Side by Side Comparison of: Sunbeam vs Brand: Harvard Common Press vs Linear LD vs Generic vs Amazon

This will be my first on many comments on this bread machine. Our long time Cuisinart machine died and we needed a replacement. After reading reviews for a week we decided on this one. Today I am making my fourth loaf in a week. We are using King Arthur bread flour, Trader Joe's unsalted butter, tap water, Red Star bread machine yeast, Alba nonfat milk powder, Morton salt and Aldi sugar. Humidity today is 76% and 68 degrees inside. We are using the standard 1.5 pound loaf recipe. The last three loaves have been perfect. Will post a photo of the finished product. If today's results are like previous ones then you will see how this compares to other bread makers. Bread is a science and measurement is key. Also using fresh ingredients makes your bread even better. I don't think blaming the bread maker is fair. It is just using temperature and mixing to make the product. Will be back later with the photos.

excellent for the price - only con: shape of loafs (but the same with all others). very very easy, fast and reliable, just follow instructions to the letter.

I've been the victim of so many kitchen gadgets, filled with empty promises. I am usually so, so, so disappointed. One day, I heard tell of a magical device called, -A Breadmaker-. It sounded too good to be true. Surely, an art such as break making cannot be replicated by a machine?! And so I researched and read and eventually added this to my wishlist. But memories of gadgets past kept me from making my purchase. Then, on Christmas morning, I find myself face to face with this myth, in the flesh! (kinda). I searched my cabinets and found I had what I needed for a loaf of french bread. With great trepidation, I set it and let it go. Soon, my home was filled with the delicious aroma of fresh bread. Could it be? Could the legends be true? I easily released the bread from its pan and took a bite.HOLEY GUACAMOLE I MADE BREAD BY DUMPING SOME CRAP IN A BOWL AND STICKING IT IN A MACHINE AND GOING TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES.I've made all the breads in the recipe book and have a folder full or recipes to try. I've used the timer to wake up to fresh bread.I. LOVE. THIS. THING.-sobs while stroking bread maker-

I bought this for my younger sister for Christmas and she loves it! She has already made bread and pizza dough. It was a perfect gift for her and her first home. I have owned a bread maker for years (a discontinued model) and have always enjoyed the simplicity of making bread whenever I want. In under two hours we can have pizza dough and in about 4 hours we have fresh bread. If you have ever thought about a bread maker, this one will fit the bill. It is as simple as adding water, flour, sugar, milk powder, and yeast and turning it on. It takes me under 5 minutes to put the ingredients into the pan and hit the on button. I never have to buy store bread with artificial preservatives again. One last tip - I would recommend trying unbleached flour instead of bleached flour. The flavor is much better!

I really don't get into reviewing products, but I just had to for this bread maker. Before I purchased the Sunbeam, I had an expensive Breadman go bad in a very short time. Didn't have a lot of money to spend, but I bake my own bread constantly, so I saw the Sunbeam advertised on Amazon.I wasn't sure how it was going to work out because it was inexpensive. I have to say that I love this Bread machine!! It is so much better than the expensive Breadman I had. The bread comes out perfectly each and every time so far. Last time I made bread, I forgot to add the butter just as the first knead started. I stopped the machine, pulled out the bread, added the butter and threw it back in the machine. The bread came out perfect!! I really can't say enough good things about how great the bread turns out. I will never go back to spending a lot of money for a more expensive brand again. The digital readouts on this Sunbeam were much easier to read than for my Breadman. I make bread twice a week, each and every, week, so if this machine lasts (and I see no reason why it shouldn't), I think it's the best buy on the market.

