Would Purchase Again in a Heartbeat!
I've had the Oster Expressbake Breadmaker for almost 7 months and have used it too many times to count. If it died tomorrow, I feel like I have had my money's worth out of it and would buy another. I have used the Basic, Quick, Whole Wheat, Dough, and Sweet cycles, and they all work perfectly and produce a wonderful loaf of bread. If you're new to bread making, I highly recommend the book 300 Best Bread Machine Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt. This book gives a lot of good hints and tips besides outstanding recipes. There are also good recipes on allrecipes.com. An electric knife to slice the loaf is also extremely helpful.
I want to address some points brought out in other reviews. First of all, many bread recipe books recommend helping the beginning 5-minute mix (knead) by scraping down the sides with a silicone spatula. All you have to do is leave the lid up and as the blade is turning, scrape down the sides and help the ingredients mix. This will...
Ridiculously good performance for the price
Update 10/20/2012 - STILL works phenomenally well, and way better than the price might indicate!
I am a father with four young children, and I bake bread 2-3x a week. I bought this in the summer of 2011 (albeit not from Amazon) and have used it at least 100x or so. I bought it for $60, and I can hardly believe the consistently excellent quality that this machine turns out. I mean...seriously, for $60? You'd expect the thing to be sub-par and not up to the task. The key with this machine (as with any other, I'd imagine) is to work hard on getting the dough ball correct. That's the only part that the machine cannot monitor. Almost invariably, I have to add an extra tbsp or so of water, although very occasionally extra flour is needed. Once you figure out the right additions, you're ready for the REAL convenience of owning one of these - the timer function! Get yourself perfected on 5-10 recipes, and all you've gotta do is measure out the ingredients into the bread...
Worked for both Gluten Free and Regular Bread
This was a gift replacing a 16 year old, but still working, Zorjurshi. I wanted a machine that turned out a horizontal loaf rather than a vertical one. I first tried the Oatmeal bread recipe in the Oster book. It came out perfectly. Next I tried using Bob's Old Mill gluten free bread mix for hand or machine baking. At first I was a little worried as during the second knead I was not getting a smooth round ball. I added a some flour a tablespoon at a time. It still did not look right but it came out perfectly. Next time I may not add the extra flour to see what happens. I will continue to experiment with gluten free recipes so I do not have to rely on the mix as it is only a little less costly than a loaf of GF bread. The main point here is that the Oster is a good value all purpose bread machine. The instructions that came with the Oster said to use bread flour only. The mix I used had among other things, bean flour, and I still got a yummy tasting bread. I have read that one...
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