|
Become empowered to make the bread you like!
This is the first bread machine I have ever owned or used. I have been using it almost every day since I got it three weeks ago and I am completely satisfied with it. Waking to the smell of fresh baked bread has certainly improved my morning. So far I have tried only a few of the recipes from the book that comes with it and they were immediate successes.
This bread maker is pretty easy to use: You have to fill in the ingredients, obviously. It is important to measure them carefully, though. Then there are only four settings that you can adjust: which of the 16 programs you want to use, if the loaf is 1lb, 1.5lb or 2lb, if the crust should be light, medium or dark, and the time until finish. The programs are fixed and work very well for the recipes from the book (as well as my own variations on them), but I can imagine that more ambitious bakers may need more flexibility and may want to fine tune the various cycles. For a beginner like myself, the presets work fine. Removing the loaf and cleaning the machine is also pretty easy.
If you wonder whether you need a bread machine in the first place, here are my two cents: If you have a nice bakery nearby, you probably don't. Personally, I hate the spongy, plastic wrapped bread available from most grocery stores. I also prefer rich, full-flavored bread, which seems to be hard to find here in New England. With the bread maker I can adjust the content of whole wheat and other ingredients exactly to my taste and I get fresh bread every morning.
If there is anything to complain about this machine, it is that the motor is rather noisy. If you live in a small apartment with your bed close to your kitchen, it may wake you up in the middle of the night.
[Monday, November 24, 2008]
|
|
Very Nice But Not Perfect
This was my third brand bread machine purchased. The Cuisinart CBK-200 makes lovely bread, is sturdily built, has a nice three-year warranty as opposed to the usual one-year, and has the best recipe book of any breadmaker I've ever had. I just had a couple of things I didn't like about it. I didn't like the non-backlit digital readout being on top of the machine, because it was very hard to see. I also didn't like the tiny viewing window. Lastly, I thought the machine was quite noisy when kneading. For those reasons, I returned this machine. I'm not sure if the noisiness was due to the normal performance of the machine or if it was a defect of this particular one.
[Sunday, November 23, 2008]
|
|
Disappointing
I have used bread machines since the late '80s and this one is the least reliable. I am careful to select the right size loaf, but the bread is almost always overcooked. I don't trust the recipes because so many of the ones I have tried are way too dry.
I do not recommend this machine or the recipe book that comes with it.
[Saturday, November 22, 2008]
|
