Decades before homemade bread became in vogue, I was baking breads for my family. I can boast a 10 year old sourdough (yes, it does make sense to keep a SD going because it can take weeks to make a good one), and usually I no longer follow a recipe. I simply gauge the weather, my mood, and my ingredients (not necessarily in that order) and then start from there. If I run out of ideas, I browse through my ridiculously large collection of bread cookbooks. I use my Bosch Universal Mixer for my hefty loaves.
When my daughter, the non-bread baker, expressed interest in making homemade bread for her family, I was delighted. I researched as best I could all the available bread machines in the market. Ultimately, I decided on the Cuisinart 2 lb convection autmatic breadmaker. It had several important features: bake-only mode, delayed start, variety of programmed settings, including one for artisan bread, convection baking and an exceptional 3 year warranty. The price point is excellent.
Fast forward two weeks - my daughter has used the Cuisinart just about every other day. While her loaves may not be picture perfect, a la hand shaped loaves, she has made light whole wheat, white, and most recently a fabulous 100% whole wheat bread. The crumb is good; and the crust is baked to the setting she chooses. Most importantly, she no longer buys supermarket bread.
Yes, I can highly recommend the Cuisinart. In fact, I just ordered a second one for my younger daughter, the bread-baker, for those days when she simply doesn't have time to enjoy baking bread from scratch and for summer days when turning on a hot oven makes no sense.
Diane