Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading other reviews, I took my life in my hands and ordered the Breadman 2500. Fortunately, I have had no trouble with the machine at any of the stages. Having baked bread by hand regularly for over 40 years, I was surprised to find the Breadman texture quite acceptable. Here are a couple of tips I got from the company while trying to do the basic set up: 1. When you turn on the machine to "burn off manufacturing oils", take the bread pan out and leave the top of the machine open. This was not mentioned in the booklet. 2. When you set the cycle you want for a loaf, don't expect to see words like "white bread" - you get only the amount of time it takes to run the full cycle. Keep pressing "Select" until the arrow on the right stops where you want it. Then do the same with "Crust Control" and "Loaf Size". Then you're ready to push "Start". 3. After you have completed the entire baking, push the Reset button and hold down for 4 seconds. Do this as well if the electricity goes off but you are not baking, or if you unplug the machine. This precautionary measure will keep you from finding yourself in an emergency cycle. Some people have trouble with the dough ball not picking up all the flour during kneading. My suggestion is that your dough ball isn't quite moist enough. I am creating my own recipes, especially since I like to make some breads with cooked cereal. The important thing if there is some question as to whether you have the right balance of wet and dry ingredients is to observe your dough ball during the 2nd kneading. If there is any flour in the corners that has not picked up after a few minutes, use your rubber spatula to scrape it toward the middle. If this doesn't work, I suggest using a spritzer on the dough ball until the flour adheres. If the dough is sticking a little to the sides of the pan as it goes around, begin lightly sprinkling flour on the ball until it stops doing this. The whole wheat bread, which I made precisely according to the recipe, turned out perfect, but, as I say, if you are experimenting, this is how you can bake any bread recipe you want to and it will turn out perfectly. Your dough ball should be spongy and only slightly sticky. I hope this is helplful information for Breadman owners. The key to all good bread is learning how to recognize the look and feel of a good lump during and after kneading. NEARLY TWO YEARS LATER: It is July 15, 2008, and I'm still baking away. So far I've never had a failure with this machine. I have found a few corrections to the white bread recipe (for 1 1/2 lb loaf) make a better loaf. To start with, I always use King Arthur bread Flour, which a lot of Wal-Marts carry. I use 1 cup plus 3 teaspoons water instead of 2 teaspoons, 2 teaspoons of yeast rather than 1 1/2, tho 1 1/2 works fine. That little bit of extra water helps. I also probably use couple of TBS oil, rather than 1 1/2. And I use 2 teasp. salt rather than 1/1/2. It is important to know that different flours behave different ways, and different batches of flours of the same kind can need more or less moisture. This is especially noticeable using whole wheat flour. If you let the bread sit in the machine for 10-15 minutes after baking is complete, the steam softens the sides enough to dump the loaf out but doesn't leave the loaf soggy. Before I figured that out, I used a small rubber spatula to loosen the sides. Be sure you don't scrape the pan with a metal utensil as it scratches easily. Well, happy baking!! PUSHING FIVE YEARS March 2011: Well, here we are, still baking away. The only adjustment has been that I have upped the baking time slightly (I use the 2# setting for a 1 1/2 lb. loaf). The old relic is still performing and making perfect loaves of bread! Hey, is this thing still on the market anyway?? IT'S NOW JUNE OF 2013 And still kicking. We moved into a tiny log cabin with a teensy weensy stove and oven, so if I want to bake bread, my only option is the bread machine. I noticed that the temperature has dropped only slightly, so I cranked up the browning option and that fixed it. If only it would bake cakes and pies! February 2014 More good things to say about this machine. It is still cranking and I realized it is not slowing down and I can use the settings I originally used. Also, the manual that comes with the machine has an amazing amount of information and lots of different kinds of recipes. The machine itself has a multitude of settings. So many people had this machine break on them but I guess I got the good one. I started making sour dough bread today and it came out GREAT!! I added dried onion, dill weed and rosemary from the yard, my favorite herb combination. When I bake white bread I add 1 tsp mace. Warning: this bread will disappear in no time. For people who want a 1 lb loaf just make a 1 1/2 lb loaf and freeze part of it. I used to regularly bake 13 loaves of sour dough at a time by hand and never had a problem with freezing bread. Pushing 9 years 1/21/15 My husband wanted to go gluten-free so I tried two of the recipes in the book. One was a pumpernickel and the other a cheese-onion (the one with a cup of Swiss, except I used cheddar). Both breads came out great. They hold together, slice well, and work in the toaster. The key is checking to make sure the top of the batter makes a swirl or knob once it is mixed. If it is too wet, add more flour. This bread only takes an hour 20 minutes from start to finish, though there are a lot of ingredients. I make up several ziplocks of dry ingredients at a time and add the wet ingredients and yeast for each loaf. The ingredients aren't cheap but homemade is cheaper than buying gluten-free bread. Happy baking!