YESTERDAY’S BREADMAKER BLEG ON BEHALF OF READER J.R. OTT PRODUCED A TORRENT OF EMAIL: Forget Korea, or Afghanistan — it’s kitchen appliances that people really want to talk about. I tried, but failed, to read it all but I managed to read a lot. Lots of readers recommended the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme. Reader Diane Rasner offers this wrapup:
The Zojirushi bread machines seem to be the leaders and well worth the money. I started out with this Cuisinart bread machine two years ago for Christmas. The pan was deeper than it was wide, so the darker, whole wheat country loaves I like didn’t get a very good rise. The white breads in it were phenomenal and got a very delicious crust. I found out that I loved baking bread and quit using the machine to just do lots of different types of doughs/flours from scratch. The Cuisinart isn’t as programmable and not as good for doing weirder stuff (like barley flour, heavily seeded breads).
After I got into baking, my dad got this Zojirushi bread machine that he loves—my parents don’t even buy bread anymore (after a year plus). It is more customizable to program rise and knead times, and seems to do a better job on the rise because the pan is longer and shallower. It makes a big loaf though. The Zojirushi machines are nice because King Arthur Flour will publish recipes for some of the less mainstream ingredients that will have tweaks do it by machine instead of by hand, and they always use/recommend the Zojirushi. Half the fun in baking for me is finding new ingredients, and King Arther seems to have a good selection.
If your readers don’t want as big of loaves as the 2-lb Zojirushi makes, they might want to get this smaller Zojirushi, but I would be hesitant to get that if they wanted to do more with whole wheat/high fiber/specialty loaves because of the tall pan/low rise issue. I’ve made enough whole wheat bricks to pave my front walk, so that’s a big concern!
Hope this is helpful! I use your Amazon links/recommendations all the time!
Thanks for contributing, Diane! It’s a group effort on posts like this. Lots of other readers like the Breadman. Kevin Menard writes: “I got the Breadman ultimate from King Arthur’s Flour years ago. Love it. Use it about half the time, especially when busy. The loaf is squarish, which while better than round, is still not a baguette.” Connie du Toit likes the Breadman, too, and bought a second one when she wore the first one out. “You have to know that a second purchase of the same or similar machine is the best recommendation there can be for a product. I would guess that I got 1,500 to 2,000 uses out of my old machine.” Connie also recommends The Vittle Vault for storing large quantities of flour or other dry food. “While not all of your readers would have need for 20-lbs to 40-lbs flour storage bins, our family goes through at least 20-lbs of flour a month (because I make 95% of all our family’s breadstuffs).” And she — along with a lot of other readers — recommends Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, as a great bread cookbook.
Reader Dirk Schulbacher likes this Panasonic.
I have been using this bread machine for 6 1/2 years now, about 2 to 3 loaves a week and it has been totally reliable. An essential companion is a digital scale reading in 1 gram increments, with at least 3 kg capacity. Just place the bread pan on the scale, tare it and start adding the ingredients one by one, nothing else to get dirty, and it is fast, less than 5 minutes to weigh out the recipe. The Panasonic comes with a recipe booklet that gives weight measurements for a wide variety of bread types.
The other remaining factor is a good high gluten bread flour. A good high gluten flour makes all the difference in bread volume. A medium recipe loaf made with a good bread flour will more than fill the mix and bake chamber. And if you are using a scale this unit will make any sort of bread you might want. Weigh out any combination of flours you want to the specified total quantity and you will get properly baked bread. The more bread flour the higher the volume, less bread flour and you get denser loaves. I use rye flour, whole wheat flour, rolled oats, semolina flour, seven grain cereal mixes, in all kinds of combinations and have never had a failure. It also has a dough only mode that mixes and stops when ready to braid, portion into rolls or what ever else you might want to do with the dough. And it has a delayed start mode for fresh, hot bread in the morning.
Some readers dispute the premise. Reader Robert Kern emails:
The best bread machine I know is called a “Stand Mixer with Dough Hook.”
With all the myriad settings, bread machines still only produce a limited range of bread types and consistencies. A good cookbook on baking and a stand mixer will not only out produce the all-in-one bread machine, but will allow you to mix breads, cakes, quickbreads, soufflés, etc. The result will be better baked goods — and a better baker.
Baker David O’Connor emails:
This goes against the grain (heh) of your post, but as a baker I’d encourage Mr. Ott to consider investing in a good mixer and a loaf pan or two. The quality of bread in bread machines can be fine, but the quality you get from using a mixer is (in my opinion) superior, and gives you more flexibility in batch size. Additionally a good mixer is a multi-use tool with a wide variety of applications, not just bread. A good mixer will also last a long time (I use my mother’s Kitchen Aid, manufactured in the mid-70’s, for small batch commercial production to this day.
p.s. The Insta-Wife shouldn’t fear bread! Quality bread, eaten in moderation, is part of the good life.
p.p.s Also OT, but if you’re looking for a good book about bread, I always recommend Elizabeth David’s “English Bread and Yeast Cookery” or any of Peter Reinhart’s excellent books on the subject.
Thanks, David. And here’s his bakery website. And reader Fred Bartlett agrees:
I have used a couple, but discovered that they don’t save that much time and produce an inferior product. Much better to buy a really good stand mixer (KitchenAid or Cuisinart) and learn to bake bread.
The bread machines I used I bought at garage sales; the list prices, though, were around $100. And they often show up in rummage sales, second-hand stores, and garage sales. Rather like exercise equipment. But I never see good stand mixers in such places …
I work from home a couple of days a week and spend 15-30 minutes (depending on the bread) mixing, turning, shaping, and putting into and taking out of the oven.
Sure, it’s only five minutes using a bread machine, but the total time from flour to bread is the same.
As a bonus: It’s ergonomic! All the experts say that you should be getting up from your computer every once in a while during the working day.
God knows that’s the truth. And some final tips from reader John Bade:
I had been thinking about a bread machine for a long time, but didn’t want to shell out the money for something that might end up sitting on the shelf. I was dropping off stuff at Goodwill one day, and they had a bunch of bread machines. I found a pretty high-end one (I don’t remember the brand) for $12. Since then, I have noted bread machines at a couple of other large second hand shops. I guess it’s true that lots of people buy them (or receive as gifts) and then don’t use them long term.
A couple of notes from my experience:
1) If you are doing this to save money, don’t use mixes. Buy bread flour and yeast. Yeast is expensive in the little packs; you can buy a bulk pack for a lot less money at a warehouse store.
2) The texture is not great if you allow the machine to do the baking. I use the machine to mix, knead, and get through the first rise. After that, I form the loaves, let it rise again, and then bake in the oven.
3) Unless you resort to some of the tricks for extending life (like using potato water), the bread will go stale quickly. I still buy a lot of store bread, since it does have a better shelf life, and only make my own when I know I can use it up in 2 days. Otherwise, I end up expending a lot of time and not saving any money.
Also, Chuck Pelto recommends this bread machine cookbook. Hope this helps, J.R.