Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
by Sunbeam
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Our Price: $59.27
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Category: Kitchen
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: SunbeamBrand: Sunbeam
Model: 5891
Color: White
Product features:
- 600-watt programmable breadmaker makes 1-1/2- or 2-pound loaves of bread
- 12 cooking functions; 3 shade selections; 13-hour delay bake; LED display; touch-control panel
- Metal utensils should not be used with removable nonstick baking pan
- Wash by hand only; instructions with recipes included
- Measures approximately 14 by 19 by 13-1/2 inches; 1-year limited warranty
- Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker
- Oster 5838 ExpressBake Breadmaker, White
- Bartelt Wooden Cutting Board and Crumb Box
- Pure Komachi by Kai 8-Inch Stainless-Steel Bread Knife
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
Customer Review: Works great...with a few limitations.
Summary: 4 Stars
I retired last May and vowed my family would stop eating out so often, I would stop bringing carryout home so often, stop buying convenience foods at all, and start making everything from scratch, starting with homemade bread. This list in not as ambitious as it sounds, the transition was quite easy - and enjoyable - now that I am not working. (And we eat better and save a TON of money!)
My thumbs are very painful after 30 years of typing, and I'm not ready for surgery yet, so kneading is out. I decided to start with a bread machine, and after I have it mastered, will wean myself off it onto my (largely unused) KitchenAide. After a little research here, I decided to go to WalMart and buy the Sunbeam for $34. I knew not to use the manual, so I threw it away immediately & ordered both the Betty Crocker's Best Bread Machine Cookbook and the Bread Machine Magic from here, and used highly rated recipes from RecipeZaar until then.
Even with my research, I had a number of the problems others here mentioned, some seem unavoidable. I have tinkered with varying amounts of water, flour, yeast and salt, and still quite a few loaves fall on the 3 hour and longer cycles. The bottom is almost always too hard and dark on long cycles, even when set on light and removed immediately. It must heat unevenly, as many loaves on the Express cycle rise unevenly, lean to one side, and have a large crack on one side. None of which affects flavor and we love the loaves that come from this machine so much more than store bought that we have not bought ANY store bought for over 7 months. We make all sandwich and toasting bread, dinner rolls, hotdog and hamburger buns, pizza and calzone crust, soft pretzel dough, and dough for French, Italian, and sourdough loaves, baguettes and bread bowls, and sweet/dessert bread/cakes with this machine. I was inspired to start making all soft flour tortillas, naan, and other breads (that don't need a machine to mix them) from scratch also. This machine is so-o-o worth every penny! I was saddened to see that WalMart now sells them for $55, but it is still worth every penny, so I bought two more of them for Christmas, and my stepson and his fiance, and my niece both love theirs, too.
If money is a factor for you, and you want to start making homemade bread without a large investment, give this machine a try. Here are a few tips that will save you a lot of grief.
1. I set a rubber spatula next to the machine even before I put ingredients into the pan. No matter where you get your recipes from, watch the dough the first 5-10 minutes. Scrape the flour in the corners into the dough to avoid dry flour corners on the finished product. Make any needed adjustments to water and flour to get a perfectly smooth dough ball.
2. Don't open the lid to look at or touch the dough after that. It will affect the rising and baking, and the machine has a see-through top so you won't need to open it to look.
3. No matter what the recipe calls for, use Instant Dry Yeast for both Express Bake settings, and regular Active Dry Yeast for all other (full length) settings. You'll never get 2 or 3 rises out of the instant, and the active dry rises too slowly in loaves that are mixed, risen and baked in less than an hour. The Instant yeast is so cheap at Sam's, 2 pounds for a couple dollars, that we make 90% of our loaves on Express Bake now. Why wait three hours or more for bread you could be eating in an hour? (The Express bake loaves are also moister and last a day or two longer before being relegated to the toaster.)
4. I always use the light setting for everything. All the loaves I tried on Medium were over done with hard, dry, overbrown crust that had to be cut off. Check your clock before starting the loaf, to make sure you will be home when the loaf is done, and take the loaf out of the bread maker immediately, to avoid over browning of the bottom and sides.
5. I have two "Ove Gloves" which are easier to use than pot holders. I grab the wire handle, twist and lift, then invert the pan and hold onto the bottom with one glove and shake the loaf into the other gloved hand. I allow mine to cool on a cooling rack in open air for at least an hour before slicing, it allows moisture still in the middle of the loaf to come out through the crust, making it more tender, and slicing too soon will be messy, making crumbs a major issue.
6. After a couple loaves, my paddle also stuck to the post and I was thrilled not to have to dig it out of the hot bread. I burn my fingers every time when I have to dig it out, and the bottom of the loaf will have a tiny slit instead of a big dug out hole...yea! I only wipe the pan clean anyway, I consider its ease of cleaning to be a big bonus. No big soak in the sink and no dishwasher, so I left the paddle attached and was quite happy to get a half dozen more loaves before it came out with the loaf again...bummer :-( If you are like me and don't like to dig the paddle out of the finished loaf, avoid the delay settings, and try to not let the liquids you pour in first on regular loaves to sit too long, or the paddle will come out every time.
7. Some recipes that include several "moist" ingredients, particularly with buttermilk and fruits, are not appropriate for Express Bake, you will end up with an uncooked doughy layer just under the top crust. You could finish them in the oven, or just use regular baking cycles for those recipes. When I use any setting other than Express that doesn't include lots of moist ingredients, I often take it out early. It really does bake too long for basic bread recipes, even on the Light setting.
8. There are no preservatives or other chemicals in this bread, so it won't stay soft for a week or two like store bought bread. (There is something scary about hot dog buns that are still soft after two weeks anyway, don't you think? In the 70's, they used to use formaldehyde as a preservative in store bought bread, and I'm not sure they ever stopped...) Expect to make a new loaf every day or every other day, or to use it for toast after that.
9. A l-o-n-g serrated knife is a necessity, an electric one is preferable. After cooling thoroughly, I slice the whole loaf at once (I have children at home who aren't allowed to use the electric knife) and keep in a plastic bag folded over and tucked under. It stays soft longer in plastic than in paper, but will not mold with out a twist tie to make it air-tight. If it was just my husband and me, I would only slice the bread one slice at a time, and the bread would stay soft even longer.
10. Once you have a dozen favorite recipes that work every time, remember that homemade bread makes GREAT, inexpensive gifts, particularly as thank yous for people that you wouldn't normally BUY a gift for. I leave a loaf for the cleaning lady, bring a loaf to the lady next door to thank her for dragging my trash can up from the street when it was windy, etc. People always like to hear "Thank you", but it is even nicer with a loaf of fresh bread.
I have made over 200 loaves with this machine in the last 7 months, and couldn't be happier with it's durability (so far) and its value. If mine does start to leak oil from the paddle, as some others reported here, I will still be happy with its value so far, and start learning how to use my KitchenAide mixer to make dough in the future, instead of getting a new machine. I think I am ready to learn baking in the oven.
I hope these tips will shorten the learning curve for others here that either just bought one of these, or are about to. I suspect many of the tips would work with other brands of ABM's also. And I will probably edit this review over the next couple days as I think of things I forgot...
Description of Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
Make delicious bread at home with the Sunbeam 5891 Programmable Breadmaker. With twelve different cooking functions, you can make any type of bread with just the touch of a button. Also features the ExpressBake Breadmaker Cycle, which bakes bread in under one hour. The non-stick, removable baking pan and easy-clean touch control panel make clean-up simple.Bread Machines
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