Best bread making machine, taking recommendations

alsandor said:

Our old bread making machine has been out of commission for some time
due to the paddle having gone missing. I forget which brand but
replacing the missing paddle is a real pain as the company no longer
carries those parts and has referred us to another company which has
done the same... Anyway, to make a long story short, I am in the
market for a new bread making machine and I am wondering which is the
best.

I see some that appear interesting but...

1. the Zojirushi Bread Machine - appears to be able to make sourdough.
Can it make bread with sourdough though?

2. the Breadman Pro Double Loaf - seems good on the surface as my wife
and I like different sorts of bread (I prefer rye, she likes barley).

How good are these, or any others, at making sourdough based single
grain "dark" breads, ie not the traditional white? If they can't cook
a sourdough bread, can they at least knead the dough so that we could
remove it and bake it in the oven?

When I was young, I used to make my own bread by hand but I'm not as
interested in spending my time doing that anymore.

I have a Breadman Pro and I love the thing to death, I average about 3 loaves
a week with it. About 2/3 are done in the machine and the rest I just run it
on the dough cycle and when the dough is ready take it out, shape it and bake
it in the oven.

My only complaint is a complaint I've had about all my breadmakers since the
beginning of time...even if I add the extra ingredients (raisins, nuts,
peppers) at the appropriate time (when it beeps at me) they still seem to get
pretty pulverized. But this is a minor cmplaint for me and I seem to do just
fine otherwise.

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