Cuisinart Bread Maker Machine, Compact and Automatic, Customizable Settings, Up to 2lb Loaves, CBK-110NAS

I’m a first time bread maker. I followed the instructions for French bread, and my first loaf was a disaster that I had to rescue not because of the machine because of my lack of knowledge about bread making and the importance of the balance of water to flour. For this review, I should have a picture of what it looked like. It was kind of wet and gooey and intuitively. I knew that’s not the way it should look. The manual said to remove the paddle by removing the dough when the machine beeps 10 times so that’s when I looked at my dough and saw that it was probably not the way it should be. I went ahead and tried to remove it anyway and ended up with gooey paste everywhere but there was still enough left in the machine to let it cook, and it was edible. I like rustic. My second attempt I had done some research and made sure to check the dough and sure enough it was wet again, even though I bought a scale and weighed the ingredients which I thought was the problem, but it was wet again so I added enough flour to bring it up to where it wouldn’t stick to my finger. Unfortunately, this was during the rise phase, but I figured it was better to just go ahead and add the flour. The loaf came out much better, but had large holes because the dough was still a little wet.I also made cornbread using the cake function and a recipe for a bread machine cookbook. It turned out very nice and very tasty.The main thing about this bread machine is that I can throw the ingredients in turn it on and have bread in a few hours not much to clean upMaking the cornbread was easier again throw the ingredients in the machine does the work mixes the ingredients and bakes it the machine is compact and easy to pull off the shelf when I want to use itEasy to cleanI started off with a 1 pound loaf of French bread and I’m eating it so fast. I’ll probably need to make a 2 pound loaf.But it was great I realized I’m out of bread. I gotta make some so I threw the ingredients into the Cuisinart and had bread for dinner. The picture shows my pastrami sandwich and cornbread with some salad.

Well, it sort of worked, but seemed to be screwing up bread - like it would raise and then when cooking it would fall and just look awful. I don't really know what was happening - seems a heating coil regulator or something like that had gone wonky. I LOVE MY HOMEMADE BREAD AND HAD TO HAVE ANOTHER MACHINE!!! Yeah, yeah, I could go back to doing it manually, but I had gotten used to putting the ingredients in the pan of the bread maker and letting it make the bread. So...I had to find a good replacement and I did quite a search and looked through several bread makers before settling on this Cuisinart one. First, I had one of the original Cuisinart food processors that lasted me about 25-30 years before the plastic started showing too much wear and tear (some pieces cracked off) and even then I found one at a Goodwill store that was exactly like mine so I got more years out of it! I also have a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and during the summer, I have made some darn good ice cream in it! Now, back to this particular bread maker - it is Cuisinart, but I loved the little add-in ingredient drawer so that part is now "automated" should I want cinnamon swirl breakfast bread or spice and pumpkin seed bread as examples. My old bread maker's "menu window" that showed what I had programmed in was horrible! It had a sort of silver background with black lettering and the size of the loaf was nothing more than a DOT showing at the bottom of the screen! This bread maker has a bright, easy-to-read screen is so much better and I love that it has the "confirm" button as my old one was just basically start/stop. I love the ten beeps to let me take the dough out, remove the paddle, add the dough back and have bread with no paddle sticking out of the bottom. Last, is the way this one is more...horizontal instead of vertical if that makes sense. This Cuisinart bread maker has the bread "bucket" on the left-hand side where the old one had the menu in the front, the bread bucket in the back. I really didn't like that set up as I am shorter and trying to pull that bread bucket out was often more difficult when it was hot and I wanted to pull the bread to cool it off. So...this Cuisinart has several features as noted above that means I am going to be thrilled to make bread every week! OH, and if you have issues with bread makers and the lower bread sizes (not tall like the store-bought, air-puffed breads), follow your favorite bread maker yeast bread recipe BUT ADD IN a tablespoon of vital wheat gluten (used in vegetarian seitan and other vegan recipes to create meatless meat) for each one cup of flour called for in your bread recipe. I have scaled my addition of vital wheat gluten (and please keep it in your refrigerator) to 2/3rds or 2 Tablespoons of vital wheat gluten to 3 cups flour. You will find your bread rises really well and looks absolutely beautiful compared to store-bought puffed up bread! But in the end, this is my best-buy Cuisinart machine to date - it may be YOURS as well!

When reading reviews I was a little confused whether this was for gluten-free bread. Sure enough it is and has its own setting. This is a very easy bread maker. I don't even put the amount of ingredients certain recipes call for. I only used, one sour dough rolls recipe from the book and it turned out fine as bread, But the recipe didn't call for any binding agent like: guar gum, xantham gum, cornstarch etc, so the loaf of bread fell apart at times when cutting. I got other recipes off of the Internet. I just add extra ingredients if needed the bread turns out fine you don't have to measure things precisely or exactly. I have made bread three different times now. It's lots of fun having the bread maker, it takes a load off your back of having to worry about where you're going to get your healthy bread, (because basically NO stores are selling healthy bread organic or not).

The machine itself is great, I am able to reliably make excellent bread. I took off a star because the recipes that come in the book are complete trash. Go find recipes designed for bread makers either online or recipe books - I’ve seen other reviews that agree with this, but figured I’d try it myself and yeah, it was terrible. Also, invest in a kitchen scale to weigh your flour, that helped a lot with getting my batches consistent. I do like that I can take out the paddle if I listen for the beeps. I didn’t mind the bread shape leaving it in, but have found that since it’s removable, the paddle can get stuck in the loaf and you have to carve it out which is kind of a pain. Also I didn’t trust the ultra-fast mode initially but after trying it, I really like it now. Much faster than normal cooking length and the bread texture is actually better. I have only made wheat bread so far but I’m happy with it now that I’ve figured out a good recipe.