ActiBread 2 lb. Black Stainless Steel Bread Maker with Gluten-Free Setting

I use mine by and large for making bread, and dough for pizza. Honestly all in all I'm happy with it, but feel like folks who are looking to buy should know the following things:

This is my third bread maker of various makes. I've used a bread maker for 30 years, and I've owned and used this T-Fal model for over a year. However, this is my first bread maker that I needed for making gluten free breads. While the instruction manual suggests that users only use boxed bread mixes, that was never my intention. I've had good results, with a little tweaking, from Pete and Kelli Bronski's Sandwich Bread recipe in their Artisanal Gluten Free cookbook. I'm sure other gluten free recipes will work, although it requires adding the yeast dry to the flours (as per the T-Fal manual) rather than to the wet ingredients as most bread maker recipes suggest. Gluten free bread will not rise as high as bread made with wheat flour, and it will probably need some recipe tweaking to get it just right, especially if the recipe wasn't designed for bread makers to begin with. But the ease of putting everything into the bread maker, stirring to ensure the wet and dry ingredients are mixed (as per the manual), and taking out fresh gluten free bread two hours later without running to the store for an $8 loaf of cardboard.... priceless!

I bought this machine after reading other reviews online stating that it was a great product at baking gluten free breads for the price. When it arrived I immediately began looking through the manual and stopped when it mentioned that I would need to scrape the sides to incorporate the gluten free mix. I admit - it read as though this was a continual process throughout the mixing and I was frustrated. Then I read the 1 star review on this page and nearly boxed it up and sent it back. I'm very glad I didn't! There are only two times I scrape/ incorporate the mix: 1. About five minutes in (when the cycle changes) and 2. about ten minutes later no when it beeps to let you know to add ingredients. The other piece they need to add to the directions it to use the special hook it comes with to remove the paddle after kneading if you don't want a giant hole in your bread. This was something I learned only by reading other articles online about using a bread machine. The instructions need tweaking but the machine itself works great!

I received this bread maker as Christmas gift from my family and was so excited to make GF bread in it. I used to make bread in my old bread machine regularly until I had to go GF. I read the directions, used a Bob's Red Mill raisin bread premix. It mixed poorly, had a HUGE hole in the center and was a brick. The one positive comment is the bread smelled good. I tried the raisin bread recipe that comes with the machine, and I had to scrape down the sides to make sure it mixed. This recipe was a little more successful but still a flop. The raisins were all on one side. The hole in the center was smaller but still much larger than any of the other bread machines I have used. ( This is my 5th machine) The bread was VERY dense. For the amount of work the machine requires from the baker, I think making bread the traditional way in the oven is the way to go. I am definitely disappointed! :-(