I have a B & D machine from about 1995-6. No real complaints except that
the bread sticks to the paddle and tears a fair sized hunk out of the
bottom of the loaf and that it doesn't have a cool down feature (I survive
w'out that ok) It is a vertical pan and does 2 hour quick loaf and 4:10 for
wheat bread. Recipes in the book are all real good and it came with a
video which was nice for beginners.
NOW, 2002, I am about ready to move up to a newer machine - BUT they all
seem to be horizontal loaf nowdays... I feel like I'm better off with a
hunk out of the bottom of the loaf than with 2 hunks out of the side of a
loaf...
That's my FIRST question for y'all - Which do you prefer - vertical (1
paddle) or horizontal (2 paddle?) pans??
SECOND: I see that many machines now have 1 hour quick loaf cycles - Is
that due to the machine or is it just a matter of adding lots more yeast to
a recipe???
THIRD: Any specific brands or models of machines to recommend?? I'd like
to stay in price range under about $120.00 and have 1.5 lb capacity (we
don't eat it up that fast). Cool down is a real plus
I like to make dough to make buns etc. but it takes almost as long to do
that as it does to just bake the loaf in the machine - any machines do
dough faster w/out requiring mass quantities of yeast??
I was not able to find any web sites with good side by side comparisons of
machines SO I figured y'all are the real experts - Can you help me out??
ps, I will be scouting through the recipes here :-)
Thanks so much, Lydia