Good Breadmakers make Good Bread

There are always breadmakers at thrift shops. And I brought home a newer model with more buttons and settings.Once again, I very carefully followed the instructions. The manual pointed out how important it was to accurately measure the flour. Measure? Yes, measure.

Except there were no weights given for any of the ingredients.The first loaf wasn't a complete disaster as with the other machine, so I tried tweaking the recipe, but it never quite met my standards. With every loaf there was a giant gaping hole from the paddle—it was a pain to remove from the bread, requiring quite a bit of digging and gouging.

For something that was supposed to be so easy, it was very frustrating. So that's my breadmaker experience.I thought it might have something to do with being at a high altitude, but the second breadmaker had instructions specifically written for high-altitude baking. No matter what I tweaked, the bread was pretty darned sad.That's why I was really skeptical about trying this one, but I was equally curious. Would a new, and more expensive, machine make better bread that I'd be proud of?One of the first things I noticed: it had a raisin dispenser.

Yes, I strongly dislike raisins. I used to say that I hated raisins, but I've recently downgraded to strongly dislike. But that's OK, the dispenser works for any non-sticky, non-raisin add-ins like nuts or seeds.I washed the washable parts and had a loaf in the works within 20 minutes of the box landing on the doorstep. I opted for the standard loaf.