Before I purchased this machine, I read ALL the reviews, the good, bad and the ugly. I realized there would possibly be some trials and tribulations with my first attempts at using it since I am not only a novice to breadmakers but also living in high altitude country. I made bread from scratch many eons ago and am aware of the exact measurement problems.So I crossed my fingers, ordered the machine AND, on the advice of several posters, I also bought 2 of the Donna German Bread Machine books(let's go ALL the way :-)I rec'd it in a timely manner and read the manual thoroughly. Sonewhat of a brain overload but I thought very thorough in taking you from start to finish.My first loaf was plain white bread from DG's Bread book (avoiding the Sunbeam manual recipes). I made minor adjustments to compensate for the altitude. Hmmm! Fine loaf of bread but a bit too heavy. My 2nd loaf was made using the exact measurements from DG's book and it turned out much lighter in texture and very good indeed.I have since made fruit/cheese filled brioches, apple chunk bread (Oh, Lordy, Lordy, so sublimely delicious!), hot dog/hamburger buns and banana outmeal bread - all to the exact measurements, no adjustments. ALL have turned out extremely well and I'm quite pleased.In calcing the cost of each loaf, I am making plain white bread (2 lb) for about $1.20/25 a loaf or 12 brioches or buns for the same. Unless I use a particularly expensive ingredient, none of these loaves should cost more than $1.50.My future plans are to make regular pizza plus peanut butter pizza. While it can be intimidating at first, after reading the various problems people have had, I'm now perfectly comfortable with this machine and well pleased with my purchase.To make some observations that may be helpful to others.....1) It's not clear what caused many people to complain of fallen loaves but most did not relate the source of their recipe. My hunch is that most used the recipes from the manual. Several people have warned against this since these recipes appear to be flawed. GREAT machine! LOUSY recipes! If you still have your machine, try purchasing Donna German's book(s) or any other popular bread book and give it another shot.2) DO use the plastic measuring cup and spoon that comes with the machine. Do your very best to have exact measurements. If your recipe calls for 1/2 cup, check the measurement equivalents and create your 1/2 cup from 8 level tbls rather than trying to eyeball just where 1/2 is in your measuring cup.3) I have no explanation why recipes in DG's books seem to need no adjustment for high altitude (I'm a mile high). If you're H/A, try your recipe with no adjustments first and then adjust if necessary.I really do suspect that, for the most part, most of the negative reviews have less to do with a defective machine and more to do with a defective manual. You should avail yourself of a good bread making cookbook. Many people, dependent on where they live (temperature and altitude), may need to make some adjustments. What eventually works for you may not work for the next person and that is just the nature of bread making.At the price it's listed today ($44), I can only say - ORDER IT!

Very nice. Supplement your bread machine repertoire with this book. Not only recipes but general information about baking and using machines. I didn't know there was that much to learn about vanilla...

Simply the best. The info can be overwhelming at first but stay with it, it clears and you have a gold mine. All those things you wonder about are in this book. And the rescipes .....oh yummy. I have not had a fail and I admit I sort of ad lib sometimes...add egg, whole milk etc. when its not called for but its fun to experiment and it all comes out yum.

I bought this along with a Cuisinart convection bread maker and Ive tried a few of the recipes. Wow, this lady knows how to bake !! I made honey corn masa bread and potatoe bread , also cinnamon swirl bread, to name a few. All of these scored an A with me. She was able to adapt these recipes to use with any bread machine and if you follow her instructions to the letter these breads turn out perfect and absolutely delicious . I think my convection machine though, is superior to the regular bread machines. This book is five star, don't hesitate to buy !! You wont be sorry !!

If you love homemade bread or want to know how to make delicious ones, this is the book for you. Soo many recipes you'll be finding reasons to bake them all before you finish the last recipe. You an even make some without a bread machine. We tried them both ways.

Absolutely fantastic recipe book!!! There is much more than just recipes in this book, though. Reading all the additional material included in the book was like attending a cooking class by a master bread maker. There were many great tips and ideas. Baked nearly two dozen recipes and every one comes out perfect! These recipes were far better than the ones that came with the bread machine. Author gives you a template to create your own breads, as well. I have stopped buying bread at the grocery store entirely, and have made jam, pasta, and pizza dough from this book in addition to bread. This book is amazing!

Every recipe I've tried has turned out beautifully-up until tonight. I have an inexpensive Oster bread machine and it has done a wonderful job with these recipes. Tonight I tried the Chocolate Challah recipe-it is a total flop-stuck to sides of pan and not rising at all. I realize I might have made an error but I've read the recipe several times and don't know how it failed. This recipe is quite rich but sounded delicious, I love the whole wheat recipes, the rye breads are fabulous and the Sour Cream Bread is to die for!! Of course, how can it be bad - it uses a whole cup of sour cream ! I thing the book is worth the price and I will just keep baking bread and see what works and what doesn't. I've made about 10 loaves of bread this month-all perfect- so I guess I was ready for a failure.By the way-have they ever published corrections to any of these recipes? Just in case it's not my mistake?

Alright, I'm pretty satisfied with this machine, especially given the price. I think I passed the 100 loaf mark awhile ago (mostly variations of raisin bread), and it is still going strong.Pros:1. Price. It performs similarly to more expensive machines (I've used a Panasonic one).2. Ease of cleaning. The pan is easily removed and cleans very easily.Cons:1. The lid does not close fully. I actually had to return the first machine Amazon sent me, but even the replacement I'm using now has a significant gap between the lid and the rest of the machine when "closed." What this means is that plenty of moisture and heat escapes from the sides and hinge areas.2. Discoloration. Probably because I use cinnamon or brown sugar a lot in my breads, but the steam from the cooking tends to soak into the white plastic. Even cleaning it asap after baking cannot remove the brown stains that have infused into the edges of the lid (and the lid itself).3. The non-stick surface of the pan has started to wear off, especially on the wall-ridges near the bottom. Essentially this means whatever that material is, it is dissolving into the bread and you are eating it. I'm looking into getting a replacement pan, but they're almost half the price of the bread machine. Decisions, decisions.I would have preferred if the manual laid out more of the timings for each bread type, but I guess you get what you pay for.In the end, problems aside, this machine is VERY worth the cost.

