Battle of the Bread Machines, Day 5

Once again, here's the husband with the play-by play.

--The Faudie
Prepare yourself for the wildest day yet in the Battle of the Bread Machines!

Competitor #5: The Breadman Ultimate Model TR2200C

A late addition to this competition, the Breadman Ultimate model TR2200C seemed like a steal when we found it at Goodwill, particularly once we learned the replacement kneading paddle we'd bought for the TL555LC would also work with the TR2200C. Then I read some of the negative reviews for this particular appliance on Amazon:

Defective out of the box

You Better Hope It Works!

Noisy, unreliable machine

Doesn't work

Could have burned my house down

DON'T BUY IT, IT'S CRAP!

I think you get the picture. But we decided to give the TR2200C a chance to prove itself in competition despite the alleged fire risk. I chose the test recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook.

Norwegian Rye Bread

3/4 C water
1/3 C molasses
2 T margarine or butter
1/4 t salt
2 t caraway seeds
1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 1/4 C rye flour
1 1/4 C bread flour
1 1/2 t yeast

1. Place ingredients into bread machine in the order suggested by the machine's manufacturer.
   
2. Select the Whole wheat, Sweet or Basic option on the machine, then start the cycle.
3. If the dough seems dry or the machine sounds like it is struggling, add 1-2 tablespoons water.
   

Yield: 1 lb. loaf

Nutritional Info
Not provided. Typical.

Shall we talk about futzings? (Oh, boy, where to begin?) The intentional changes to the recipe included a slightly decreased amount of water and the addition of one-fourth of a tablespoon of vital gluten. The unintentional changes I can only chalk up to the fact that it was a long week at work...or perhaps I wasn't focused because I'd just drawn both Simba and Scar for the boy (hey, those lions are hard to draw!)...maybe I was rushing because it was going to be supper time soon. Whatever the reason, I made a couple of stupid mistakes: I added the ingredients in the order listed in the recipe as opposed to the order recommended by the machine's manufacturer, and I used Promise Fat Free Spread instead of butter or margarine.

Maybe the "help" was distracting me?

Angela and I had plenty of time to ponder what kind of disaster, between the machine's bad reputation and my deviations from the recipe, we had in the making. That's because the TR2200C, on the Whole Wheat cycle with light crust selected, takes three and a half hours to produce a one-pound loaf of bread. Part of this time, according to the machine's manual, is "a rest period during which the flours or grains absorb the liquid ingredients." I'm assuming this rest period is part of the preheat stage the machine began in, something none of our other bread machines have. (Of course, we've made several perfectly fine loaves of bread in those other machines with out the benefit of a "rest period" or preheat stage.)

And while our TR2200C proved more reliable than some of the machines purchased by the reviewers on Amazon (that is to say, it actually worked), we did witness first-hand one common criticism: In the kneading stages, the machine is noisy and shakes quite a bit. It didn't rock itself off the counter the way one reviewer said his machine did, though I think it would have been interesting if it had. The Battle of the Bread Machines has been an fun competition, but I think it would be a lot more exciting if we had out-of-control appliances crashing to our kitchen's hard tile floor!

Official Results for Competitor #5
We didn't know what to expect from the TR2200C, as the machine's teeny-tiny window fogged up early in the bread-making process and stayed that way throughout. Imagine our surprise, then, when we found it had made a perfect little loaf.

Despite all the bad things we'd read about the machine (and my own inability to follow a simple recipe), the loaf of Norwegian rye bread came out just fine. The taste, the texture, the crust...all very good. No complaints here.

Sadly, the TR2200C was the last competitor we had waiting to participate in the Battle of the Bread Machines. We'll be visiting a Goodwill tomorrow, so there's at least a chance of us discovering a sixth competitor for this little contest. If not, I suppose the judges will have to review the results for our five competitors and finally declare one of them the bread-making champion!