Product Description
With the HomeBaker Bread Machine, preparing a variety of breads is simple: just add ingredients, select the cycle and press start. After you make the first delicious batch, it won't be long before family and friends are asking for more.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #4457 in Kitchen & Housewares
- Color: Black
- Brand: Hamilton Beach
- Model: 29882
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 12.75" h x16.38" w x12.38" l,11.86 pounds
Features
- 3 easy steps - Add ingredients, select cycle, start
- Prepare healthy whole-grain bread - control the nutritional content of your bread
- Homemade bread without preservatives or trans fat
- Recipes included: gluten-free to French bread
- 12 cycles including jam and cake
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
By Terry R. Nye
The Hamilton Beach HomeBaker bread machine is a versatile machine for not only kneading dough and baking bread but also for making jams. The machine arrives well-packaged and pretty much ready to go right out of the box. I was surprised by how lightweight it is. It utilizes a vertical non-stick bread pan, which means your bread will not look like the loaves you see in the store, but they will still be shaped to where you can cut your bread into sandwich slices if desired. Two non-stick kneading paddles are provided, but only one is used. I don't know why an extra is provided, but it is kind of handy to have in case you lose one. A very thick printed owner's manual is provided that explains exactly how to use the machine and also provides some helpful recipes.
Operation of the machine is pretty intuitive and straightforward. You fill the pan with wet ingredients first, then add the dry ingredients. After you put your pan in the machine you select which function you want the machine to perform (there are 12 different cycles to select from including ones for jam and cake), select your desired crust, select the loaf size (the machine can bake 1-1/2 or 2-1/2 pound loaves), and then press the start button. You can add things to your bread during the kneading process (e.g. nuts, seeds, raisins) at any time by simply raising the lid and dropping them into the pan. A basic loaf of bread will be kneaded and baked in about 3 hours. There are settings available to delay baking if desired (in case you want to wake up in the morning to the smell of freshly baked bread, for instance). The bread is easy to remove from the pan after baking, and clean up is minimal.
If you are new to home bread making this is an easy way to enjoy homemade fresh bread and experiment with different types of bread recipes without all the hard work that is usually involved with making bread from scratch. You can buy packaged bread machine mixes in your grocery store but there is really no need to do so. All you need is flour, salt, sugar, instant yeast, some oil or butter, and water. I find it is cheapest to buy instant yeast in bulk (the included recipes refer to bread machine yeast but plain old instant yeast works just fine). You will also get better results if you use bread flour instead of regular flour, although either can be used. You will also find your breads will be a little chewier if you add some gluten to your mix (about 1-1/2 tablespoons works well with a 2.5 pound loaf). Machines of this type are also really useful for making pizza dough for homemade pizza. It is so much easier than making pizza dough in a mixer.
I found the Hamilton Beach HomeBaker to be very easy to operate. It is fairly quiet during operation and does a nice job of baking bread. At its currently selling price of around $65 it is a very good value. There are certainly more expensive bread baking machines that you can buy (e.g. Zojirushi) but this Hamilton Beach product will bake perfectly good loaves of bread at a fraction of the cost. It is definitely recommended and, with the holidays coming soon, would make an excellent gift.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
By ck
Don't tell my early-1990s-vintage Panasonic bread machine that I've been eager to bring my bread-making into 21st century. After seeing descriptions of machines that can bake a from-scratch loaf in less than an hour, or be programmed for a time-delayed start, I was intrigued and my heart started to stray. Imagine a bread machine that not only could make bread, but also could prepare jam from fresh fruit, or even bake a cake? A device with such skills might make it out of the back corner of the pantry and actually lay claim to kitchen counter space.
Thus, I happily put the Hamilton Beach through its paces, and even did some side-by-side bakeoffs with my Panasonic to provide an external point of comparison if you are new to bread machines or have an older unit you are thinking of replacing. The short version of my review: This unit is worth considering if you haven't made bread from scratch before and if this is your first bread machine. It's also worth consideration if you would like to make gluten-free bread or if you would like to make one-hour bread to accompany a meal.