We've made our bread at home using breadmakers for a couple of decades. This is a perfectly satisfactory solution although it may take some practice. This particular model (there are many brands) has a design problem with the breadpan spindle which sometimes freezes permanently. Its life can be extended by occasionally lubricating with vegetable oil. And they do wear out. That was what led to our most recent replacement. However, the rewards of fresh homemade bread like cinnamon raisin breakfast bread more than make up for the minor issues. Wonderful treat with apple butter! We also love a winter bread made with dried tropical fruit and fresh orange juice instead of cinnamon and raisins. Great with guava jelly! There are a number of other breads which we enjoy. Except for thanksgiving stuffing bread, we never have to buy bread and we always have fresh, homemade bread available.

I have had this bread machine about a month and have used almost everyday. The main reason for buying this is to produce all the bread of the household. I wanted to save money and produce bread I knew exactly what was in it. For anyone considering buying this machine I would recommend it. The bad productions that have been made have been mainly due to the booklet the machine came with. I do not recommend using the book for the recipes, they never worked for me. I bought a seperate book, with recipes just for a bread machine and they have all worked perfectly. I have only tried a few of the settings on the machine, the normal bread setting, the expressbake and the dough method. I also tried the quick setting but I do not really know the difference between it and the expressbake and the bread did not rise as much with the quick setting so use expressbake. In general expressbake did produce good bread but it did not rise as much and was therefore, much denser than the usual longer setting. I use the dough method to make rolls, which I subsequently baked in the oven. These have been perfect everytime using the recipe from the book I bought. Overall I would recommend this machine but DO NOT use the provided book it is terrible!!!

I am new to bread baking, and this machine was recommended to me by a friend. I was originally looking at a much more expensive Zo 1 lb. Machine, because I have a small family. I decided to go with this knowing if I really enjoyed the process, I could upgrade at a later date. I read the other reviews, did not attempt recipes from the manual, bought both the Betty crocker and Beth Hensperger's bread machine cook books and started baking. I am happy with the results. I have made rye, white, cinnamon raisin. Follwed the recipes from the book exactly, experienced no problems, and was thrilled to produce really good bread without the 50 + ingredients in store-bought. REAL food, easy to make. I am attempting the dough cycle this weekend, to make brioche...hping for similar success. In the future I'll try the jam setting... Nice feature in an inexpensive machine.After purchasing the machine, I noticed most recipes in cookbooks and online are for 1-1/2 & 2 lb. Loaves, and since I keep reading how exact measurements are so important, I am relieved I didn't buy the 1 lb. Machine... Recipes are not always easy to halve, depending on the book. Betty crocker's book for instance in some cases mentions their testing has shown there is no difference in the amount of yeast between a 1-1/2 and 2 lb. Loaf... I wouldn't want to " guess" what might work for a 1 lb.loaf.For the price, this machine is great.

This is an inexpensive, reliable, easy to use bread machine overall. I use it twice a week and I get better at baking with it as time goes on.Don't use the recipe for the 1.5 lb. "Homestyle White Bread Loaf" on page 13 in the Sunbeam manual that comes with the machine! Try my version instead. After many weeks of trial and error, this adjusted recipe works best for me:Add to the bread pan in the usual Sunbeam-recommended order - this is the order I use:1 c. plus 2 T. water1 T. soft butter1 T. vegetable oil3 T. sugar2 T. dry or powdered milk1 1/2 t. salt3 c. flour*1 1/2 t. quick yeast or bread machine yeast*Either bread flour, all-purpose flour, or a mixture thereof - 2 c. bread and 1 c. all-purpose works best for me.Set the machine to bake at the lightest color, at the 1.5 lb. size. When the bread maker finishes baking the loaf, unplug the machine and extract the bread pan (twist to the left and pull up). Don't leave it in the machine. IT'S HOT! Be careful!Gently twist and shake the bread pan to loosen the loaf or loosen with a thin plastic spatula. Carefully remove the bread from the pan and lay the loaf on its side on a rack to cool. If the mixing paddle is stuck inside the loaf, remove it with the included tool.This makes a delicious, tender, yet substantial loaf for cold, hot, or grilled sandwiches, toast & jam, French toast, or just about anything. For a delicious stuffing base, cut it into cubes, season, drizzle lightly with melted butter or olive oil, then spread out and lightly toast on big cookie sheets.Economics: For a 1.5 lb loaf @ 3 cups flour per loaf, I get 6 loaves of bread per 5 lbs. of flour, with around 2 cups of flour left over for the next batch.UPDATE 2/9/2009: Here's another great recipe for this bread maker. It's made with oatmeal and makes a wonderful tender loaf of tasty bread. In my experience, everybody LOVES it so it doesn't last long. Add to the bread pan in the usual Sunbeam-recommended order - this is the order I use:1 1/4 c. milk (lukewarm)2 T. soft butter3 T. light brown sugar1 1/2 t. salt2 c. bread flour1 c. rolled oats (or old fashioned oats)1 c. all-purpose flour2 t. quick yeast or bread machine yeastI set the machine at light color for a 1.5 lb. loaf. Makes delicious sandwiches and toast.UPDATE 4/28/2010: Hodgson Mill Honey Whole Wheat Bread Mix (and all the other Hodgson Mill bread mixes) work perfectly in this machine, and when bought through Amazon subscription (for the current price $9.60 per 6 pack) are actually cheaper than from scratch (fresh yeast is included). All you add is water and a tablespoon of butter or oil for a great loaf. I usually don't use mixes but the Hodgson Mill mixes contain very high quality fresh ingredients and are very easy to use with this machine.

