Written by: Kimberly Lavoie
Everyone loves the smell and taste of fresh homemade bread, but who has time these days for the kneading, rising, punching down, shaping, and baking? With a Breadman Convection Bread Maker, you do! In about 15 minutes you can carefully measure all of the ingredients, add them to the baking pan in the correct order, hit a few buttons and bake some bread!
Shown here in stainless steel with a black cover, the sleek design of the Breadman Bread Maker TR2500BC will have you and your family enjoying bread hot from the “oven” with very little effort, and a little patience, on your part. It does take a while to make bread, even with a bread machine, but after you put the ingredients in the pan, all you have to do is wait about 3 hours. The Breadman Bread Maker also comes equipped with a time-delay function so you can set the machine up at night before you go to bed and have fresh bread for breakfast…or whenever you want.
In addition to the timer, the Breadman Bread Maker comes with a variety of features, including:
- A convection baking mechanism for faster baking times
- 3 loaf settings so you can decide how large of a loaf to make
- 3 crust settings from light to dark
- Easy to clean features like brushed stainless steel and Mylar control panel
- Some recipe ideas are included
- 2-year limited warranty
- custom settings for the more experienced baker
- dough setting for making specialty shapes
I use my bread machine at least weekly, and it is so easy to turn out delicious homemade bread. Simply follow the recipe directions, choose the appropriate cycle on the Breadman Bread Maker and hit start. In about 3 hours the Bread Maker will do all of the kneading, resting, rising, punching down, shaping and baking. Remove the bread from the pan and you’re ready to enjoy your fresh loaf of bread. The non-stick pan and kneading paddle are relatively easy to keep clean, and with careful maintenance will last a long time.
Pros: The operation and cleaning of the Breadman Bread Maker is easy. Most of the controls are quite intuitive and the display clearly shows how long it will take your bread to be ready, and what the machine is doing at each stage of the process. I especially enjoy the timer function which lets me set up the machine at my convenience and enjoy fresh bread right when I want it.
Cons: The non-stick kneading paddle and pan require some gentle care to make them last. As with all Teflon products they should not be touched with metal utensils. This is particularly tricky with the kneading paddle which occasionally gets “baked into” the bread and does not stay in the pan when you remove the bread. It will be hot(!) but it must be removed from the bread before you slice it to avoid scratching the non-stick surface. The recipe ideas that come with the Breadman Bread Maker are somewhat limited. I recommend The Bread Machine Cookbook which has lots of yummy recipes to try.
At $100 the Breadman Bread Maker may seem like a pricey specialty appliance, but if you really love fresh bread, and if you use it regularly it will prove its worth.