Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
by Sunbeam
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List Price: Our Price: $51.54 You Save: $34.51 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $47.42 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Sunbeam 5891 2-Pound Programmable Breadmaker, White
Customer Review: Sunbeam Breadmaker
Summary: 5 Stars
I have no complaints about this bread machine. I heard a lot about the recipes in the provided booklet. So far I have only tried one recipe out of it and it was okay. The best recipes of course are found on other websites. There has been no walking or knocking coming from the machine. Although the booklet did say if there is any knocking to add something like a tablespoon of water in the dough at a time because it is probably too dry, I have never experienced this problem. The dough cycle is great, never having used a bread machine before, I didn't know the dough cycle is 2 hours. I was not prepared for that. I do love the delay timer. It can be delayed up to 13 hrs. I love that for instance, Saturday mornings when you want to sleep in and put the bread in the pan early. The warm cycle does darken the crust when left in for 20 to 30 minutes after bread is done. That sometimes causes the crust to become too hard. I'd have to say that might be my only complaint, but not really a con. I use this machine at least every other day(bread goes fast in my house)and it seems to be doing just fine. My sister has a Zo and she has said the crust darkens during the warm cycle also. All in all, with no others to compare it to, I'm very happy.Customer Review: Perfect bread made by amateurs
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the mostly good reviews and presumed that some of the bad were from recipes that may just be duds, so I bought it knowing it would be a great priced middle of the road machine. So today, Christmas Day, we took it out of the box and used the recipe from one of the reviewers here for wheat bread (copied below) and although we needed to add a little water throughout the kneading, it turned out perfect. I am serious! Crusty outside, yum inside. We put maple syrup in place of honey. We have NEVER made bread or used a bread machine and while we had no idea what was going on as it went through the cycles, it ended with success. Highly recommend for new baker. Not sure about those baking 3 loaves a week, maybe you have to invest in something more industrial? As for crashing bread, the order of the ingredients seems to be very important -- liquid first, then dry and the right amount of yeast.
Here is my recipe for 100% stone ground whole wheat bread:
1 3/4 cup plus 1 tsp room temp filtered water
1/4 c honey (or maple syrup)
2 tsp salt
4 2/3 c fresh stone ground whole wheat flour (18% protein)
1 1/2 tsp SAF dry yeast
(probably need to add a little water through kneading cycles)
Customer Review: love love love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
Got this for Christmas and just love it. It's so simple and makes great bread -- I haven't had one bad loaf...well, except the one time I forgot to add a key ingredient, but you can't count "operator error" ;). I found a great recipe for honey whole wheat bread at allrecipes.com and make my own delicious, nutritious bread each week, at a cost of about $2.40 a loaf. It takes about 10 minutes to measure and add everything, you press a few buttons, and forget about it. Couldn't be easier.
I also liked the introduction in the manual (how to measure accurately, etc.) although the technical info on machine workings itself is a little lacking. I THINK it has a signal when to add add-ins (what else is that beep for?)
I have also had success with the manual mode (mixing the dough and then shaping rolls/breadsticks by hand and baking them in the oven). I doubt I'll ever use the sweetbread/cake modes -- just not my style -- and leery of the "quick" mode when the regular mode has worked so perfectly. (It takes 3.5 hours for my whole wheat loaf cycle...well worth the wait, especially when I avoid the hassle of kneading.)
Overall, a great machine at an incredible price, a terrific value. Highly recommended!
Customer Review: An unbelievable bargain!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been tempted for years to buy a bread machine, but couldn't justify the cost. After all, how much bread can two people eat? Answer: More than I ever imagined -- when it's this good. I've had my machine for less than a month and I can't remember when I've had so much fun for so little money. (For some reason the price was about ten dollars less last month than now -- but it's still worth it.) And I want to thank all the earlier reviewers who warned about the recipes in the instruction book -- didn't even try them. I first used a basic white recipe from the Betty Crocker book, which was very good but did have a slight cave-in that I blamed on Denver's 6,000 foot altitude. But then I came across Beth Hensperger's "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook" and it's been nothing but success after success which I attribute to following her recommendations for adding gluten and using SAF yeast. I've lost count of how many loaves I've made. I'm a very experienced bread maker so when I say this is not only as good, but probably better than non-machine-made bread, believe me. I hope it doesn't break down soon, but if it does, I swear I've already gotten my money's worth in terms of fun -- yes! -- as well as great bread products.Customer Review: Excellent value and performance!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this bread maker from amazon a couple of weeks ago, when it was priced at only $34 with free super saver shipping. I'm very happy I purchased this product. I am new to bread making at home, but so far I've made three different loaves on different cycles, and the end results have been great.
The manual is not very well written, and I read on here that the recipes in there don't work too well. I've only used recipes found on the internet, and they've all worked great. One thing I've noticed is that on the "light crust" setting, the bottom of the bread will still have a thicker crust compared to the top. This is due to the location of the heating coil, but it doesn't affect the bread quality itself.
The machine noise during kneading is what you'd expect, but it's not loud or distracting at all. Cleaning is a cinch - rinsing the pan with hot water is usually good enough for me. I like the shape of the loaf pan - the width is about the same as the healthy breads you find in stores.
Overall, I recommend the Sunbeam 5891 to anyone that's new to bread machines. It offers most of the functions and versatility of other, more expensive machines, and I've been happy with the results.