I bought this for my Mother-In-Law for xmas 2007. I have an older Oster model (Oster = Sunbeam : Sunbeam = Oster, FYI - Oster discontinued my model but seems to have replaced it with this one - the recipe book has the same pictures as my 4 year old model). I made her first batch with her. It came out great. But the reason I made the first batch with her was due to 2 failures that could have been avoided during the manufacturning design process. This review describes my old machine experience vs. this newer model.Oh, the jumbo display and buttons are so great so see and press but they come with these two detractions.1. Upon my Mother-in-law's first batch failure, she was so excited (I wasn't present) that she leaned over the machine so many times at one point she accidentally leaned on the Start/Stop button and unknowingly canceled her cycle. On my older Oster model they did not install raised push buttons. They had those clicky flat plastic selector buttons. It was impossible to accidentally lean against the machine looking into the window and shut down the machine without great effort because they were placed on the top of the machine.2. The display on this machine is bigger and better, but only on first impressions. On my older Oster machine the display was next to the clicky buttons on the top of the machine; which sometimes made it hard to read, cause you had to crane your neck over the counter to see the display. However, the main drawback to this newer display is that it has 12 cycles and when you select 10, 11, or 12, the 1's place can be shadowed by the permanent plastic overlay (not adjustable). So what happened to batch #2 for my mom? Well, due to a shadow and being anxious about her sencond try (and being 79 years old with ok (so so) eyesight, she pressed the cycle selection button to 12 and did not see the 1 due to a shadow. The 12 setting is 180 degrees from the function of the 01 setting which is used for making most all types of bread. The #12 setting is called the "Bake" setting. If you intened on making bread manually (on the counter) and want the machine to cook it for you - just as an oven, this is the setting you would use. So good ol' mom accidentally selected this setting, because she didn't or was not able to acknowledge the 1 next to the 2 designating 12 instead of 02 (the zero is not shown on the display, it is just typed for your clarity here) and therefore the bread machine started cooking her ingredients but not mixing them. Also the crust color icon could be hard to see in one of the rightmost positions.Ok, nuff feature bashing.One more thing before is say my last peace. The recipe/instruction manual (available in Spanish/English) does not include a large variety of recipies that my 4 year old machine included, even though the machines have the same settings and capacities. I can't imagine why Sunbeam would simply leave out 5 pages of already formulated recipes and give you so few to work with. For example, EVERYONE (I think) loves cinnamon raisin bread. Well, that recipe was removed from the instruction manual, including Cheddar chive bread. These are two great recipes I can't believe they skimped on. Anyway, if you go to a good bookstore, there are "Bread Machine" books and that can help fill the void. If purchasing a book kills you or you are too electronified, search for "bread machine recipes" on the Net and you are sure to find a ton of stuff to bake.OK, this is really long winded but I wanted to help my fellow Amazonians, since I believe in these reviews and read them for almost every product I buy online.FINALLY - BUY THIS MACHINE, I would have given it 5-stars if the two design flaws mentioned above weren't there; The machine makes excellent bread! My 4 year old Oster (remember Oster = Sunbeam : Sunbeam = Oster) is still going strong. I've made at least 100 batches of bread, had a few pitfalls (ie, don't add too much cinnamon to bread or it will kill the rising action - found that out the hard way - makes nice bricks for building houses though). Also, for the price, I can't see why you should spend 2x the amount on a more costly machine, unless the design flaws I mentioned make you sick to your stomach.Have a good day. N-Joy ! :-)

Yes, w book is packed with lots of recipes for your bread machine, but should you buy it? If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't buy it. Although the recipes are great, I just wanted basic bread machine recipes. If all you want are basic bread recipes, the King Arthur Flour website has a wide variety of bread and dough recipes available for FREE. If, however, you want a larger variety of recipes and more in depth explanations of the art of bread-making, this is the book for you.

I enjoy lots of wonderful recipes throughout this book. Very easy recipes to read and understand. If you are new to bread making this is a good book to have in your collection!

Very good book on the subject, unless you are married to gluten free nonsense. All the recipes here, more or less, demand more, not less, gluten.

