Breville – the Custom Loaf Bread Maker – Stainless Steel

So let me start by saying, I am an Operations Manager for one of the largest Commercial Bakeries on the East Coast. When you go to the store you’re probably buying one of my loaves. So I know a thing or two about bread. And while I totally believe in the quality of the products my company produces there is something about Fresh Artisan Bread that just can’t be reproduced on a Bakery Line. So while I can take home all the free bread I want from work. I had to buy this machine. Because nothing pairs better with a Sunday Family Meal like REAL BREAD. I was nervous the first batch for the first 30 mins or so as I watched it kneading the bread thinking to myself this isnt going to work. And I started having Buyers Remorse. But by the time it started to Proof, I thought OK maybe it’s not so bad after all. 2 hours later all my fears were put to rest as I pulled it out of the Machine and placed it on the Cooling Rack. I am now a believer and use this machine sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. As I said previously in the Title, I LOVE THIS MACHINE. AND YOU WILL TOO.

So I was using another Japanese brand bread maker but it was limited to just a one pound loaf and I was finding that I was going through the bread faster than originally planned. I saw that Breville, which is a brand I really like and trust, made a bread maker that offered 4 loaf sizes. I thought it would give me more freedom to choose the size of loaf that I currently don’t have. Firstly, it looks pretty nice as it’s all stainless steel but I though it would be more sturdy, like several of Breville’s blenders. The steel seems a bit flimsy in places. The lcd screen is nice and easy to navigate. I appreciate the interior viewing window as my existing maker doesn’t have one. It’s a pretty big machine overall but that’s to be expected for a maker that can produce up to a 2.5 pound loaf. I though the mixing paddle was interesting as it could collapse flat during kneading cycles and during baking. That way, there is less of a gap created by the paddle during baking. Using the machine was quite easy. You select the style of bread, the crust color (light, med and dark) and finally the loaf size. It offers 4 sizes…1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 pound loaves. The very thorough instruction booklet also includes a large sampling of recipes. I followed the rapid basic white recipe, and at a 2 pound size. I added the ingredients in the order the recipe suggested, placed the bread pan in position and then started the cycle. I found that the machine is much louder and vibrates much more than my other Japanese machine. It seemed to wander just a bit on the counter while kneading. After several kneading and rise cycles, it started baking. The window let me see the process and I noticed how irregular the dough ball was as it started baking. I probably should have reshaped the dough after the middle rise cycle because the finished loaf was a bit of a mess on top. My other maker never once had this problem and produced a perfect loaf every time. It’s disappointing that Breville’s program didn’t accomplish this as well. Next time, I think I’ll try the ‘light” crust option, as the crust seemed a bit hard with this first loaf. It taste fine but again, the shape and texture are not up to snuff with my other maker. Im going to try a couple of more times and if things don’t show much improvement, I may be returning this unit and just live with the smaller output from my existing machine. I really love Breville but my first impression of this machine is not as glowing as I thought it would have been. Hopefully it will be better on my next bake.