Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
Customer Review: Great Value
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this bread machine two weeks before Christmas so we could enjoy fresh bread over the holidays. I carefully measured the ingredients the night before and using the delayed start feature awoke to fresh bread the next morning throughout the holidays. Outstanding!
But as the previous review said "any bread machine is not as much of a "fix it and forget it" walk-away tool as a crock pot (at least, not if you want a perfect loaf every time). You need to check the dough during the second knead cycle to make sure it isn't too wet or dry (which will depend on the weather!). You may have to scrape the sides of the pan, or add additional ingredients (like fruit) later in the cycle."
I have cooked an incredible amount of great bread in this machine over the past four months. I also check the dough initially for too wet/too dry adjust as necessary and am always rewarded with a perfect loaf.
I make Banana Nut Bread using the cake cycle and it does require that I scrap the sides and assist a bit with ensuring all of the flour becomes properly mixed in the dough. I'm rewarded with loaves that friends, neighbors, and family rave about and compare to 'better than bakery'.
Pretty good for a ~$40 bread machine. :o)
Other than breads (yeast or soda) I've also made pizza dough. AWESOME Best homemade pizza I ever made; Kolaches dough, I adjusted a family recipe for bread machine use and have been well rewarded. For quick and easy I sometimes buy boxed bread mixes at the grocer and these do well.
Before next Christmas I will buy a second machine so I can make more Banana Nut Bread for gifts. (Everyone loves it!)
I have had great bread baking success with this machine. I have no problems recommending it to anyone.
Customer Review: Simple yet totally awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never owned a bread machine before, so my review might be biased in that way, but I'm absolutely in love with this bread machine. It's so simple to operate, is very quiet, and makes bread making a lot more fun than it used to be. I've even decided to stop buying store bought bread altogether and we're eating only homemade bread!
I do have some issues, but they're really not that big of a deal. The first problem I have with this machine is that the paddle often gets stuck after the bread is baked. However, I've found that if you soak the bucket in hot water for about 5 minutes and then wiggle the paddle back and forth, it'll come loose. If that doesn't work, slide a dish cloth under the paddle and lift upward.
I also have the issue that my white bread has the tendency to deflate when rising for the last time, and has a funny bowl shape on top. It doesn't affect the bread in any other way, but it's kind of ugly looking. It's never happened to my whole wheat bread, though, and since I mostly make whole wheat, the issue isn't really worth looking into. It's probably that I'm adding too much water.
The manual is very uninformative, as well, and doesn't give a newbie like me much info to help me figure the machine out. But I suppose I should stop being cheap and just buy a bread machine book.
One more thing. The bread is kind of a funny shape. It's very tall and wide. I compensate by whacking an inch off the bottom of my 1.5 pound loaves, which gives me the shape of bread I'm used to getting from the store. This also solves the problem of having a paddle indent in the middle of the bread.
Other than that, I'm totally in love with my new bread machine. I'm probably going to keep using it until it falls apart!
Customer Review: The good reviews are all true.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker demonstrates all the advances made in the last 10 years (which is as long as my last breadmaker lasted... not a Sunbeam). It's the best Christmas present I ever bought for myself! Not only does it work well, it looks snazzy! The display, the features and the many settings all make it easy to create a wide variety of excellent breads. However, I agree with the reviewer who said that the recipes that come with it are very poor; don't even think about trying to make their "whole wheat" recipe.
This breadmaker takes up quite a bit of room on a counter top, so clear a permanent space; you will be using it a lot. Users should be cautioned to pay attention to the words that appear on the back of the inside: "Release" and "Lock". If the bread pan is not locked (turned slightly to the right), the drive shaft won't turn the paddle as it should. For easy removal the bread pan must be released (turned back to the left).
I do wish some inventor would discover a way to keep the kneading blade (the paddle) from ending up baked into the bread! The Troubleshooting section of the manual says to use the "hook provided" to pull the kneading blade out... I didn't get a hook. It also says to invert the hot bread pan and "gently shake it"... which doesn't work, either. With my old breadmaker, if I removed the bread from the pan immediately after the machine indicated that it was "done", the paddle did not stay inside the bread; I've not figured out a way to make that happen with this breadmaker. I do hate ruining a huge chunk of the loaf by digging the paddle out.
The best thing I can say about this breadmaker is that it produces consistently uniform and excellent loaves, which is exactly what a bread lover like me hoped for !!
Customer Review: Recieved damaged (Edited review)
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first bread machine and I am a bit disappointed. Just received it yesterday and there are 2 cracks in the plastic that surround the inside and the metal inner lining is crimped in places and warped.(uploaded 4 pictures to gallery) The metal liner edge could be just how it is attached, but I know the cracks in the plastic should not be there. Not sure if I just got a bad one or if this has been reconditioned and resold as a new item.
I wanted to return it for a replacement or get my money back through amazon but I don't want to pay return shipping or take the chance on receiving another bad item. I called Sunbeam directly instead and they were very pleasant, and the person I spoke with told me this falls under the 1 yr warranty and they would be shipping out a new product and I would not have to pay to ship the bad unit back.
I can't comment on how this bakes yet, but going by the other reviews I am looking forward to baking!
Received new breadmaker from Sunbeam (not Amazon). Not only do they stand behind their warranty but I received free shipping AND they told me to throw away the old machine after making sure I keep the paddle, pan and the rest of the accessories as back up extras.....wow!!
I finally got the chance to try this machine out too. I have never used a bread machine before. This was actually fun! Toss in this and that, push a couple of buttons and it does everything for you. I found a bunch of bread machine recipes online (just google breadmachine recipes) so it will be a very long time before I run out of things to try. This was a good buy! :)
Customer Review: Very good machine
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this machine because online reviews of bread making machines rated it as one of the best. I also wanted one that made a loaf shaped loaf, which this does. I have had it for over a year now. Because I have had problems with bread machines in the past, and most recipe books are not very helpful in explaining how to use a bread making machine, when I bought it, I decided to borrow some videos from the library showing how to use one. Through the videos I learned that previous failures at bread making using other machines had been my fault. I had not really understood how they worked and how to use them properly. I learned among other things that using too much yeast or exposing the rising dough to drafts through constant peeking, made the dough fall.
Bread machines are glorified blenders. I learned that you can help them along in their mixing using a spatula and I learned how to tell when the dough was the right consistency. I myself found I preferred making a smaller loaf or using the machine as a blender and finishing the baking in the oven.
Sometimes for no reason I can discern, the bread doesn't turn out well. Perhaps there was too much yeast or the dough was exposed to the cold as it was baking. Whatever, flour is cheap and mistakes can be fed to the squirrels and the birds.
I think most important to the success of bread making is a book giving simple, tasty recipes. After researching bread machine recipe books through the local library, I settled on a great recipe book by Jennie Shapter called The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook. It has lots of how-to pictures and the recipes are simple and tasty. Using it, I have made white, wheat, and mixed grain breads as well as pizza dough in this machine, quite successfully.