Great book for bread machine recipes but the Kindle version is not as useful as a physical book for something like this. The designer that made the kindle version could have put more thought into where the page breaks etc (like they do on the printed book). And there are mistakes in the Kindle version (see the White Country Bread recipe for example - no measure for potato flakes and obviously a mistake). Also one suggestion to the author is provide the weight in grams. More specific and easier for bakers using scales.

This is a fantastic cookbook, I use the recipes in here every week and have found a few reliable picks that the kids love for daily sandwiches as well as pizza dough and tons of interesting breads to try out. Our favorites are banana sandwich bread, maple sandwich bread, and semolina pizza dough. At first I was disappointed that all the measurements are volume based (cups, etc) instead of using weight for the flour, but I've found I still get consistent results by carefully scooping and leveling my flour. I expect to continue experimenting with these recipes for years to come.

I bought this book with my breadmaker. I'm glad I did, because the number of recipes that came with the breadmaker was appallingly slim.I've made several types and they've all come out great. Be warned, however, that most of the recipes ask for gluten, so if you don't have some, get it. It's easily available in your grocer's baking aisle. And the "Orientation" section is a good read if you are new to making bread in a machine. She also includes a chart to convert measuring cups to weights for measuring ingredients (and after doing weighed amounts for flour for my last couple of loaves I highly recommend picking up a small digital kitchen scale and using it in your baking).Some notes:- I made the Dutch Sugar Bread and it was AMAZING, but the cubes did scratch the corners of my bread pan. This is my fault; the author warned that she's heard of this happening. It does not appear to have affected the non-stick nature of the pan, but I will be more careful next time. Of course, I also didn't get the little gooey pockets of sugar, so I might just use granulated or totally crushed sugar cubes next time. But the flavor was out of this world!- Under pizza dough, she has 1 and 2lb recipes. Unless you have a giant pizza stone, make the smaller batch. I only have a 12" stone, and my last two crusts have turned out impossibly thick, almost like deep-dish. Incredibly good, but very thick. I thought this might be because of the rise period after you turn out the dough, but now I'm thinking that I've got too much dough for my stone.- There is no recipe for cinnamon raisin bread, which I find almost unbelievable. But there are recipes for raisin bread, so I'm sure you can add cinnamon to taste. But still - that's such a staple bread (IMO) that I can't believe it's missing.But well worth the purchase and a really good reference.

This is my third breadmaker. I make bread every week. This is the first machine I've had that makes a horizontal loaf. It is an odd sized loaf which, depending on how you cut it, makes slices that are larger than what will fit in a sandwich sized zip top bag. The wheat bread recipe that comes with the machine make a pretty nice loaf, but my other recipes seem to be a little "off" in this machine. I tried the "jam" setting and it was really messy! I had jam splattered all over the inside of the machine. My next machine will one that makes vertical loaves.

I purchased this machine on Amazon and it arrived about a week ago. But it did not have any manual or any paperwork at all. I am in Afghanistan so it was a big hassle to send it back so I waited a few days until I could get on the Internet again as I am in a very remote place and went to Sunbeam's web site and downloaded a manual today. I am going back to my quarters now and attempt to make my first bread. If it turns out good, I will upgrade my review. I just hope the personnel at the factory did not leave anything else out! Update: I never got to use this machine before someone stole it! Hope they !@#$%^&*()?><!

As soon as I received the Sunbeam Breadmaker I wanted try out my favorite recipe, potato bread. It can be baked on the Expressbake setting. I was disappointed because my bread came out too compact, too doughy. The manual suggested cutting back on salt, so I tried again reducing salt by a third. Not much change. A big factor is the bake time: my old machine used 85 minutes for Expressbake. The Sunbeam uses only 58 minutes. That's a big difference, given the same recipe. I tried another recipe for Homestyle white bread, using a basic (3 hour) setting. It came out perfectly. This means all my Expressbake recipes have to be modified. A negative, in my opinion.

I have not read this in other reviews of this product, and I just bought mine right before Amazon stopped shipping it direcly and it started being sold only by a 3rd party, so I think there are a couple of different versions out there. However, the directions on the machine I have, and in the manual are WRONG. Just wrong. Period. If you do things in the order the instructions tell you to with the delay timer--THE MACHINE WILL MIX YOUR YEAST IN THE SECOND YOU PUSH THE START BUTTON. Big problem if you weren't planning on being around for the next 3-4 hours (which is why you would use the delay). However, once you figure out that, no matter what, the up and down time buttons must be the last buttons you touch before "start," it does okay.A HUGE, added bonus is that it will let you delay dough--almost no machines, other than the zoji, can do this.I have used the basic, sweet, dough and sandwich cycles so far. The bread it creates is just okay (the crust is too thick when baked in the machine). However, I mostly use the dough cycle for all my needs anyways.I had an Express Bake Oster for 2 years before this that I used about 2x/week--it recently broke. THat machine had less function settings, but was more reliable.All this, combined with the very low price, makes this an okay, serviciable machine.

Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable BreadmakerI bought this particular machine on the recommendations in Amazon but am a little disappointed with its performance. I've tried many different recipes, both in the recipe book that came with the machine and a great gourmet breadmachine recipe book that turned out perfect bread loaves on my last machine, but all so far have resulted in bread that is both too heavy and falls after rising. All recipes have been followed exactly. I have also tried reducing the amount of yeast/increasing flour because I live at high altitude, but it hasn't made a difference. The bread tastes fine- it just doesn't produce a well-risen loaf.

The Sunbeam 5891 Breadmaker works as well as some other breadmaker machines, but not as well as a few. There are too many to name each and every one here. Since purchasing last month, being April, 2008, I have made quite a few loaves of bread with the Sunbeam 5891. Many adjustments to the recipes in the included book were needed to obtain the perfect loaf, but this is the norm with many of the less expensive machines. But, as with any of the automatic breadmakers, it saves me from having to knead the bread myself, which is a labor of pain with the arthritis in my hands. So, I can enjoy fresh baked bread without the discomfort. I guess it does the job it was purchased to do.

Not sure why, but some of these were not tested right. They are a total failure ...

I bought this book and hoped it would be very easy to understand and use. The reading is easy but the recipes seem very dated. The types of flour and the use of gluten separate might be useful as a modification to a recipe but the recipes seem to belong to someone making the bread by hand. I tried one recipe and decided that an online cookbook was more valuable to me. Disappointed.

Though there are many great recipes which I have tried, most seem to be too fancy for everyday needs

I was really excited about this book from the reviews, but was less impressed when I realized nearly every recipe asks to add gluten. I just use bread flour, I don't own gluten. It would be nice if there were more recipe variety in that sense, being so many rely on an ingredient I don't keep. I ended up using Google search for recipes way more than this.

If you are looking for recipes for basic breads this is not the book for you. However, if you are open to trying a large variety of breads this is your book. I did however really enjoy the gluten free chapter

To be honest I haven't tried any recipes from this book yet, and will likely update my review accordingly once I do, but I wanted to write a quick review warning people of some very confusing information about yeast in this book.I got a bread machine and all the basic ingredients for it and made a couple loafs of bread from the instruction manual, so I got this book to make some more interesting breads. The first recipe I looked at said I had to use X amount of SAF yeast or Y amount of bread machine yeast. The yeast I had been using was Red Star active dry yeast. I looked up yeast in the appendix to see what SAF (a brand) yeast was equivalent to, and, to my dismay, found a section in the book saying that active dry yeast and fresh yeast should NEVER be used in a bread machine. This was extremely confusing as active dry yeast was the yeast that my bread machine's manual said I should use for all settings except express bake.Further searching through the cookbook led me to the introductory section about yeast and it's various forms. Hensperger claims there are five varieties of yeast: active dry, fresh cake, fast-acting/instant, bread machine, and quick-rise. After extensive internet research, I have determined that this information is WRONG. fast-acting/instant, bread machine, and quick-rise are all different names for the fastest acting form of yeast. Active dry yeast is what Hensperger refers to as SAF yeast (I think she maybe got confused because most of the labelling on SAF packaging is in French?), and can be used in a bread machine perfectly fine. The only kind of yeast you shouldn't use in a bread machine is fresh cake yeast.Hopefully this information helps other readers.EDIT: I tried a number of simpler recipes from this book. I found that with my Oster bread machine the bread always came out much larger and heavier than expected from the recipe amount, as in the 1.5 lbs loaf would overflow my 2 lbs bread machine. The recipes are tasty enough, but I find it difficult to get the density right.

I bought this machine in 2015 as my daughter liked hers. Mine worked... somewhat. The last rising went too long and the loaf collapsed during baking, each time. I went online and found many people had the same problem with this machine. They said to just take the dough out of the machine after the "punch-down" cycle, let it rise in a loaf pan and bake in a regular oven. That worked fine... till the machine quit entirely about a week ago. I tried it again today just to make sure—and yes, it's dead. Two stars because it did kind-of work for awhile, and did save me considerable time. But now I'm going to search for a bread machine with better reviews... or try the "no-knead" bread again.

Makes a very nice loaf of white bread, PERIOD. Unfortunately, it performs very poorly with whole wheat flour. I have tried all of the recommended solutions: 0) Add gluten 1) Better brand of flour 2) Adjust the amount & temperature of water 3) Adjust the amount of salt 4) Adjust the amount & type of yeast 5) Adjust the amount & type of sugar 6) Added lemon juice 7) Lit candles... Although I had limited success with a few recipes, many resulted in an outright brick. I used a Breadman Machine with the same recipes many years ago, with little or no issues, only suffering a few failures out of hundreds of loaves. The only conclusion I can come to is that the cycle times or temperature settings for this machine are inadequate for whole wheat flour. Time to find a different machine!

