Klarstein Brotilde family breadmaker review

• Read our round-up of the best breadmakers

What were our first impressions of the Klarstein breadmaker?

The Klarstein is a sturdy, light and compact machine made of stainless steel. Despite its sturdiness, we were a little worried by the wobbly lid, and wondered how it would be after several uses.

The machine comes from the EU, and has the plugged switched out for a UK one, which is large and cumbersome.

The control panel on the Klarstein is a little fussier than the other models in the test, with a blend of six touch buttons and a rotary button for the timer. It's self-explanatory, making it very easy to use.

It offers some good additions found on machines at a higher price, such as an integrated fruit and seed dispenser and 14 pre-set programmes, as well as a delay timer.

How was the Klarstein breadmaker to use?

Unfortunately, the instruction book had us scratching our heads at times – whilst it was easy to follow how to set up the machine, the recipes were puzzling.

Some were written twice with two sets of (slightly different) ingredients, with no explanation for the variations. We chose to use the first, less fussy recipe.

The flour measure in the book is only in cups, and they state one cup is equal to 150g, which with strong bread flour is around 10g heavier than it should be. This will make a difference with the larger loaves. These small details could be very confusing to new bakers.

Once we got our heads around these anomalies, it performed well, but with a 750W motor, it was the noisiest machine we tested.

Our verdict

Despite some of the strangeness in the instruction book, this is a well-functioning machine. We were delighted with the bread it produced, certainly as good as others in the test, with a lovely colour, texture and taste.

If the price is a consideration, but you don't mind some noise and figuring out the instructions, this machine produces good, basic bread.

Available from:
Klarstein (£89.99)
Amazon (£89.99)

Klarstein Brotilde bread maker specifications
Machine size: 34.5 x 32.5 x 24 cm
Power: 750W
Programmes: 14
Delay/keep warm function: yes
Viewing window: yes
Display: Back lit LED
Crust colour: yes
Loaf size (s): 1000, 750 and 500g
Keep warm function: yes

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This review was last updated in November 2020. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.

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