Breadman Dream Machine TR-3000

The Breadman Dream Machine (TR3000) is an awesome machine. It has features and controls that no other machine on the market has, including the Zojirushi V20. The Dream Machine is simple to use and it makes good bread.

The Dream Machine is the only machine on the market with a touch screen. What this means is you touch the LCD screen to make your choices. There are no buttons. This one feature alone has made it possible to add such niceties as built-in recipes for each cycle as well as nutrition information for the recipes, all right on screen, no more hunting for the recipe book.

The Dream Machine features over 110 possible program settings, including white bread, French bread, fruit and nut bread, batter bread/cake, whole wheat, sourdough (complete or dough), dough (bread, pizza or bagel), jam, personal baker, and bake only. Once you have selected your main cycle you can tweak it by selecting from the size of the recipe, crust color and if you want to use the add ingredients beep, etc.

The Dream Machine is also one of the few with a 24-hour timer. Instead of figuring out how many hours there are between the time you set the timer and when you want the bread done you just enter the time for 8:00am you enter 8:00am, etc.

There is also a 10-minute fully random pause. This is great for removing the dough; filling it and then placing it back in the machine to finish baking. By the way, you should never pause the machine during the baking cycle; this could and usually does cause the bread to flop.

Unlike the Breadman Ultimate, there is no ingredients dispenser. This isn’t too much of a problem. The add ingredients beep is loud and easy to hear. In addition, the Dream Machine seems to be a bit more quite during kneading.

There are two things that I just love about this machine…

You can create your own custom cycles. Now other machines allow for this. However, none of them let you store two different programs at the same time. Also, the way the Dream Machine lets you program the cycle is great. It presents you with a menu of the phases of the cycle that you can alter. Like knead 1, knead 2, etc. All parts of the cycle are on screen at the same time; you just go through and make your adjustments. It’s easy and fast.

The other thing I love about this machine is the Sourdough cycle. No other machine on the market has this ability. The Sourdough cycle allows you to make your starter let it ferment for a user selected number of hours and then it prompts you to add the rest of the ingredients at which time it kneads the bread, raises the bread and then bakes the bread. Alternatively, if you want it will make the dough and then stop, allowing you to finish the bread in your oven.

Now for the downside…

The Dream Machine is a vertical machine. We have decided we are not fond of vertical shaped loaves of bread. This would be a much nicer machine if it were horizontal. The Sourdough cycle only allows for a fermentation time of up to 16 hours. We often ferment sourdough for 24 to 48 hours. I would like to see this made longer.

If the above things were corrected, they would have one of the perfect machines. As it stands right now, we recommend the Breadman Dream Machine for people that make mostly dough with the occasional machine baked loaf. If you want to bake in the machine, then we would recommend the Zojirushi V20. This is only because it has a horizontal pan and makes a much more useful loaf of bread. Personally, we want both. Two machines do come in handy.

Purchase: The Breadman DreamMachine TR-3000 has been discontinued.

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