Fabulous home-made bread that looks like bread from a bakery

Ah, the smell of fresh-baked bread. There’s nothing quite like it, and the invention of the home bread baker has made this luxury vastly more accessible to everyone. True, anyone could, in theory, do the whole thing by hand… but kneading and kneading looses its charm quickly for some of us, and the result is that home-made bread is indeed a luxury for most without a gadget like this. I was a contented owner of a Dak bread maker for many years, and when it died four years ago (along with the company, apparently), I was eager for a replacement. After much research, we determined that the relatively expensive Zojirushi Home Bakery offered the best features with the best reviews here and elsewhere.

The machine has a number of features to recommend it:

Well-formed, rectangular loaves:
This machine has the relatively unique feature of mixing normal-looking rectangular loaves using two paddles. Many of its less-expensive competitors offer round loaves, which, although not offensive, are less main-stream looking for sandwiches and the like. There’s just something about a rectangular loaf that says Real-Home-Made bread, and the round loaves say Bread-from-a-machine. It’s just perception – bread is great no matter the shape - but I like the rectangular loaves better. There are cheaper machines out there that make rectangular loaves, but if they have only one centrally-located paddle, beware. As I have learned from a number of unfortunate friends, you will invariably end up with unmixed ingredients nestled in the corners of the bread pan if yours is a one-paddle version. The Zojirushi two-paddle design has never let me down, and the loaves are consistently well formed.

Large family-sized loaves:
This bread maker accommodates 2-lb loaves. That’s quite large, and it’ll feed a crowd for dinner and may even leave some for sandwiches. I like that. You can also make smaller sized loaves in the same pan, and the cookbook provides the scaled-down recipes for a number of the common breads.

Multitude of Program options:
The bakery has an abundance of program options to allow you flexibility in “designing” your product. There is an option for basic bread (3.5 to 4 hours from raw to steamy delicious bread) and a quick option (2 hours start to finish, using more yeast and shorter rise cycles). There are options for standard bread, wheat bread (longer rise cycles), dough only (no baking so you can shape fancy loaves and rolls), and french bread (even longer rise cycles since french bread has no sugar and rises quite slowly). There is even a fully-programmable option that you can alter to suit your recipe preferences, selecting your preferred duration for rise times, mix times, and baking. You can also choose crust darkness to please those who like more carmelized crust. In addition, you can make cake and jam. I have to admit, there are more options on the machine than I have ever explored. I have never programmed preferred durations, tending to stick with the basic recipes included with the machine. I have also never tried the jam or cake options, and I have to say I regard those as more gimmicky than useful, although I may eat my words one day.

Ease of Use:
Something I like about this bakery's design is that you can remove the bread pan from the bakery, install the paddles, and then add the ingredients on the counter. You then reinstall the panful of ingredients and press go. With other models I have known, you must install the pan in the machine and add the ingredients from there. No matter how tidy you try to be, you will invariably spill something on the inside the bread baker if you are adding ingredient in situ. Then you have burnt stuff on the inside of the bakery, and that detracts from the delightful fresh bread smell, at the very least. For that reason, I really like the Zojirushi design: I remove the pan and place the ingredients into it while it is on the counter. That mess is much easier to clean. Just don't forget to put the paddles in the pan or you won't have the product you hoped for!

Nice collection of recipes provided:
I have tried a number of the recipes in the cookbook provided with the machine, and there are some real winners. We have made perfect pizza dough, outstanding white and wheat bread, and a number of good specialty breads. In general, I find the flavored bread recipes to be too subtle, and I’ve tended to add about 50% more of whatever the special ingredient is… fruit, nuts, spice… always with improved results, in my opinion. The recipes, however, have all clearly been tested and are well suited to this machine.


I have not experienced the technical problems cited in other reviews at this site, although soon after purchase the motherboard of my bread bakery died. I reached customer service very quickly, and they sent out a new motherboard that same day, along with user-friendly instructions on replacement. The customer service guy also gave me his direct number to call for assistance if I ran into difficulty with the operation. I swallowed my techno-terror, opened up the guts of the machine as directed, and easily replaced the motherboard. I have had no problems since then. In fact, my only problems have stemmed from old yeast (makes flat, unappealing bread) and operator error (oh dear, oh dear, you must remember to include the salt in the recipe) – I have no complaint with the Zojirushi Home Bakery and continue to be very satisfied with it.

If you’re in the market for a bread maker and expect to use it often, this machine will do you proud, consistently turning out quality loaves. It is costly, and if you’re only baking from time to time, there are cheaper models out there that will suffice. However, if cost isn’t a major consideration, it is certainly worthwhile to have a bread baker that will do what you want it to do, whenever you want it to - whether it’s every day or only a couple of times a month. The Zojirushi Home Bakery Traditional does just that.