side and you are – generally speaking – going to make basic white or wholemeal bread – go for something smaller, simpler and cheaper.
The kenwood bread maker is pricey, but is worth the money, it is solid and well made.
This is a fantastic product. It makes wonderful bread and is easy to use once you get used to the digital screen.
More Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker Reviews
So, what do you think?
I’d love to know what you think of this stunning bread machine.
If you have an opinion or would like to contribute your own review of the Kenwood BM450 Bread Maker, please do feel free to leave a comment.
