Hot Sale 🤩 Oster Expressbake Breadmaker, 2-lb. Loaf Capacity, 2 Lb, White/Ivory ⭐

2 reviews for Hot Sale 🤩 Oster Expressbake Breadmaker, 2-lb. Loaf Capacity, 2 Lb, White/Ivory ⭐

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   WTL – January 24, 2016

   Follow the Oster recipe. I did that. Twice. More or less. After reading people’s experiences here and elsewhere, I added vital wheat gluten – 7 tsp. for 4-2/3 cups of 100% whole wheat flour. I also added 2 TBS oil because the Oster recipe was inexplicably missing it, though they had oil in their other bread recipes – I think it would have stuck to the pan in the mixing without it. And 1/4 cup of flax and sunflower seeds and oats. It looked dry during kneading, so I added 3 tsp of water, one at a time. The ball looked fine after that. Because my first loaf came out like a doorstop – it didn’t rise even to the top of the pan – I followed other advice here and put the pan with the dough in the oven to rise – set the temp at 170 and left the door open. It rose just to the top of the pan. Then I baked it in the machine. Same result as the first loaf. Tastes good enough, but very dense – like I said, the black hole of bread. All my ingredients are fresh, and except for the above-noted changes, I followed the recipe exactly – same amount of flour, brown sugar, yeast, salt, water. Disaster.But I didn’t buy this thing just to knead the dough, and then have to put the dough in a bread pan in a regular oven.So at the moment, I don’t know what’s going wrong. I don’t think more gluten and yeast are going to help – more would probably hurt, actually. I used Whole Foods organic whole wheat flour – the recipe didn’t specify a certain brand, and I doubt that could make much difference. What I want is a loaf much, much closer to the kind that, say, Dave’s Killer Bread makes – whole grain, seeds and stuff, and pretty light and fluffy for whole grain bread. I’ll try a few more loaves, and if they keep coming out this way, I’ll be returning this thing as non-functioning.UPDATE: 4/6/16 Upgrading to 5 stars. If only because this thing walked itself off the kitchen counter, fell to the floor, the lid came off and skidded across the floor … and I put it all back together, no plastic broke, and… IT STILL WORKS!!! Helps that the kitchen floor is wood, but still…I mean, that’s worth 5 stars all by itself. OK, so that happened. My only quibble is the display – it doesn’t light up and the overhead lighting has to be just right to be able to read it. Not that the timer matches what the manual says is supposed to be happening, but to me that’s just another one of those irrelevancies, as you’ll see if you keep reading.I’ve just about started to break even on making bread versus buying it. The loaves are getting better and that’s because I’ve started using white whole wheat flour – still whole wheat, just the white variety of wheat instead of the more common red. Makes all the difference. OK, not all – I’ve had to increase the gluten (maybe a quarter-cup, and yes, I’m lucky gluten and my body understand each other) and yeast. The manual has a recipe that calls for 3 teaspoons of active dry yeast for 100% whole wheat bread but 5 teaspoons fast-rising yeast for Expressbake white bread. So I began using 5 teaspoons of fast-rising yeast in the normal bake 100% whole wheat. After all, fast-rising is the same as bread machine yeast, and this is a bread machine, is it not? Fast-rising needs only one rising, but normal bake has three, so fast-rising yeast + three rises = high-rise 100% whole wheat bread, right? Right. As in, beyond your wildest dreams.Of course, I look at instructions that say bread-making requires precise measurements and I think, “as if” (which is why I flunked algebra – twice – it’s a lifestyle thing…) – “precise” means “just a suggestion.” So each loaf is like a mystery to me – if it fails or succeeds, I don’t know why. Kind of like life, huh? Full of wonder, right? I do things like, oh, set it for whole wheat, let knead for the first 5 minutes, turn it off, do it again, and again, then let it go through the program. I figure whole wheat kneads more needing – er, needs more kneading. Then when finishes its last rise, just before it begins baking, I take the dough out and pull out the kneading blade – the holes it leaves are too big.So I get results like, well, for a while I was getting loaves that rose up to the lid and stuck there – not conducive for browning. I wonder what measurement did that … actually, I probably should say “measurement,” maybe it’s something to do with, like, algebra? Plus they were so big that I couldn’t get to the handle. So I had to pull the handle up some by force, which took off part of the crust, then decided to just leave the thing in there and set it on bake.It would be nice if you could use my experience as an object lesson, but I have no clue what I did to make the bread do that, so I can’t tell you what not to do. Except maybe to not look at measurements as “measurements.” Good luck!UPDATE 4/7/16: The photo speaks for itself. Despite my best efforts, this little, much-abused machine turned out a stellar loaf of bread. Light, chewy crust…huge.UPDATE 11/1/16: Got tired of oversized loaves, and the bread tasted too yeasty, so cut back on the yeast to 3 tsp – and that worked. The crust browns nicely when it isn’t squashed against the lid.One thing still bothers me: the cycles don’t start and stop at the times given in the manual. Most important, the first kneading is supposed to last 5 minutes – it