I recently put together a toastmasters group presentation about making
bread. While I was puting it together I got to wondering if a bread machine
truly saves time.

The bread certainly does not rise or bake any faster in a bread machine.

If you use a bread machine, you do not have to knead the bread, and that
saves about 10 minutes, but at least some of that savings is countered by
having to get the bread machine out of and back into storage, unless of
course you have the counter space to keep it set up all the time.

If you make bread by the sponge method, the sponge has to be started the day
before the actual baking (or at least that is the impression that I get from
several of the recipes that I looked at - I have never used that method),
but it isn't like you have to sit out in the kitchen watching the sponge
develop.

Also the impression that I get is that the development of the sponge is what
develops the flavor, and whether the kneading method is by hand or
mechanical in a bread machine or whatever really does not make that much
difference (though opinions seem to vary on this as well), but like with the
straight dough method, I dont think it really saves that much time.

Brian Christiansen