Some Praise And Some Complaints About The Breadman Supreme Bread Machine

By Robin OBrien

Soon after its launch the Breadman Supreme TR2200C was the winner of the Good Housekeeping 'Good Buy' Award as well as the Consumer Digest 'Best Buy' Award. High praise indeed. And, in fairness, it's well deserved; however, the appliance isn't without its problems.

So, what's good about the Breadman TR2200? Well, it has a traditional or horizontal shaped pan - this type is always preferable to vertical or hybrid designs - and is capable of making 1, 1.5, and 2lb loaves. It also comes with a pretty comprehensive list of preset programs. There are ten basic programs: basic bread, basic rapid, whole wheat, rapid whole wheat, sweet bread, batter bread/cake, French bread, dough, pasta dough and jam.

If you're an expert user, you'll want to use your own bake cycles and this is the biggest selling point of the Breadman Supreme breadmaker. There are two ways you can define your bake timings; you can select an existing cycle and modify it or you can define your own bake cycle from scratch. If you choose to modify an existing program, the machine will automatically factor in the variations for the 1, 1.5, and 2lb loaf with the light, medium, and dark variations for that cycle. The 'Personal Recipes' mode is extremely powerful allowing you to create your own cycle from start to finish. You define pretty much all aspects of the process from when and if to use the extras dispenser, the pre-heat time, knead 1 time, knead 2 time, rise 1 time, punch down, rise 2 time, shaping, rise 3 time, baking and keep warm times. This allows you to create more ambitious breads like sourbread that require kneading and rise times of up to 2 days.

Another big plus is the length of the timer delay. Most other brands come with a maximum of 12 or 13 hours whereas the Breadman bread machine allows you to set a maximum delay of 24 hours.

The 'extras' dispenser was just mentioned above and is also something that is nice about this machine. You can add in your extra ingredients in the dispenser right at the start along with all the other ingredients. This means you can turn it on and walk away; there's no need to come back later to add nuts and fruit etc. This is a very handy feature that isn't available with the majority of other brands.

But not everything is perfect. Let's start with some minor complaints that are really more of a wish list than genuine complaints.

There's no option to use the delay timer with the dough cycle, which is slightly annoying. Also, you can't use the 'extras' dispenser with the dough cycle either. So, if you want to make dough with fruit and/or nuts, you're going to have to mix them in by hand. The dispenser could be a little bigger as well.

Strangely, there's no on/off switch. If you punch in the wrong setting there's no way to turn of the bread machine except by unplugging it.

Getting a little more serious; the Breadman Ultimate is one of the noisiest bread machines you will come across. One hopes this is because it has a powerful motor.

As stated, this Breadman is a horizontal breadmaker. However, it comes with only one mixing paddle - unlike other horizontal bread makers like the Zojirushi that come with two. This can cause incomplete mixing of the ingredients, leaving unmixed flour in the corners of the pan. This doesn't happen every time - it seems more prevalent on heavier mixes - but it does require you to intervene and help mix the ingredients properly.

Another serious complaint is about the quality of the pan - or rather lack of it. The Breadman is an expensive bread machine, so why it's supplied with a cheap, thin pan is anyone's guess - cost savings perhaps. However, there are many reports of customer having to replace this in a very short period of time, and costing around $40 each, it's expensive.

Despite some shortcomings, it is a very nice appliance that does an excellent job of baking bread. I would recommend it and the vast majority of those who bough it are very satisfied with its performance. Most reviews of the Breadman Supreme bread machine give it a high rating.

Follow the links for the Breadman bread machine and bread machine reviews on leading models like the Oster, Cuisinart and Zojirushi bread machine.

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