goes for 7 minutes, so that’s OK,. But the second kneading is supposed to last 20 minutes – it doesn’t; it lasts only 14 minutes. The 2 extra minutes in the first kneading doesn’t make up for this shortened time. This is serious – bread depends on the kneading to make the best loaf. And my loaves are pretty dense, even for whole wheat with all kinds of added ingredients. So as I said above, I get the process going, then stop it in the middle of the second kneading and start all over again. Seems to work better. But really – Oster ought to check into this. It’s been happening since Day One, and falling off the counter didn’t change anything.After the whole wheat cycle is done baking, I still bake it on Bake (#12) for another 15-20 minutes – seems to need it.Otherwise, I’m happy with the machine, glad I have it, and it still warrants 5 stars.UPDATE 5/6/18: OK, don’t ever do this: accidentally turn the bread machine off just as it’s about to enter its final rise. I kind of brushed the button with my sleeve – no, really! – and it turned itself off. *&^^$$@*(!!! OK, look in the manual – like for power outage. The manual tells you what to do but you have to do it within 6 minutes of the outage: unplug the machine, then plug it back in and hold down the start button for 3 seconds and release, and the machine should start up where it left off. If only. Maybe it’s because I turned the thing off – I should have accidentally flipped the circuit breaker. Anyway it didn’t work. Now I’m having to let the dough rise in the oven – I warmed it up some, turned it off – no idea what temperature, and no idea what temp the bread machine uses. So I set it to 170, the lowest it can go, let it warm up to maybe 100, turned it off, opened the door – so it’s rising nicely. Since I don’t know how well it’s rising – like, forming giant bubbles, rising too fast? – I can only guess and take it out when it gets to its usual machine rise height, then put it in the machine and use the Bake setting (#12). And see what happens.But really – there should be a way to set the machine to start at any step of the way – how complicated could that be to make? Maybe it’s something that’s available only on expensive machines?

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Julie Sands – May 3, 2018

   Valuable Tips for Having Fresh Low Fat Bread Every DaySince this does not have an automatic dispenser for add ins I give it 3 stars. It also had packaging that was written in English but then had Spanish writing on it which I find unpleasant since I do not live in South America nor do I live in Mexico and am a very light Caucasian of German, Welsh, Italian and Irish antecedents. The Oster bread machine does make delicious LOW FAT/OR NO FAT bread if using the appropriate low fat no sugar or low sugar recipe and functions well. You just push the bread pan in and do not have to twist it to lock it which is an improvement over some other brands of bread machines I also own. I (and sometimes on weekends my spouse,) cook my (our) own bread (except pita,) and baked goods and pizzas so bread machines are very important to me (us.) I also cook all very low fat and mostly use organic ingredients. I am 5’9″ female, 114 pounds, fit and attractive. I say this because I always like to know the person that recommends bread making is thin. Note I DO NOT USE THE RECIPES THAT COME WITH THE OSTER BREADMAKER, I find them way too fatty. I use my own low fat recipes and also bought a low fat no sugar bread making book. In an extensive evaluation once we made to switch to no more store bought bread I discovered we required 5 bread machines for the TWO OF US. That is right there are only two of us but yet we required 5 bread machines to have consistent Italian bread (rolls,) sandwich bread (rye,) garlic bread with dinners, and dough to make English muffins, pizzas, etc., as needed. I still need to run another of my bread machines separate to make my low fat raisin bread or other varieties. But just those basic sandwich, dough and Italian require our 5 running at once around every 6 days. I used to run one bread machine once or twice a day to keep up and would not be able to get much else done. If just starting with bread making I recommend doing as I did and buying one machine to start. Get to know it, learn how to make VERY LOW FAT BREAD (I use bread starter also in my Italian breads.) Once you are expert and know you will not quit start adding more bread machines as you can. Never go into debt. At first you will obviously only be able to keep one type of bread on hand. Then as you add more bread machines more options will be available such as I described. I usually run off 5 loaves at once. Instead of buying bread boxes I instead let my breads cool in recycled cardboard boxes. I place a baking rack inside the box, not at the bottom but in the middle, it stays taut, so air has plenty of room to circulate below the loaves, and cover any small opening with cheesecloth that still allows it to vent and cool the bread. Instead of using disposable bread bags I two Lock & Lock plastic bread boxes I own that I place my cooled bread in to refrigerate it. I slice it on my deli slicer (I am a vegetarian so I just use it for breads and cheeses,) quickly on number 10 to keep the slices thin so we do not overeat. An electric knife and a plastic hand slicer can also be used just as effectively by those who own electric knives, but I prefer my deli slicer. I make low fat garlic bread by spraying a slice with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkling it with Italian seasonings and garlic and baking it with dinner. I also make bread bowls for soup by slicing a fresh hot loaf in half and removing some of the dough and placing one of my homemade vegetarian soups or vegetarian chili inside. This makes two bread bowls for my spouse and I. I buy Bob’s Red Mill Yeast in bulk and add a high quality 500 mg vegetarian Vitamin C w/bioflavonoids I grind into every loaf to turn my regular active dry yeast into bread machine quick rise yeast so I can have a loaf on the slightly shorter than one hour bake cycle.AMAZING BREAD MACHINE DISCOVERY-UPDATE 11/30/18Last night I made up a batch of fresh pizza dough to make two Vegetarian Chicago Deep Dish style pizzas with in my dutch oven. I use both the pan and lid of my dutch oven to cook my Chicago Style pizzas. As I rolled the dough with one of my empty wine bottles I use as a rolling pin I thought about how I can improve. A sort of what can I do even better thinking practice using kind logic, i.e. what does not hurt me or others even psychologically and I can implement. I use a wine bottle as a rolling pin even though I own a wooden rolling pin I got years ago. Yes, a wooden one. That was before I was more ethically conscious about the use of wood and even though that one was given to me I am certain I would have purchased a wooden style one back then not thinking enough about what if a tree was chopped down to make rolling pins? Yes, even though another could be planted I think of things like the small dwarf Methusaleh trees in California that are over 10,000 years old. They are in a secret area that I went to years ago. They are that old because they have never been destroyed. It is just that simple. Many of the different types of Redwoods that I have seen, including the giant Redwood, are also well over 3000 years old. I keep that as a sentimental, gorgeous rolling pin that I do like to look at and hold once in a while. Then why do I use an empty wine bottle? To think about the reuse of common items that is a kind logic reuse. See, what if I did not already own a rolling pin? Should I purchase one? What else could I use and already own and still be pleased satiated with that instead? Attractive rolling pins also come in many older styles besides wood if for some using a fine wine bottle to roll dough would be psychologically unpleasant. As I quickly rolled my pizza dough and stared at the empty bread pan that had remnants of the risen dough in it I realized my spouse was on his way home from work. He does most of the cleanup if I cook the meals and even if he does he usually does more of the cleanup than I but I do many other things so this works for us. Even though I usually fill my empty bread pan with water to soak to make cleaning it easier for my spouse I got so busy that night I did not. After our wonderful homemade pizza dinner, replete with homemade sauce, my spouse as he cleaned up asked me what he should do with the dirty bread pan? He asked me because he knows I am so busy thinking about kind logic and improving I often surprise him with a wonderful, kind logic invention or idea. In this instance it was a kind logic idea I shared with him and now I share it with you also. I asked him to fill the pan with water and cover it up until the next morning when I would get to it. I realized I could use that olive oil and the bread dough remnants as a wonderful homemade soup starter and since I would get to it first thing in the morning there would be a big pot of low fat, almost all organic, no preservatives, incredibly tasty and healthy, homemade vegetarian soup, in this case a tasty French bisque style soon after. I can even spare one of my mason jars and can a quart of soup to make it shelf stable and then label it and tie a little twine around it and give it to one of the mail carriers or UPS folks that deliver my mail. This is something I am planning to do more often, spare a mason jar of homemade soup to the mail carriers that might be so busy during the day they cannot fit soup making into their schedule. Or, if they are married and even cook, it gives them a dinner break that evening where they can still eat in. So those who fill their bread machine pans with water to soak before washing, think about saving that broth style water, (it can even be placed into a mason jar and placed in the refrigerator,) and using it to make soup or a broth. Julie SandsUPDATE: 1/15/19 After several years of making my own breads, doughs, etc. I have found if a person makes their own bread that deli slicers are a fantastic adjunct to home baked bread making. My spouse and I own one and I have found out by making multiple loaves at once it seems quicker to slice them all at once and it is not too much of a task to fit this in. When I happen to make just one loaf at a time it is true I often do not pull out my deli slicer and usually my spouse slices it by hand because he does not feel like pulling out our deli slicer for just one loaf either. I also slice my own cheese. I like it really thin, almost see through, and I usually batch my bread and cheese slicing when I can. I slice my sandwich style sliced bread on two thicknesses, using number 6 and 10 on my deli slicer. I usually have my bread refrigerated overnight as it is quicker to slice it if it is refrigerated. Besides the common seen sandwich slice style I also take some of the loaves and place them sideways in my deli slicer. Each long all crust side I slice on the highest number to get it super thick for perfect homemade super quick French Bread pizza making or a deli size sort of a roll, tastes like one, sandwich. Then the rest of the long lengthwise slices I slice on number 6 and number 10. Number 6 gives it that British tea sandwich type of width which makes it taste that much fluffier. The crust also tastes better toasted I find when the bread is sliced that thin. I am super svelte and do not gain weight with my home made bread, but I think it is fantastic to have different bread thickness choices depending on how hungry I am. I also drink plenty of water so I know my hunger signals are correct and that I am not actually more thirsty than hungry when eating a meal.