I keep thinking today is Friday, but it's not. I have to work all day tomorrow before I'm off work for the weekend. I have great plans for the weekend, you know. For one thing, I'm taking my Elite Gourmet bread maker back to Amazon and getting a full refund. It will go far towards the new Cuisinart bread maker. The difference is about $60—let me see: $130 minus $70 —yes, that's $60. I don't mind paying the extra; I really don't. I'll make it up in the bread because what I was spending on the concoction that came out of the Elite Gourmet could, yes, be classified as bread, but the birds are the greater benefactors. I say that, I'm also using a loaf to make bread pudding -- this weekend.
So, what happened? What went wrong? Well, it's the old adage I guess; you get what you pay for. The Elite Gourmet is good for what some would say are "beginners," and I am certainly one of those when it comes to baking bread. I am so new, so green, so untested, but I know a bad loaf of bread when I see one, and now that I've made 3 or 4 of them, I know it's not just me. I made an amazing loaf the first time, but there were things that could have been better, so I set out to do that.
The first 3 loaves were made with all-purpose flour, which is not recommended. When the first one came out good; or good enough, I thought, "This is easy." It's not. It's simple, yes, but it's not easy. You put in the ingredients and hit the buttons, right? Easy! The fact is, you don't just push buttons. I know I pushed the right ones because I read the instructions twice. I did everything exactly the same way, but the dough didn't take, and well—there's not much I can control. The bread maker controls that, doesn't it?
I do have to laugh and tell on myself now. The 2nd loaf never got the chance to bake because somewhere between the kneading cycle and the fermenting, I realized I had put in 2.5 TABLESPOONS of dry yeast, when the recipe called for 2.5 TEASPOONS of dry yeast - yep, that was me. That was all me, and I laughed myself silly trying to clean up that mess. I started again, and did things correctly, but the bread was thick and gooey (hardish but gooey), and it didn't rise like it was supposed to. It was short, squatty, lighter than it was supposed to be, and all the birds thanked me- I could hear it in their chirps!
Amazon it is! Laura dug the original box out of the bin, and I cleaned up the Elite Gourmet - repacked it, and it will be on its way to retirement, or wherever used appliances go, tomorrow after work. I ordered the new machine. It'll be here around 10:00 a.m., and I'll bust it open at lunch time to make a loaf to see if it's going to be more promising. Now, before you go off saying I need bread flour -- I bought it. The last loaf I made was with fabulous bread flour, less water (1.5 cups instead of 1.75 cups), and I added olive oil as well as butter (1/2 and 1/2), so yeah, it was destined to be fantastic - until it wasn't.
I knew I was only to use the Basic mode; it was white bread. I knew that was good. I used 1.5 pounds each time and set the color to medium, but the Elite Gourmet, though it took 3 full hours to run its course, doesn't allow you to add time when you can clearly see the bread needs at least 20 more minutes of baking. If there is a feature that allows it, I didn't see it, and I looked. Maybe it's there, I don't know, but I know the Cuisinart has one. I know it does, and it has a boatload more positive reviews to boot.
The Cuisinart had 17K reviews at 4.8 stars, where the Elite Gourmet had about 8K reviews and 4.7 stars. The Cuisinart is the brand a lot of YouTubers use, and they show you the results, which I am sure the Elite Gourmet people do as well, but let me just say, I knew when I bought it that the cheaper model would be less than what I wanted. I hate being right sometimes, but I was right this time. Of course, that doesn't mean the new machine will be much better—I am hoping it is, though—we'll just have to see.
I'm not going to take the Cuisinart back. I will use it unless, of course, the bread is only good for feeding fowl, and then yeah, it too will be back in the warehouse; but I think I'll be OK. I went online and bought wheat flour, bread flour, flaxseed, chia seeds, and other ingredients to make the experience that much better —so it's bread pudding this weekend, but hopefully it's sweet breads (zucchini, banana, and lemon-chia seed next). Fun times! Bread times!
Photo Credit: WilliamSonoma.com (The Cuisinart)
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