Given that my old bread machine died on me, my husband gave an Oster 2.0lb Expressbake Bread Maker. I had no luck with it and couldn’t figure it out. So ahead we went to return it and get a different model. There were not many available so we got the Breadman TR2500BC.

The thing is that I usually get reviews online before buying something and this time I didn’t! My husband insisted we get a new one, so I kind of remember Breadman having a good fame. But after I got it, I went online and got reviews and if you take a quick look at Amazon’s reviews you might scream! lol There are so many bad reviews but many good reviews as well. I don’t know about you but I tend to look at the bad reviews first to have an idea to what to expect to go wrong, then I read the good reviews, compare and enjoy the pros! Seems like many of the reviews were due to miss use of the equipment and a bad costumer service. So, is expected if used as expected, I might not face any problem.

So I went ahead and tried the Cinnamon-Raising Bread Recipe that comes with the booklet (which lots of recipes compares with my two previews machines’ manuals). Here I share it! I turned great but I would add more cinnamon and more sugar.

CINNAMON-RAISING BREAD – 1LB

2/4 cups of water (80F)

1 Tbsp. Oil or melted butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar (I would use double)

1 tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Dry milk

1 tsp. Cinnamon ( I would use double)

2 1/4 cups of Bread Flour

1/3 cups  Chopped Walnuts (great touch!)

1 1/2 Active dry yeast

1/3 cup Raisings

Breadman TR2500BC Review:

1. I DON’T HAVE TO BABY SIT THE MACHINE! (SO FAR) I can say that for a 1lb recipe I don’t have to be baby sitting around the machine. I observed as it took its time to incorporate all the flour. But it did! For me this is a big plus! This is the point of a bread machine. To dump all the ingredients and let it do its job, not be there to do the job for it! I loved it!

2. LOVE THE ADD-IN DISPENSER! This was a great idea that makes the making bread experience with a machine COMPLETE! You don’t want to be around to add extras like dry fruits or nuts to your bread. You want to put everything it needs and walk away and come back to a complete and delicious homemade bread! This dispenser do its job. You simply dump your nuts or fruit there and it takes care of it (of course you need to program it by pushing the “Extras” button). I read some reviews about raising being melted there and making a mess and never being incorporated in the bread. NOT MY CASE! Mine worked perfectly fine! :)

3. NOISY? Which bread machine is not? The one that is $100-150 more expensive?  I told my husband about the noise complains and we observed that is not bad AT ALL! I even find it less noisier than the Oster one or the West Bend (old one I had)! I can live with it! I will try baking early in the morning using the delay feature to see if it really wakes us up to the noise as some people claim! lol I truly think they are exaggerating!

3. You can program your own recipes!!!! It was 5 spaces to program your own recipes! Isn’t that great! :) I can’t wait to try it!

4. Love the look! Is sleek and stylish! :)

5. When is working it doesn’t not have a light on all the time inside for your to peek. BUT by slightly opening the door on top you can peek for a few seconds and walk away! :) Not a big deal!

6. The pan stood in its place! Many people complained that the pan doesn’t stay in place or get completely stuck. Mine didn’t had any problem. At least you don’t need 4 hands to take it out of the machine (like the Oster!).

7. It has a Rapid Course! Not as the Expressbake that bakes in 1 hour. This Rapid Course decreases the process by 1 hour, so you have a delicious bread in about 2 hours. I prefer this since I found the Expressbake to not completely bake the bread. I might try this sometime to compare.

So far so good! :) Can’t wait to try other recipes from the manual. They truly look delicious! :) So I am happy with my new toy and my husband is happy to see me happy! lol So, if at the end it does not do the job… back it goes!