****A little about ME, JULIE SANDS. I am married, a vegetarian for ethical reasons, years ago I was not. I believe in kind logic, NOT GIGO as in wrong culture, tradition, programming, etc., etc. My ethics and behavior continually advance in kind logic thinking. Years ago I was not a kind logic thinker most of the time and was not even vegetarian back then. I am an award winning screenwriter, actor, director, producer and filmmaker (I no longer even watch television nor films by the way, though I look forward to all kind logic types but am so busy I will probably only watch once in a while-I still write but now I write only kind logic projects not like the old short, television show or techno band I used to be in and was a songwriter/arranger in it,) and am THE ORIGINAL JULIE SANDS ON THE WEB. I registered my name, Julie Sands, with unions such as the Screen Actors Guild of which I am a member though I am no longer an active member by choice due to kind logic thinking, and on the internet, decades ago before there was another Julie Sands internet presence. Any other Julie Sands is NOT ME, nor have they ever been. I had my own VERY POPULAR techno band and VERY POPULAR non commercial public television show in Southern California that I wrote, directed, produced, edited and acted in as well as sang the theme song called “The Mistress Julie Show”, based VERY LOOSELY on an Elvira (Cassandra Peterson), style character though it was original and very different. It was non-commercial and I mention her as I later met her and she was inspirational to me as she was one of the VERY few women television personalities many years ago that carried ‘her own show.’ She also is very musical as am I. I write and perform my own material. Later I progressed and became a Filmmaker, a writer, director, producer, lead actor, etc. etc., and made and acted in an award winning highly acclaimed domestically and internationally short entitled Gotham Café based on a Stephen King short story that was produced with the help of Steve Wozniak, Apple Computer Co-Founder whom I met. He exclaimed he felt my background resonated with Steve Jobs and his, thus inspiring Wozniak to co-produce what became my historic multi-award winning short Gotham Café in which both he and Stephen King performed cameos in at my bequest. I am a university graduate with full honors and have a genius I.Q. I have a Playmate of the Year type figure, supermodel style with perfect perky LARGER Playmate style breasts, already perky torpedo style small B’s, augmented to what I feel is a proper Baywatch style size, with the help of a Physician who augmented Playmate of the Year Winners, and numerous Tropicana Models as well as MANY WELL KNOWN CELEBRITIES. I have worked out with weights (hand weights, not in a health club-see books by Martha Vedral,) for thousands of hours to perfect my high muscle super thin, low body fat ratio, slender thin boned but tall Asian style (though I am Anglo Saxon), wrinkle free, supple figure. I wake up most mornings at 2:30 A.M, make my own breads, milks, pastas,HE detergents, fragrances, sauces, ketchups, etc., etc., etc., etc. Me and my spouse grow many of our own fruits, spices and vegetables for ethical reasons (i.e. for example, I have met migrant workers.) I am well regarded and have been to innumerable exclusive invites such as to the Playboy Mansion, know a famous White House Photographer, Ruport Murdoch asked to sit with me at a table at one of the events and the Prince Of Ethiopia (Salessie descendant,) introduced me to Mark Hughes, Herbalife Founder, to discuss World Events and inventions. I am an inventor type, coming up with numerous inventions, formulas and recipes, and also have a background in Engineering and Science and have taken a year of Mandarin Chinese as well as character writing and have been taught Latin by a PhD from Italy and in University. I have traveled to Europe, Canada, Africa and Argentina, South America (thank you Ariel Bosi of Buenos Aries, who believed in the significance of my fictional short and greeted me in Argentina during my visit there to their Canne level film festival. Though that short was not kind logic it made us think and helped those of us who were making and watching movies get to kind logic practice and thinking that much quicker if they thought about it and understood it. It also promoted vegetarianism, but I made it so 2001/Aronofsky/Kubrick like it was not clearly stated. It is NOT THE TYPE OF FILM THAT PROMOTED VIOLENCE THOUGH SADLY THERE WAS simulated violence portrayed in the short I made and co-wrote years ago. It was a let’s never do that and think about each thing we do and only do positive things and do not persecute ourselves nor others also do not follow old systems, traditions, practices, etc. if they were GIGO-old computerese for bad programming, an acronym for Garbage In Garbage Out.)