Product Description
Enjoy fresh baked bread to your preference with the LCD display, audible signal for fruit and nut add ins, crust control, non-stick baking pan and large viewing window. To make things even easier you choose from 11 pre-programmed settings and choose up to a 13 hour bake delay.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #18295 in Kitchen & Housewares
- Color: White
- Brand: Black & Decker
- Model: B6000C
- Dimensions: 12.20" h x14.06" w x18.10" l,18.30 pounds
Features
- Bakes 1.5, 2 or 3lb loaves
- 10 Pre-programmed settings
- Traditional horizontal loaf shape
- 13 Hour bake delay setting
- Crust control setting with automatic temperature adjustment for regular or dark crust
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
By Bryan Cass
I have read some other reviews on this breadmaker, and most are pleased with their results. The machine does make bread, and the bread generally comes out good when you monitor the dough and make sure it's the right consistency and all ingredients are incorporated. Most breadmakers you can buy will do this. I will focus on its features and useability compares to others I have owned (and reviewed here).
I have had the Breadman TR2200C, bought in 2006 and reviewed here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R35N38H5OHHV8W/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm. This one stopped working.
I now have the Cuisinart CBK-200 2-Pound Convection Automatic Breadmaker, which I really like. I"ll compare what I like about this breadmaker with the B&D model I am reviewing here for Amazon.
This breadmaker makes a larger loaf than any I have used before. 3 pounds is a BIG loaf of bread! Most loaves you buy in the store are 1.5 or 2 lbs. The 3 lb. loaves that I made with this are very tall. You could cut it in half horizontally and have two 'normal' sized loaves. Even the 2 lb. setting makes an abnormally tall loaf that takes getting used to, although it could be my own preference for light and fluffy density (which I control with yeast and water amounts) which make the loaves I have made taller than usual. I did follow their recipe exactly for a 3 lb. loaf and it came out very tall with 'normal' density. So I am convinced that the shape of this bread pan (narrower, longer and taller than my Cuisinart) does make a taller loaf with the same amount of dough. Also, there is no 1 lb. setting on the B&D - presumably because that's not enough dough to be kneaded correctly with the two paddles.
Speaking of 2 paddles... (my Cuisinart has only 1)... The paddles rotate in opposite directions and do not reverse during kneading, which in my experience has caused a pocket of flour on one side between the paddles. You must use a scraper to push the ingredients together and down off the sides. Now to be fair, I also do this with my Cuisinart, although it *does* reverse the mixer rotation when kneading which helps incorporate the ingredients. But the B&D seems to *require* this to be done. If all ingredients are scraped together, then it does seem to mix and knead well though. The paddles are not in any sync or configuration unless you move them before placing the pan into the machine -- I did not try different configurations, which might help (e.g. one at 12 o'clock and one at 6 o'clock, etc).
The paddles do release better from the baked bread than the Cuisinart one, which is slightly bent, whereas the B&D are straight. The controls on the B&D are definitely more difficult to see, as the display is angled and covered by a plastic, rounded cover which causes glare. It would be nice if the display panel was lighted. The different bread cycles on the B&D are adequate for most uses -- including white, French, low carb, sweet, dough and a rapid white - with the three loaf sizes and crust colors available. The Cuisinart has a couple more (like rapid wheat) which are marginally useful. But my complaints about the B&D cycles is that there is no listing in the manual showing the time for each step of the cycle. I got used to knowing with the Cuisinart how many minutes I had to manually scrape the pan while it was kneading, but I was making some dough today in the B&D for Cinnamon Bread and it only kneaded for 3 minutes after the initial 2 minute "stir" mode (on and off). That was barely enough time to see how the dough looked before deciding to adjust the water or flour to get the consistency right. I had to restart the cycle again so I could add a little more flour to it. Also, there is only one Dough setting for all loaf sizes... Cuisinart adjusts the time for different sizes.
