Breadman TR875 2-Pound Breadmaker, Stainless Steel (Review)
Breadman TR875 2-Pound Breadmaker, Stainless Steel
| Average Customer Rating: 4.5 |
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| This is a great bread maker. I usually use it to make the dough and then I put it in my own bread pan and bake in my oven only because you don't get the hole in the bottom from the mixing paddle and because I prefer the shape of the loaf. It does make a great baked loaf if you don't want to do it the other way. I've had other machines and I have had two break on me. This one is a great deal for the price. You can't go wrong with it. I got this bread machine about 6 months ago, and just realized that it is time to share a review! I did A LOT of research over quite a long period of time, and finally decided on this one. I'm glad I selected it, and I have been making great bread ever since. Should you get a breadmaker? Here's the deal. If you like gourmet breads, they usually cost about $4-$6 in the supermarket, and they still have all sorts of preservatives and random ingredients in them that help them stay fresh for a while. An easy solution to this dilemma is to buy a bread machine and make your own bread. It costs about $1 per loaf, and if you prorate the price of the machine (about $75?) out by 75 loaves, that adds $1 to the price. So, you are making gourmet bread with ingredients YOU selected! Its custom gourmet bread and its inexpensive! After those initial 75 loaves to cover the cost of the machine, you've got yourself a lot of high quality, cheap bread (and if it goes bad before you can finish it, you don't feel like you dumped money in the trash). Which breadmaker do you get? So, once you've decided you need a breadmaker, you've got a billion options. You can get a full range in prices, with various capabilities and loaf sizes. I personally hate the "tall" loaves that are kind of column shaped, so I looked for a machine that can make horizontal loaves. Again, there are a number of opportunities. I read review after review, website after website, looking for that "perfect" machine. And, this baby is it! The price, mixed with a large number of good reviews, and the quality of the product (it is sturdy, easy to use, and looks nice in the kitchen) make this a great choice. The recipes in the included booklet are pretty good, and I would also suggest you go to one of the numerous breadmaker recipe websites. My brother (whom I convinced to buy the same machine) bought a book with something like 1,000 recipes. He loves his breadman pro too, and uses it much more than I do...he makes all these crazy variations (it's awesome!), and uses all the random options (like the dough option). He did mention that it "over mixes" cookie dough, but I question the need to make cookie dough in a breadmaker (is it that hard to mix cookie dough yourself?). I should note that whole wheat flours don't rise as easily (I think they are denser), so an increase of the yeast amount helps (without tasting "yeasty") - this has nothing to do with the bread machine, just bread making in general. Also, if you know someone that is allergic to wheat, but isn't allergic to glucose, this machine does a nice job with a rye/spelt blend for the flour...it doesn't rise much, but people allergic to wheat are usually used to that whole scenario, so it's not a big deal. Oh, in case you're wondering about the reviewers who are having trouble getting their bread to rise the right amount, there's something I've noticed about the temperature of the water you add. I think there's a reason that the recipe book calls for 80 degree water, and I've noticed that too hot or too cold water will limit how high you see the loaf rise. Regarding how long it takes to make a loaf, you have a few options. You can make a loaf in 3.25 hours (the longest) and as fast as a little over 1 hour. Should you buy it from Amazon? A quick note about amazon. They sent me a machine that was clearly used once or twice. It even had some flour residue inside, and a spot was rubbed out of the stick free surface of the pan. I think this is incredibly shady, but I'm a pretty laid back guy with purchases under $100, so I just called them and told them about it, and they gave me some money back to remedy the situation. I'm sure I could have forced a replacement product, but I didn't. Just do a good check over the machine when you get it to make sure it is new! It can't be THAT great... My only issues with the machine are as follows: 1) the beeps. Why can't I shut them off? I'd love to make bread over night and wake up with fresh bread, but the beeps would wake me up in the night. 2) loud when mixing the dough. I am sure all breadmakers are like this, but I had to bring it up. 3) Dough stuck in the corners of the square tray. Again, I think this is probably standard...so I go in after the first spin cycle and kind of "help" the flour that is still remaining in the corners. Overall, a great machine at a great price. I highly recommend it! Good luck! I got this machine a few days ago, it came nicely packed and protected. It is my first bread machine so I can only compare to kneading and baking by hand. This is so much better! You pour the ingredients in and you can sit back - or keep checking what's going on, which, of course, you do - at least at the beginning. When the machine is not kneading, it is completely quiet. When it's kneading, however, it does make a very audible noise - nothing that would bother me during the day. It would probably wake me up at night, however, as my bedroom is right next to my kitchen. I don't know the noise levels of other machines, so this one may in fact be quieter than others! I baked the first loaf out of a bread mix and it turned out really good. It was a little denser than I would like, but the crust was wonderful and it tasted great. I'm European so I'm not crazy about the recipes in the booklet that comes with the machine, as they tend to contain significant amounts of sweeteners - I don't like my bread sweet. But have just tried another recipe for cheese and jalapeño bread and it came out PERFECT. I think the only downside of this machine may show around my waist - the bread is so good I can't stop eating it! |
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