Cuisinart Automatic Bread Maker Price: $49.99 Shipping Options:: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 1-2 business days (Monday, Feb 23 to Tuesday, Feb 24) + transit Condition: Refurbished
Breadmakers: now appearing at a Goodwill Store near you!
Seriously, $50 bucks isn’t a huge gamble, but if you are just curious about the concept of baking bread at home, there are TONS of used makers in thrift stores for $5 to $7. Try one out and it you like it, buy a nice new shiny one if you want to.
I bought this same model here on Woot 5 years ago initially just to make pizza dough. Since then I’ve been making a loaf of bread a week and it’s still going strong. A big advantage to this machine over similarly priced models is it will beep before the last rise to let you know you can remove the paddle before baking. You don’t have to remove it but it’s easier before baking and it won’t leave a cavity in the loaf. It’s a real good machine.
Strongly considering it, but amazon has a Hamilton Beach one that looks nicer, is a little smaller, has better reviews, and only costs $7 more when you factor in shipping.
I’ve had this bread maker for years now and love it. The only thing I’d change is to use a quieter motor for mixing. If you get this, you have to try the banana nut bread recipe in the recipe book that is included. Triple the vanilla it asks for, and use well ripened bananas, or let the mashed bananas sit for a bit before throwing them in, the air turns the starches into sugar. Best banana bread ever! Add bourbon if you’re feeling adventurous.
As far as the breadmaker itself, it’s very well made, and easy to use one you read the manual. Be sure to read each recipe carefully, some require you to use a spatula to ensure all flour is mixed in. Otherwise, it’s easy to set it and forget it.
I have a West Bend double-paddle bread machine (sort of a “poor woman’s Zojirushi”), which can make true rectangular loaves, whereas single-paddle machines like this Cuisinart generally make more squarish loaves. I’ve found that the West Bend’s double-paddle bread pan is trickier to seat within the machine than the single-paddle pans in my previous machines were, though, plus I never use the highest-capacity loaf setting (a whopping 2.5 lbs.). The bread tastes just as good in a single-paddle machine like the Cuisinart, and with the money you save buying a refurb from Home.Woot, you can buy a lot of bread flour, yeast & other baking supplies!
I have this breadmaker (got it for Christmas) and absolutely love it! It makes dough and bread very well. I love that it beeps at different times, for adding things like nuts and dried fruits, or to remove the blade for a loaf sans a hole.
I actually think it’s pretty quiet, but I don’t have much to compare. It’s really dummy proof, just add ingredients in a particular order, select the bread and crust type, then you’re good to go. Also has a delayed start if you want to wake up to fresh bread in the morning. Great machine!
I’ve owned both elongated version, the Zojirushi and the older style vertical square type, and I found the ones that try to bake a horizontal loaf end up creating more lopsided loaves.
They also have more problems kneading the dough (especially the double paddle versions) than the vertical style.
I find the single paddle square based pans that essentially bake the loaf upwards, not only (because the dough falls back onto the paddle constantly) knead more effectively, but they rise more effectively/evenly.
The way the Zoj pushed the dough from one paddle to another, made it pretty much pointless as it would about 80 percent of the time leave the dough at one end of the pan or the other = lopsided loaf, unless you were making a really wet dough that would self level.
Seems to me they sacrificed a lot into getting the loaf a traditional shape rather than focusing on kneading power, and so in went a second paddle so it couldn’t escape.
Just my two cents, but in my opinion these became over-engineered. In fact I’m having problems finding the regular vertical style pans. They all seem flattened and elongated in some way now…
I ended up selling my Zoj and purchasing an older style panasonic. It looks hideous, but it’s so much more thorough in it’s kneading that I didn’t miss the features of the Zoj.
It’s a real shame. It feels like they successfully reinvented the wheel there but then forgot that and sacrificed quality with trying to go for a traditional oven baked pan shape at any cost.
lol - the purchase numbers are a surprise. I didn’t think there were more than like 8 people that haven’t gotten one of these at some point in the last 20 years…
Bread always comes out too dense from mine, and I’ve got a nice one. It sits, plotting, in my basement - next to my microwave from college…
Breadmakers like this are great! I’ve had six or seven over the years, and except for one (a “Breadman” brand) that stopped working, they all keep going strong, seemingly forever.
The trick is not to forget about the thing. All you have to do is remember, after dinner, to add the ingredients (simple: flour, water, sugar, salt, and yeast). Then set the timer for 6:30 or 7:00 AM. If you do this, your family will love love LOVE you when they awake to the smell of fresh hot bread!
They are also great for make-pizza-at-home night, because you add the flour sugar salt and water, and half an hour later you have pizza dough ready to roll out!
I generally get my breadmakers at Goodwill or The Salvation Army, where they sell for $10, $15, or sometimes $20. But $50 for a new one is a great deal. (If you’re new to bread machine baking, having a new one with an unstained instruction manual should make it more accessible to get started.)
To sum up: these are great machines, and you can make a loaf of bread every week by putting in little more than 5 minutes of your time! BUT, be warned that most people seem to use them a couple times then lose interest, and the machine just gathers dust. If you suspect this will happen to you, then get a used one at Goodwill instead, and just return the machine to Goodwill if/when it turns out to go unused.
My existing machine has the same issue, too dense, which I discovered is caused by a rise time that is too short.
Does this machine allow you to manually adjust the length of the rise time? Or does it allow you to create your own bread cycle? Then it would be worth getting a new machine.
Good Lord people your local thrift store has these for around $6. That is where I got mine. Practically band new. People realize the expense and not worth the effort and donate them. I rarely use mine, but I did not pay $50 for it either.
HEY!!! We “DON’T” appreciate well thought out logical comments here!!! Imagine going to a thrift store to buy a working bread maker to “TRY” it out to see if its for you rather them making a quick impulse buy and regretting it later. The nerve on some people.
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