There is a "mix in" beeper, so you can add things like dried fruit, nuts or seeds to the dough as it mixes. But a feature that Cuisinart gives me that B&D does not is a beep before the last rise and the bake cycle starts. This allows me to pull the dough out, remove the paddle, then shape the loaf myself to get a better final loaf. You can also add a topping like more flour, sesame seeds, etc. at this point before the last rise and bake. You cannot do it with the B&D, unless you knew the times for each cycle... which of course you do not. ;-)
Just another couple comparisons - the user manual that comes with the breadmaker is short and sparse, with only 1 recipe per bread cycle type (and none for the 1.5 lb loaf, which I would think is closest to a 'normal' sized bread loaf). My Cuisinart also allows you to create your own custom cycles, which is somewhat useful, although I would like to create one that does my pizza dough properly, and I can't program it. You need 10 minutes after the first mix of just 75% of the flour and all the water to stop and let the dough "autolyze", then a beep to tell you to add salt and yeast and then mix another 15 minutes, then another beep to tell you to add the rest of the flour before the final kneading and rising. This makes really good pizza dough, by the way. The Cuisinart has a 'convection' feature, which is basically a little fan that comes on during the bake cycle and keeps the temperature inside it even. The B&D just has the heating element at the bottom. One last thing -- the B&D has no handles on it, so you must pick it up from the bottom, which could be cumbersome.
So, you can probably tell that I still am using my Cuisinart for daily breads and for pizza dough. This B&D will come in handy for larger loaves though, and still makes decent bread of course, as long as you monitor the dough during the first kneading cycle to make sure it's not too sticky and not too dry. Pinching the dough, it should be soft and tacky, like Scotch tape, and should stick to the sides of the pan while mixing, but not be gooey like glue. Good luck, and make some good bread! :-)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
By SierraC
PLEASE SEE CUSTOMER PHOTOS. Another reviewer posted 4 photos and I added 9 more in hopes of giving you the best ways to evaluate this very good bread maker! Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words and making decisions about bread maker purchases is often really difficult.
First, a couple of tips and then on with the review. TIP #1: if the baked bread seems to be stuck inside the pan, turn the pan upside down over a cutting board and get hold of the wing nuts on the underside of the paddles and give them a twist. The twisting motion will loosen the paddles inside the bread. This makes the paddle holes a little larger, but does no other real harm. Everything is likely to be hot at this point, so take care. TIP #2: if the paddles stick to the inside of the pan, take a wooden or other non-metal spoon and place the spoon tip under a paddle. Gently lift the edge of the paddle and it should easily slip off. TIP #3: The bread pan removes easily from the machine if you tilt it slightly and then pull instead of pulling it straight out. The instructions say to lift straight out, but this is unnecessarily difficult. A slight tilt and a pull makes the job easy without doing any harm.
This is a very good bread maker and an excellent value at under one hundred dollars. I own the Zojirushi BB-CEC20 Home Bakery Supreme, one of the highest rated bread machines and I paid much more for it. No doubt, the Zoji is better in several ways, but both machines make very good bread (see photos for similarities and differences). Breadmakers are best at taking raw ingredients through the kneading process into dough stage with excellent results. By doing this, they save you tremendous amounts of time and effort. But no bread maker can go from the dough stage to a perfectly baked loaf (or even rolls) like you can when you pull the uncooked dough from the machine and do the final shaping, rise, and baking yourself. So, perfection is not available inside the machine, but perfect dough is available with both the Black & Decker and the Zojirushi.
Here's where the Zoji definitely is better, but not necessarily enough to justify the cost difference:
1. With the Zoji, you don't have to preheat your ingredients. The Zoji brings ingredients to the perfect temperature as part of its programmed process. With the B&D, you have to heat your water/milk/other liquid to about 80-90 degrees before placing it in the machine.
2. Fit and finish of the Zoji machine is much better. The B&D lid has loose hinges and doesn't close right. The paddles fit oddly inside the B&D bread pan, although they seem to work well.
3. The B&D is loud! At least it's very loud compared to the Zoji. I can't remember how loud my old bread machines were. I've had my Zoji for three years and have felt pretty happily spoiled by its excellence. But if a little noise doesn't bother you, the B&D's loudness certainly is NOT a deal breaker.
4. The B&D's bread pan is oddly narrow and tall (see the photos that show the Zoji loaf up against the B&D loaf). You can see how very tall the B&D bread is, although it looks kind of attractive next to the lower Zoji bread. But if you really want standard sized slices, you will have to adjust your recipes to make a slightly smaller loaf. There may be some other way to adjust this sizing element, but I can't think of anything just now.
