H ow much bread is too much bread? I found myself wondering this while testing nine of the best bread makers for the Filter. You see, while one hot, crusty loaf is a cause for celebration, 36 feels like a cry for help.

Because yes, that really is how many loaves I made to rigorously test these machines. The number might even be closer to 45 if you count the weird experiments and loaves that collapsed due to user error. As you succumb to flour-induced delusions, at some point you begin to lose count.

At least bread makers have shrunk in size considerably since they first gained popularity in the 90s. Most are now half the size of your standard air fryer , with twice as many features. This was a welcome change from the space taken up by July’s ice-cream maker madness – leaving me more room for all that bread.

And size isn’t the only improvement these machines have seen. The things you can now do with a bread maker are impressive – including the sheer number of settings for bread alone.…