It worked... eh and lasted 3 3/4 years of very light use (I estimate 20 total uses.) My typical recipe was a 1.5 lb loaf. I did it on "light" quick bake setting, which left the top half baked with a light crust but the bottom third stayed pretty doughy. Odd, but still tasty and it worked well for french toast the next day.When I bought this, I also considered a Zojirushi. I figured I wouldn't use it much and should get the cheap machine, however, I recently used a friend's 21 year old Zojirushi bread maker with perfect results and can't help but think for the quality and longevity, the Zojirushi would have been the better bet.

I ordered 2 units for Christmas presents. One unit had a screw loose inside - was 1 of 3 screws holding the power/mixer drive unit in place and was in a position such that I could not get the screw back into its hole, so I sent it back. Then later I got news on 2nd unit.Its delayed start button fell to inside of control panel (probabaly missing the part behind it that holds it in place?) on the very first press of the button. I had already replaced the 1st defective unit with another one when I learned of the defective button. After testing all its buttons, so far it seems to be OK, no loose screws or buttons, but not much time has passed since X-mas to be sure how it will hold up. The 2nd defective unit will be replaced with a different brand. But it does make good bread when you have a fully functional unit. Too bad the assembly quality is so poor. Thank you Amazon for taking back the defective units no problem!

I received the breadmaker, and when I was taking it out of the box, I noticed something rattling inside the bread maker. I noticed that there was a Chinese "QC Passed" sticker on the bottom of the machine. Great job guys. I tried to take the bottom off the breadmaker, but it won't come off. I guess that I will have to leave the loose screw or whatever it is , inside until it shorts out the electrical components. It's not worth the $15.00 shipping to return it for a new one. I was hoping for a little better quality for a $60.00 BREAD MACHINE !

*Updated Review After Two Years of Owning*Original review is below but I felt I needed to update. When I first purchased this machine I gave it 4 stars ~ I have however knocked it down to 2. I have only owned this machine for about 2 & a 1/2 years and today, while in the middle of making bread the machine began smoking. I, thankfully, was standing right there in my kitchen, smelled the burning smell, saw the smoke coming out of the machine and was able to unplug it immediately. I wonder however what would've happened had I stepped out of the house for a moment and been unable to unplug it! From what I can tell, I'm almost positive it was an issue of the belt breaking.I had not spilled any ingredients while putting them in the machine and the dough was not overflowing so it definitely wasn't a "user error" and a normal "food burning" smell. (Plus it was smoking out of the back of the machine) I will be contacting Sunbeam although I am not holding my breath that they will help in any way. My suggestion would be look elsewhere for a machine unless you want to be replacing this one every few years! (And for the record, I would use this maybe a couple times a month, if that, so it's not as if I was using it daily and it just simply wore out)*original review*I ordered this bread maker a couple weeks ago and have used it a couple times and really do like it. I took the advice of previous reviewers and don't follow the recipes in the direction book ~ I ordered a separate recipe book for bread makers.However, I do have one issue and am wondering if anyone has had this issue too and if you have been able to fix it?Every time so far that I have made a loaf of bread, the little mixer lever that goes inside the machine bakes INTO the bread and comes off (it is removable as it comes in a separate little bag and you have to put it on) and it's pretty annoying to have to dig it out of the bottom of my loaf of bread every single time. I have no idea how to fix this though?? (short of super gluing it (And no I'm not serious ~ I'm not going to super glue it for real)Otherwise it really is a good machine. The buttons/menu are easy to use and so far I have liked it ~ like I said it's just that one issue that is really frustrating.

We've had terrible luck geeting these recipes to work in our bread machine. But, to be fair, I don't know whether the issue is the recipes or our bread machine.

this book is outdated

I bought the paperback. I agree with the reviewer who complained about the font and ink. The font is too small, probably to fit in all the extraneous stuff into 643 pages. To add insult to injury, the ink is light brown. The ingredient lists are in the same typeface on a very green background. It is very difficult to read and use. I am surprised a professional cookbook writer would allow a book like this to be published, it is not user friendly. I am not sure if I even want to try any recipes after reading some of the reviews.

Lots of speacial ingredients like vital wheat gluten, instant potato, dry milk ect...Free online recipes as good or better.

More like a textbook about bread machines than a cookbook about making bread in a Bread Machine. The format of this book was exactly like a textbook but the recipes seemed to be secondary over the subject of bread machines.There is a lot of unnecessary information in this book and I did not like the fact that it is over 15 years old, it was last published in 2000. And bread machines, peoples' tastes and recipes have changed a lot since then. Plus this book makes it seem like making bread in a Bread Machine is a major undertaking and it is not. This book could easily turn learning how to use your bread machine into a daunting experience. Which is not why you bought a cookbook for it in the first place.I disliked this cookbook, so much that I sent it back. And instead, I got Donna Washburn & Heather Butt's, "300 Best Bread Machine Recipes." And I am so glad, I did because this is a much better cookbook and I am making fantastic and tasty bread.