Construction:
The Hamilton Beach is heavier and has a larger footprint; fair enough, because it can bake larger 2-lb loaves, rather than the vertical 1 and 1.5-lb. loaves of the Panasonic. However, several components are loose enough to have a noticeable amount of "play." Most concerning is the lateral wiggle of the removable paddle, which contributes to its tendency to anchor itself in the finished loaf rather than stay in the pan when the bread is removed. I point this out because if the base of the paddle isn't visible so that you can pull it out, you'll need to slice your bread very carefully so that you don't damage your knife or the paddle accidentally. The lid also has too much lateral play, and this has only worsened over time. At first, I thought that was because the lid was removable, like the Panasonic, but it isn't, and with the way the metal runs almost to the outer edge of the underside, unwary cooks may scorch fingertips even when they think they're carefully lifting the lid by its two handles.
Versatility:
As noted earlier, this is a newer-generation machine. You can toggle among settings to produce basic, French-style, gluten-free, quick, sweet, "express," and whole-grain loaves, as well as dough to shape and finish in the oven, jam, and cake. You can make 1.5-lb and 2-lb. loaves. If you are new to bread machines or have an early machine, several of these versions may be especially attractive. The "standard" time between starting a machine and retrieving a finished loaf varies by machine and loaf style and weight, but it usually is between three and four hours to allow for multiple kneading and rising periods before baking begins.
During my testing, this machine did its best baking on the longer "basic" and "French" cycles. However, the "express" and "quick" cycles provided fresh bread with acceptable flavor and crumb in the span of 58 and 100 minutes, respectively. Because the dough does not go through multiple knead and rise periods, I found "express" and "quick" cycles were most desirable when we would be eating the bread almost immediately. When you use either of these cycles, I would advise keeping to the recipes provided by the manufacturer and choosing the 1.5-lb. loaf unless you are able to finish the larger loaf size within a few hours of baking.
Bake-Offs:
Before launching my bake-off, I prepared several of the recipes exactly as detailed in the enclosed manual to get acquainted with the machine. I set high expectations for the machine's performance with each recipe, since the manufacturer had calibrated and optimized the recipes for use with this particular unit. I found the machine produced acceptable, evenly baked loaves. (Note, even the flavored breads, such as the cheddar cheese loaf, were not flavorful; if I use these recipes again, such as for "quick" or "express" loaves, I likely will add herbs and may make other modifications.)
For the actual bake-offs, I used third-party recipes, such as from "Bread Machine Magic," and chose longer cycle times so that the dough would undergo multiple kneads and rises. Baseline, the Hamilton Beach was more consistent across recipes; while the Panasonic's performance varied. It produced one clunker (too dense), but the crumb and structure of an egg bread, a molasses bread, and a cheese bread all were superior in the Panasonic. Would I have been disappointed with the Hamilton Beach's loaves on those three instances if I hadn't had the Panasonic loaves for comparison? Perhaps not as disappointed as I was, but I think I still would have considered the loaves at the bottom margin of acceptable, and definitely in need of improvement.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
By Mkhmn
I have always wanted to try out one of these machines. I have made bread from scratch but it is time consuming and physically difficult as the kneading, when done properly, takes effort that my arthritis does not enjoy.
The machine comes with a recipe book so I immediately tried out the white bread recipe. I don't know what I did wrong but it turned out looking crazy and inedible. I threw that out and tried again. This time I decided to make the dinner rolls. This recipe calls for only the dough to be made and there is a setting for that. Once the dough is done, you remove it from the machine, divide it into small chunks and put those in a baking pan to rise, then bake in your oven. They turned out fantastic!!
I'm still working through all the settings and possibilities. I think the first attempt failure was probably my fault since everything else has turned out fine.
Oh, one last thing. I thought from the look of the machine that it was smaller than most bread machines and would fit on my counter. Wrong. It is less wide but is deep and tall and pretty much the same overall size as other bread machine.
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