About this item:
Dual knead blades provide thorough dough kneading for a lighter taste and higher rise12 digital settings include Basic, Wheat, French, Sweet, Dough, Gluten-Free, and Custom. Custom Setting is perfect for the baker who is already familiar with bread maker baking. Fully customize your settings for the perfect loaf of bread. 3 level crust control: Light, Medium, and Dark. Instruction manual includes many delicious recipes, including garlic bread, wheat bread, bagel and pasta dough, even Low Carb and Gluten-free.
Color Gray
Product Dimensions 11"D x 15.5"W x 13.5"H
Brand West Bend
Product Care Instructions Hand Wash Only
Number of Programs 12
Spanning multiple generations with innovative product offerings, West Bend delivers unmatched performance, quality, and value to consumers worldwide.Whether making fresh, homemade bread, brewing a fresh cup of coffee, roasting a chicken, or baking a pizza, West Bend strives to make your kitchen activities easier.West Bend 47413 3 Pound Breadmaker Machine. Dual knead blades provide thorough dough kneading for a lighter taste and higher rise. Traditionally shaped horizontal bread pan accommodates 2 lb, 2.5 lb, and 3 lb. loaf sizes. 12 digital settings include Basic, Wheat, French, Sweet, Dough, Gluten-Free, Custom and more. 3 level crust control for personalized doneness on any loaf. Manual includes delicious recipes so you can get started baking right away. Includes all accessories: 2 knead blades, non-stick bread pan, measuring cup and spoon and knead blade removal tool.
I've found it's best to bake on the light setting, especially if you don't take it out as soon as it's baked and it goes into the warm mode. It has a tendency to over bake the bread, especially if it has a high sugar content. My favourite recipes that I found online are Hawaiian bread, Portuguese sweet bread, an Amish bread and Pain de Mie. The recipes from the manual aren't bad, just your regular type of bread. Our household has dairy and nut allergies so I just use olive oil, margarine, and soy milk (powdered and liquid) for recipes that use butter and milk and milk powder and while I don't know what the original dairy would have tasted like, the breads made with the substitutes have been good.
I've marked one side of the pan and that's the side of the pan that I align with the left side if facing front all the time. If you don't move the spindles when you take off the paddles then it will easily align. I soak my pan with water inside (not outside) so paddles are easy to remove. Our 30-year old Zojirushi bread maker finally broke. This West Bend had good reviews and was a good price. So far, we have made 4 of the recipes in the owner's manual. All of those loaves were excellent. This machine has way more settings than our old one. Take time to read the manual.
You can't spray the pan with Pam, use a rough sponge, or put the pan in the dishwasher. It also calls for the water to be 80 degrees since there is no preheat feature. (That will be harder when using fresh milk but not a major problem once we figure out microwave times.) It also said to put 1/4 of any butter used in each corner of the pan which is different than just dropping a chunk in. When the loaf comes out of the pan, the bottom is tearing where the kneading paddles have been baked in. There is a tool to remove the paddles but it is still tearing. However, those chunks are very tasty. lol. Remember to check the loaf size, 2, 2-1/2 or 3 pound as it will default to the previous setting. We have baked everything on Medium crust and they look great.
The unit is deeper than our old one so we had to rearrange the cupboard for it to fit sideways, again not a major problem. Our old recipes max out around 3 cups of bread flour. This one can take almost double that but the loaves are way bigger. We will have to adjust our favorite recipes to make larger loaves. (The smaller loaves don't fill the entire pan and come out a little lopsided. The larger loaves are very symmetrical and look like they came from a bakery.) We had to get a larger airtight container to keep these big loaves in, again not a major problem. The see-thru lid is great. So is the count down timer. Cleaning the inside hole of the paddles was challenging until we got a bottle brush. Now any baked on dough comes completely out of the hole where the paddles attach.
The West Bend did not get 5 stars in all categories but that's probably due to our learning curve. We can recommend this unit and would buy it again. Enjoy.First use was using the old fashioned bread recipe from the manual. I forgot to change the setting for loaf type, so it actually used the French bread timer - the loaf turned out perfectly (ate half the loaf while still hot before I remembered I wanted a picture ). Today I used an online recipe for whole bread bread. This time, I forgot to change the setting to 2lb loaf, so it ran the 2.5lb cycle - again, the loaf was perfect.Excellent crust for both loaves - white was light crust, whole wheat was medium darkness. Great chew, tender inside. The whole wheat did not rise near as much, stopping 1" from top of pan.
The white bread was well above the edge, close to 1.5". The white bread made excellent toast. I'm guessing the wheat will as well.During the final rise, I lift the ends of the dough to remove knead paddles, then shape the dough to the pan. This allowed for easy loaf removal from pan without tearing large holes. I found the loaf can still stick to the spindles, but I simply turn the spindle from the bottom of the pan a couple times, and the loaf comes right out. It's all hot, so be careful.
Very happy with this machine. It makes excellent bread, seems very forgiving for small hiccups (I still measure VERY carefully, which I believe to be critical, regardless), it cleans up super fast, and it's fairly quiet. It does cause a good shake on a free standing sideboard, but stays put. No issues with movement or shake on quartz counter. New machine used for delayed bake raisin bread for the morning. Followed the 2.5 lb. recipe book instructions precisely. Woke up expecting some nice bread to toast but instead the loaf has risen so high it was crammed up against the lid and that part was uncooked. After some cooling & delicate surgical extraction got the loaf out of the pan - cut the uncooked top portion from the loaf & stuck in the oven to bake some more as the middle still had portions of unbaked dough. The saved loaf was delicious so not a total waste of time - but what a hassle. I don't know why the machine did this but will try the 2 lb. raisin bread next time & see how that goes as it uses less volume of ingredients - fingers crossed.
Otherwise the loaf colour, loaf coming out of pan, etc. was good & machine otherwise seemed to work well. The last similar large bread maker we had continually had a problem with one of the dual paddles coming off so it couldn't knead properly as the dough would end up on the side with the dislodged paddle & the mission was then doomed. Oddly enough the design of the new machine's pan, paddles, etc. is almost identical - but I'm hoping for better results.
I am fully satisfied with the breads I’ve made since getting this machine. I especially like the size range of the loaves and, in spite of some of the reviews, love the dual paddles and the fact my loaves look like a loaf of bread. I have never had dough that never mixed properly. The only issue I’m struggling with is the lack of a beeping sound when it’s finished its last rise so I can take out the paddles as well as one signalling it’s time to add your Frits and nuts. I did have some difficulty figuring out how to insert the pan in the machine. Others have complained of the same issue here but I seem to have developed the knack and have had no difficulty during recent usages. I experiment with all kinds of breads and have been very happy with the finished products. Sometimes the loaves have been a bit misshaped but that’s because I missed my usual reshaping before the final rise…due to no audible signal. Much cheaper than my cuisinart convection machine which I loved and the bread is just as good.