This is a great book but only if you buy the print edition. There are numerous errors and omissions in the ingredient lists and quantities in several of the recipes. Some are obvious and easy to spot but there may be others that aren't so obvious.As a result, I can't trust the recipes which makes the Kindle edition practically worthless to me. I returned it and reported the errors to Amazon. Hopefully, the publisher will proofread it more carefully and issue an update. I hope so because I'd love to own it. The author is one the best known authorities on breadmaking in general and in bread machine baking in particular.

Not sure why this has such high reviews. I thought it was too good to be true at the price point, it was purchased August 9th. Used no more than 10 times and the screw that holds the bread blade in place just snapped off... guess how it went with customer service

Please TRUST the reviewers who say the recipes that are listed in this Bread Maker Manuel are BAAAAAD! Bad, and add HORRID! We needed Alka-Seltzers after having a slice. The crust was dry and the excess yeast gave it a very bitter flavor. The texture of the bread is a cross between a kitchen sponge and cheap pig bread. The top crust was like cement. I followed the recipe perfectly. I have been making yeast bread and rolls for years (decades), and this was disgusting. I am going to try a recipe I've used with very well respected success in it tomorrow. If that loaf turns out gross... I'm sending this back!!I will edit after tomorrow.. Today is January 10, 2014.

This did not work at all for whole wheat breads.

To close to the heat, makes loaf dry out, yet not thoroughly bake. Oven bake bread is much better in texture and taste.

I bought mine last March and have been making a loaf of bread just about every week. Today it made its last loaf, the motor was straining to turn the paddle.Positive: The price.Negatives: LCD is next to impossible to read. Made to be viewed by someone under 5' tall, I over 6'. Bread crust is over-cooked, even on the light setting. It never wanted to make a great loaf of bread, no matter how hard I tried. To load the pan I had too pull the machine out from under the cabinet and turn it so the lid would open wide enough for the pan.I'm tired of messing with this machine. I have 3 weeks left on the one year warranty, and won't waste my money shipping it back. My previous machine cost $180, but it lasted 7 years. This one was $40, and lasted one year. Add me to the never again group on Sunbeam bread machines.

I bought mine based on the reviews here; I must've gotten a lemon, because from within the first few runs the kneading motor started laboring more and more to the point where it has a hard time turning at all now. Even so it still produces bread, but the results are unpredictable. This is all with 4-cup recipes.It's noisy as some have pointed out. My bottom line: it might be worth the gamble for the low price, but keep the paperwork! The quality is not consistent between units. This one was to replace a Breadman TR555LC which burnt out after two-plus years of rugged use (operator error); might be time to go back to Breadman.

The cookbook does not have any images; it would have been extremely helpful to see the end product before attempting to create it. I am using You Tube instead. Much more helpful!!!

Not what I expected for recipes.

So far I have tried 3 of the white bread recipes. For all of them I used the dough cycle and baked in the oven. None of the recipes that I tried produced a light fluffy loaf.I tried the milk bread recipe that was quite chewy, then I tried the honey white recipe that was very dense and heavy, then I tried the homestyle white that was spongy and heavy. All the recipes tried were fair but nothing fantastic. I'm going to try the hamb/hotdog buns and the english muffin recipes but am not expecting anything special as the other recipes were just mediocre. Found a recipe for fluffy white on the web. So far this book has not impressed me and as it is I wouldn't recommend it.

This is not the bread book that I thought it was. You have to be experienced with your breadmaker to enjoy using this book....it isn't for newbies for sure...

I rarely write reviews but I was so disappointed by this book that I felt moved to share my dismay and even warn others not to buy it. I've made lots of good bread in my Zojirushi from borrowed recipes, but the first recipe I made out of this book just yielded a panful of baked crumbs! I couldn't even imagine what went wrong--I had followed the recipe to the letter, and it wasn't a case of bad yeast (although the author's discussion of yeast is confusing and makes one doubt the validity of every recipe in the book). I wasted 4 and a half cups of good whole wheat flour on this recipe, not to mention 3 and a half tablespoons of vital wheat gluten--now if that couldn't make the crumbs stick together, nothing could! I wish I had taken these one-star reviews more seriously before I bought this book. I'm wondering now how to return the first book I've ever returned to Amazon....

I really wanted to love this kindle book. But i dont. The problem isnt the recipes, they are well authored, there is a lot of information about the ingredients, there are several variations of many recioes. The problem is the kindlization of the book. There are two indexes, Subjects and Recipes. Neither contains page numbers or location numbers or hot links. So they are just a list of things you could,at best, consider to be search terms. However, you cannot rely on their finding anything useful. Case in point: the subject index contains the phrase "tips for starters" as in sourdough starters. If you enter this term in your kindle search, you get one result: the listing in the Subject Index. Circular and useless. I own many Kindle cookbooks. This one is poorly crafted and frustrating to use. Stick to paper on this one.