Amazon Basics Programmable Bread Maker, 2lb Non-Stick Automatic Machine, 3 Loaf Sizes, Cake and Yogurt Function, LCD Display, 3 Crust Colors, White

This is a good machine for the price! This is the second bread machine I've had. Prior to this one I had a Hamilton Beach one that was similar. This one is smaller and takes up less room which is a plus. They had the same settings, so I pretty much knew how to use this from my experience with my past one. The recipes in the manual are extremely vague. I'm glad I kept my old Hamilton Beach recipe book and have mostly been using that. I will say the dough recipe is great for making two 16" pizzas. I make a pizza with half the dough and put the other half in a baggie and refrigerate for several days. I bake the pizza 425 degrees for 23 minutes. So far that's the only recipe I've used. The rest I used from my old recipe book. I usually make express white bread which only takes 1 and a half hours! Nothing like warm fresh bread with a meal. I've made cinnamon raisin buns that were fantastic. I also made cinnamon raisin bread that was great. Like my last machine the paddle is pretty much stuck on. I don't bother trying to pull it off anymore and just wash the paddle in the pan. It washes very easily since it's nonstick. I use the soft side of a sponge to prevent scratching it up. The soft side is all that's needed to remove anything. It seems to cook well. I usually put my toast level on medium and it has a crispy but not too hard crust. Makes it easier to slice. Any leftover bread pieces make the best breadcrumbs too. I just run the bread in a processor and then toast the crumbs on a baking sheet till golden brown. So far it makes the usual noises. Eventually the gears on my last bread maker started slipping and it stopped working. Hopefully the gears on this are metal and not plastic and that doesn't happen again. Overall, I've been very happy with my machine! I think this is very simple and easy to use. The worst part about it is the recipe book. It should have more detail like what to do with the dough after... things like that. But all you have to do is look for recipes on the internet so it's not a big deal. It'd just make it even easier for a newbie to use.

This little bread maker is amazing! It does everything that the more expensive brands do, and is easy to use. You can even use just the “Dough” cycle to mix and rise, then remove and do the last rise in a regular loaf pan and bake in your oven, if you prefer. It does make the vertical, cube shaped loaf if baked in the machine. But over all, it meets every bread maker criteria I can think of! You can’t beat it for the price! And, it even has a function for making homemade jams and one for yogurt! You can easily see the various cycle functions from the photo here showing the top of the bread machine. I also included a picture of a 1.5# loaf I made to show what the finished product looks like. Thank you, Amazon, it’s a very good product!

I've made about 10 loaves of white basic bread with this so far and every loaf except one was acceptable. By acceptable I mean way better than basic store bought bread so it's actually a compliment.That one loaf I used rapid and though edible was quite dry so I guess I need to either tweak the recipe or stick with the normal cycle. Otherwise this makes bread as well as my 20 year old Welbilt, which for some reason started killing the yeast during the rise cycle. That being said the old breadmaker was a much more robust machine, probably weighing two and one half times as much as this one so vibration, a common complaint on the cheaper machines, was not an issue. I was was a little concerned that there was no hook but it doesn't seem to make any difference in the quality of the bread. I think the key issue is durability with these cheap machines and that of course remains to be seen. I would like to get at least a couple years out of it so we will see. I probably would but a higher end machine next time but I wanted to see if it was a problem with my old machine or me and I guess it was the old machine. The 2 pound loaf claim I think is a little exaggerated as a 1 1/2 lb loaf risen the way I like it definitely fills the pan , almost overfills. I use a gram scale to measure my ingredients and that works best for me. This satisfies my needs as I pretty much make just simple white basic bread, so I can't address any of the other bread recipes. For $60 if I could get 2 reliable years form it I would say well worth it, making 3 or 4 small loaves a week. I basically don't buy any bread any more so I feel it would easily pay for itself in a year. I do like the small countertop footprint, but it is very light and I actually put it on the floor after I turn it on because a mix that is a little dry will cause it to shake quite a bit and I could see it walking off the counter.Four stars is fair rating in my opinion, with no major flaws that I can find.