5. The B&D often leaves wrinkles on the sides of the loaf (see photo). I posted photos so you can judge for yourself whether it is important to you. The moister your dough, the less likely you will have wrinkles.
6. The Zoji's operating instruction & recipe book is excellent. The B&D's is okay, but not very informative. I did not find most of the recipes to be of interest and there was no information about the length of time the B&D spends in each mode. For the Zoji, on the other hand, the recipe book shows for example that the basic white course will spend 20-30 mins preheating, 18 mins kneading, 45 mins first rising, 25 mins stir down and second rising, 45-55 mins stir down and third rising, and 62 mins baking.
7. The Zoji is programmable, but in 3 years of daily use I have never needed to program it yet.
But on to the B&D's wonderful qualities! This is a 2-paddle machine with a loaf style bread pan (more horizontal than vertical, as contrasted to most inexpensive machines). The machine is POWERFUL! I made a large batch of homemade phyllo/filo dough, and it handled the kneading challenge without a problem. The phyllo dough turned out smooth and easy to handle, which is saying a lot. The kneading cycle is fairly long so it does a beautiful job developing the gluten. The rise time is programmed well so that you get nice, light bread if you use a fairly moist recipe and sufficiently light flour. The dough cycle makes a fabulous pizza crust dough. I used my own recipe (2 cups water, 1 tsp salt, 4 cups bread flour, 2 tsp dry yeast), and the dough turned out perfectly.
OTHER NOTES WORTH YOUR ATTENTION: The manufacturer photos are not consistent with the machine I received. First, the pan in the manufacturer photo is one of the vertical types. The one that was sent is horizontal. Second, the machine I received is labeled for loaves that are 1.5, 2, or 3 pounds. The manufacturer photo shows different weights (2, 2.5, 3); doesn't really matter as far as use and results go, but could indicate some quality control issues.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
By Amazon Customer
Update: just found out this bread machine is made by the same company Applica, that makes the BREADMAN Bread machine.. I found that most interesting..
Very pleased w the product that this machine produces.. !! I have been using a bread machine for many many years... Now I don't' bake bread every week but pretty regularly.. I have an old Toast Master 1-2 lb machine that keeps chugging away but it is limited to 2 lbs. so I was anxious to get my hands on this 3 lbs machine.
.... Well the first thing I noticed was how LIGHT it was taking it out of the box.. nothing like the old one I have that is a bit of a heft to get it around.. I started unpacking and opened the machine and pulled the bread pan out .. this too was very light in weight.. very thin metal.... I washed and put the spinner blades in and then try to reinsert it into to the machine.. this was a bit of a tussle.. it doesn't smoothly fit into it spots. It took some maneuvering and some PUSHING to get it into its correct location.. but it firmly seated itself.
I then proceeded to use a recipe I have used many many times.. with some mixed reviews.. Well this is 100%whole wheat w added flax and sunflowers seeds...
I added the ingredients per the instruction manual and pushed the whole wheat cycle.. fortunately I had read that nothing would happen immediately as the machine was allowing the grains to absorb the water to fully saturate.. after approx 15-20minutes.. it started to mix and knead.... ... I checked a few times look into the window.. but left it all alone..When it was done... removed the bread and let is cool for about 20 minutes... then sliced
...... SEE MY PICTURE OF THE BREAD ABOVE ...........
I was so surprised.this old recipe that has previously been very dense and on the dry side.. was now SOFT and Tender and easy to slice... Then I tasted it and WOWOWOW... even the flavor was better..!!
I am sure the dual blades and the delay start lead to this MARVELOUS improvement to this bread. Now I am so excited to try some of the OLD recipes that were not so good in my Toastmaster and see what Mr .Black and Decker can do with it...
So Excited !!
....
Now the not so good aspect of this machine is the very poorly lite display area.. it is hard to see as it isn't back lite so needs good lite to see it well.
.................TIP::::Now I just read a tip from some long time user of this machine.. she suggested that when you start the machine have the paddles point to each other and it will lead to a more even mixing and the bread won't be lumpy and uneven.
I love that its a thinner longer loaf. more like a regular loaf... I just wish they included MORE recipes but will just pull up some of my old favorites and try to figure out how to increase the recipes to the 3 lbs size..
Over all I am pleased with this machine. and hope to enjoy many happy meals with the machine providing the bread.
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