Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had this machine for about a year now. The learning curve has been gradual but steady. I think that the negative reviews here stem from people having unrealistic expectations. This is not the sort of machine where you put in the ingredients, walk away and come back for a perfect loaf every time. As this is the only breadmaker I have owned, I cannot say if there are other machines that perform ideally. I do know that the user needs to PAY ATTENTION to what is happening with the Cuisinart breadmaker. 1st--mixing: a quick check with a spatula 5-10 minutes into the first knead cycle is advisable. (Yes, it is quite noisy when kneading). 2nd--dough consistency: towards the middle of the first knead cycle check the dough. The ratio of liquid to flour is always variable when making bread. In most recipes I have to add flour to get a stiff enough dough. If you cannot knead the dough by hand, it will not make good bread, I don't care if you have followed the recipe to the milligram. 3rd--take out the paddle when you hear the appropriate beep, if you can. This will give you a nicer loaf. At this point I often like to coat the dough with rolled oats, oat bran or wheat bran before I put it back in for the last rise and the baking. 4th--check how much the loaf has risen before the baking cycle starts. If it has not risen enough, press pause, it will continue to rise "off the clock" for about 15 minutes. Repeat as necessary. There is a chart with timings for every segment of every setting in the booklet. 5th--the crust: look and smell towards the end of the baking cycle (this will be the final countdown on the timer) and take your loaf out BEFORE the crust gets too dark. I never use the "dark" setting, only "medium" and "light." This breadmaker does bake very hot, and recipes with lots of sugar do poorly. The recipe for banana bread is a disaster, so don't try it. I imagine the other recipes for sweetbreads are equally useless. Finally, it is advisable that you make sure everything is right before you press start--loaf size, crust, cycle, etc., because the machine cannot be reset. You have to leave it unplugged for about a half hour before it "forgets" what it has been told to do. This flaw annoys me. There should be a reset button. Also, I wish I could program my own settings instead of just using the factory presets when I know, for example, that I need a longer 3rd rise on a certain recipe. These days I am experimenting with the order of adding the ingredients. The manufacturer advises liquid, then salt, then flour, then yeast. Lately I have been doing it this way: adding yeast and liquid, including WARM water, and leaving it for 5-10 minutes in the machine to get the leavening process get well underway, then flour, and then salt. Loaves seem to rise better this way. In conclusion, I am generally happy with the bread I make with the help of the Cuisinart breadmaker. I would advise potential users who have no experience with making bread by hand to try it a few times. You will see that it is an art more than it is a science, that it's all about adding more flour or liquid to get the right consistency, that it's about seeing how your dough is rising TODAY, and so on. Knowing breadmaking on that most basic level will show the user that putting the ingredients into the machine and not paying any more attention to it until the final beep is a risky proposition. Perhaps other machines produce more consistent results with less attention on the part of the user. I am skeptical about this myself but encourage others to continue the search for their "perfect" machine if the Cuisinart seems more trouble than it's worth.