Fred,
I recently had to replace my beloved Toastmaster Breadbox that served
over 25 years and is no longer available. I have a very small kitchen
so I needed one with a small footprint because I make bread
frequently. I chose a Cuisinart Compact. It's currently $121, a bit
more than you want to spend but perhaps you can find it cheaper. It
has taken me a while to adapt to it, compared to my old machine.
1. it has an annoying motor, but I realized today that I barely
noticed it. It also has a number of stupid beeps which are to alert
users to add any mix-ins (eg. raisins, nuts).
2. compared to the Toastmaster, the rising times are shorter, meaning
a smaller loaf. With the Toastmaster I used the standard white bread
cycle for everything but the results were not great with the
Cuisinart. Instead, today I tried the whole wheat cycle which is
longer, and the finished loaf came out fine, much taller. Based on
this trial I will probably use the whole wheat cycle even for plain
white bread from now on.
3. The first couple of loaves I made with this machine were dry until
I realized that the baking cycle is too long. The standard internal
temperature for finished bread is approx 190 deg. When I measured the
early loaves the temp was over 215. So now I set a timer to go off 20
min before the end of the baking. If the temperature is around 200
degrees I stop the machine and the bread is perfect.
So I am adapting and decided to keep it instead of trying out a series
of machines. One hint- if you do find a machine that he likes, buy an
extra pan. That was the Achilles heel of my previous bread machines.
Sue