Cuisinart Bread Maker Machine, Compact and Automatic, Customizable Settings, Up to 2lb Loaves, CBK-110NAS

I waited a long time before writing this review because I wanted to make sure I could say something beyond the honeymoon stage. Now I'm finally ready to do so. This machine has turned out to be a blessing. Sure, it has its quirks like any other automatic appliance. For instance, the suction cups that should secure it to a counter surface aren't that strong (more on that later), but at least it does what it offers. Now, I need to inform you that while the basic white bread process renders the most delicious bread on earth, the whole wheat was a disaster. I will take responsibility for it, because machines aren't smart enough to fail on their own. I liked that I can add stuff or replace it and the machine keeps on going (I learned to use oil instead of butter, real milk instead of powdered milk, and to add raisins or cranberries to my white bread).Good things: timer reliability, very good dough kneading, crust baking, ease to prepare bread and to remove loaf at the end.Not too satisfactory (but then, this may be because of other factors): whole wheat bread was a disaster, and so was trying to make a baguette dough. It just didn't rise, but I'm taking responsibility because I must have made a mistake.Now, the funny story (back to the suction cups): I got used to set up the machine at 10 or 11 o'clock the night before to wake up to freshly baked bread. This machine is good at it. However, when it's in the kneading cycle it almost dances... and the last time I left it to work overnight, it danced... and fell to the floor. Disaster: the dough was on the floor (salvageable), and the machine lost its lid (broken hinge). Here's the nice part: I contacted the manufacturer. They requested that I sent them a photo of the damaged machine. I did, and their reply was to offer me a new one, free of charge, as a courtesy—yet, with the severe admonition that I should never leave the machine unattended. Why make it programmable then? In any case, if the machine performance was quite satisfactory and the bread was loved by my whole family, now I can add a word about Cuisinart: they really stand by their product. The machine was so tough that even with a broken hinge it still made good bread! Needless to say, I'm continuing using this machine and can recommend it because of its ease of use, bread quality (at least the white bread) and good results.

I’m so glad that I bought this when they were selling out quickly due to the Covid19 crisis. I’ve made about a half dozen or so loaves of bread in the past three weeks and overall have had excellent results. First, I saw several reviews that said the bread maker didn’t come with a paddle. I thought the same thing at first - please note the paddle is taped to the inside of a cardboard piece that protects the inside of the maker from scratching. They should make this more obvious as I can see how people could overlook it and accidentally throw it away.On to the maker’s attributes, it has a nice look to it on the counter and it is compact enough that I don’t mind leaving it out 24/7 in my smallish kitchen. I will note that I have NOT used the recipes in the book that came with it. They seemed a bit fussy and with no reviews on the recipes themselves I didn’t trust them. I bought a couple of bread machine bread cookbooks that were recommended to me - in particular the Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook. I’ve also found recipes on King Arthur flour’s website.For those that are having trouble with the bread machine making loaves properly, I suppose it could be the bread maker malfunctioning, but I imagine it may be more likely that people are not measuring correctly or putting the ingredients in the machine in the right order. For my first loaf I knew I overmeasured the water just a bit but figured no biggie it will be more moist. Nope - it was too airy (but still pretty good)! Next time I did the same recipe and was more precise on my measuring and it was perfect! Another time my bread didn’t rise properly and was dense but I didn’t blame the bread machine - I know I messed up that time because it was honey bread and I forgot to put the honey in with the liquid ingredients before the flour was added so I ended up putting the honey on last which I’m sure messed up the yeast activity. That bread however was still good and edible just too dense.The other tip I’ll give is to make sure to measure flour properly. I didn’t realize this was an issue for so many people but all of the flour books stress this point so also make sure you know how to measure flour without packing it. If there is way too much flour I’m sure the bread won’t turn out. Conversely, the bread books tell you that if your dough is too moist during the mixing process, that you should add flour during the machines’ kneading process. During my very first loaf I could tell it was likely too moist through the window but I was too scared to interfere with the process. On my last loaf I made which was a Hawaiian sweet bread I could tell it was too moist so I added flour every couple of minutes during the second knead until it made a smoother dough ball that held together. The bread turned out delicious!In summary, do your research on how to optimize the results you get from your bread machine and enjoy your baking process and results!!