West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Maker Machine Programmable 12 Programs Including Gluten Free & 3 Loaf Sizes and Crust Colors with Traditionally-Shaped Horizontal Bread Pan with Dual Knead Blades, 3-Lb, Gray

Why didn't I have this years ago? I love this thing and have been baking 1-2 loaves a week since getting it. It's very easy, and I had good success from the very first loaf. The think I like most, is that this makes a horizontal loaf more like a commercial loaf. It does a 2lb loaf, but you can also do a smaller 1.5lb. loaf if you don't want it quite so tall. So far, I have baked white, wheat, and fruit breads. The cleanup of the pan is very easy, and the paddles come out easy (or you can removed them prior to the baking) if you catch it in time. I do like to remove the paddles if possible because they dent the bread, but this is the case on all bread machines.Build seems sturdy, size is fairly compact, and has many settings. Cleans up well. All in all, a good starter machine.

I almost returned this bread machine.I loved the size of the loaves it makes and the double paddles. I originally bought it because my other (4 yr old) “artisan” bread machine couldn’t mix raisins into dough without me standing over it with a wooden spoon, helping. Haven’t tried raisin bread with this one yet but I’m sure the 2 paddles will help. I wanted to see how it does with the basic white, first. I live at over 3,000 ft. elevation, so while not that high, it’s high enough to mess up baked goods. There are always altitude adjustments needed. Also, looking around online and measuring it myself, I found there are many different answers to how many grams are in a cup of bread flour. I found a range of 120 to 166 grams per cup. That’s quite a range when you need 4 cups and precision is important. After several test loaves, I found 135g/cup for the bread flour I use, to be the perfect amount and as it turns out that is what West Bend says on p.9 in the user manual.I ended up trying the custom settings, Menu 11, since I wasn’t all that thrilled with the test loaves to that point. They seemed to not rise as high as I thought they should and seemed too brown on the sides for my taste. So, using 135g bread flour per cup and reducing the yeast by 1/4 tsp because of my altitude, I increased kneading and rising times and reduced baking time. The loaf came out just how I wanted it. Couldn’t ask for more. I was actually quite surprised that changing the times on the various cycles could make such a huge difference in the final loaf, but it does.The reason I was going to return it was that the pan is pretty hard to pull out of the machine when the bread is done. Since the bread is so good (after you put in a little effort to get it the way you want it) and I like the other features (pan size, double paddles, size and overall look of the machine, nice viewing window, easy to read screen) not found in other machines at this fantastic price point, I decided to keep it and I’m very happy I did.Update: Added raisin bread pic.Another update almost a year later: The whole wheat bread in this machine’s recipe book is delicious! Best I’ve ever made. I tried it the first time without changing any settings and it turned out great.

Nice machine. Took a little while getting used to the settings as far as the bread Rising correctly Etc. Following one of the other reviewer I did use the custom settings which really works really well for a whole grain loaf. Machine is a nice size and not very heavy, stays on the counter does not move when mixing. Did have several gummy loaves to start but I'm playing with the baking settings.

Our 30-year old Zojirushi bread maker finally broke. This West Bend had good reviews and was a good price. So far, we have made 4 of the recipes in the owner's manual. All of those loaves were excellent. This machine has way more settings than our old one. Take time to read the manual. You can't spray the pan with Pam, use a rough sponge, or put the pan in the dishwasher. It also calls for the water to be 80 degrees since there is no preheat feature. (That will be harder when using fresh milk but not a major problem once we figure out microwave times.) It also said to put 1/4 of any butter used in each corner of the pan which is different than just dropping a chunk in. When the loaf comes out of the pan, the bottom is tearing where the kneading paddles have been baked in. There is a tool to remove the paddles but it is still tearing. However, those chunks are very tasty. lol. Remember to check the loaf size, 2, 2-1/2 or 3 pound as it will default to the previous setting. We have baked everything on Medium crust and they look great. The unit is deeper than our old one so we had to rearrange the cupboard for it to fit sideways, again not a major problem. Our old recipes max out around 3 cups of bread flour. This one can take almost double that but the loaves are way bigger. We will have to adjust our favorite recipes to make larger loaves. (The smaller loaves don't fill the entire pan and come out a little lopsided. The larger loaves are very symmetrical and look like they came from a bakery.) We had to get a larger airtight container to keep these big loaves in, again not a major problem. The see-thru lid is great. So is the count down timer. Cleaning the inside hole of the paddles was challenging until we got a bottle brush. Now any baked on dough comes completely out of the hole where the paddles attach. The West Bend did not get 5 stars in all categories but that's probably due to our learning curve. We can recommend this unit and would buy it again. Enjoy.