The Common Sense Mom

Dispensing the common sense wisdom you expect from Mom.

Product Review

Breadman Ultimate Bread Machine

Simply put, my Breadman Ultimate has been a workhorse! I purchased this bread machine more than 2½ years ago. Since then, I have made hundreds of loaves of bread and jars of strawberry jam. Yes, strawberry jam from a bread machine!

When I bought the Breadman, our family completely gave up store-bought bread. This was not a sacrifice, but a pleasure! The kids much prefer mom’s homemade bread to store-bought bread. I know homemade bread is better for us, and it has been a lot of fun for me to experiment with bread making.

Our household consists of 2 adults and 4 children. Using the Breadman Ultimate, I make all of our bread for sandwiches and toast as well as a great pizza crust. I also make most of our hamburger and hotdog buns, sandwich rolls, and dinner rolls. Normally I bake bread in the bread machine for convenience sake, but buns and rolls are shaped and baked in the oven after making the dough in the bread machine.

I take great advantage of the Breadman Ultimate’s flexible programming. It gives the user flexibility both to re-program the standard cycles and to store custom cycles. I have never used the batter bread setting. The Jam setting on the Breadman has been wonderful. We eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch almost every day, so we go through a lot of strawberry jam. I make strawberry jam once or twice a month. See my standard strawberry jam recipe.

No regular maintenance is necessary for the Breadman Ultimate. Occasionally, I vacuum out the interior of the baking chamber to remove excess flour and crumbs.

I have only two complaints about the Breadman Ultimate. First, it does not mix 1-pound loaves well. When making 1-pound loaves, you will need to use a rubber scraper to help the machine mix the ingredients together before it begins kneading. Fortunately, I usually make 1.5-pound loaves, so this problem doesn’t often affect me. Second, the seal/gasket in the bottom of the pan failed after 2 years of heavy use. This could not be repaired, and I had to get a new pan. I believe I contributed to or caused the degradation of this rubber gasket by spraying cooking spray on the post and gasket. Now that I know better, I never spray cooking spray into the breadpan.

As with any bread machine, getting a successful loaf of bread is dependent on the correct ratio of liquid to dry ingredients. Start with a good recipe and measure carefully. You will soon learn what a good dough ball feels like. It is a good idea to check your dough ball about 5 minutes into the cycle.

I’ve been happy with my Breadman Ultimate, and I can heartily recommend it. You may also be interested in my tried-and-true daily bread recipe. It is a great 83% whole wheat sandwich bread.