The Toastmaster Bread Machine is the best bread machine in its price range. It is easy to use and produces a delicious loaf of home-made bread. It has eight cycles for you to use depending on the type of bread you want to bake - French bread, Whole Wheat, Plain White, and dough for you to use as pizza crust or to form into pretzels. The Toastmaster is one of the few brands on the market that can bake a loaf of fresh bread in less than an hour. When you consider this in terms of the length of time it takes to mix bread yourself, knead it and wait for it to rise twice before you put it into the pans, this is one time saving kitchen appliance you can't afford to be without.
Of course, the Toastmaster has other time settings, such as three hours. To use the Fast Bake Cycle, you do need to have special yeast and you need to use more than you normally would when making bread and the result is a denser loaf. This brand does not have a preheat cycle, so once you load in all the ingredients that the bread recipe calls for, you just turn it on. The kneading process starts right away. This breadmaker is also one of the few brands that has two kneading cycles so it is very similar to the old-fashioned way of mixing bread. This also helps the bread to be lighter and to rise higher.
The Toastmaster also has a 13-hour timer so that you can put in all the ingredients you need and set the timer so that you have a fresh loaf od bread each morning for breakfast. Nothing compares to the taste of thick slices of toast made from home-made jam. The smell of the bread baking also makes the home smell just like an old-fashioned country kitchen.
If you choose recipes where you have to add ingredients during the bake cycle, this brand has a bell that sounds when it is time to add anything that is needed. It sounds through all the cycles, so you don't have to constantly watch what is taking place. However, one problem that customers have noted with this brand is that it doesn't have a reset option. If the power goes off during the baking process, the machine will not automatically start where it left off. This means you will have to take out the dough, wash up the pan and start all over.