Nothing beats a fresh from the oven, perfectly crusted yet soft inside loaf of bread in the morning. But as you fantasize about it, the view suddenly shifts to your kitchen and you imagine all the kneading and proofing you need to do before you can put your dough in the oven.
Thanks to technology, you can now make your own bread loaf at home minus a significant amount of work. You can get a bread maker, your most favorite bread recipe, and a complete set of ingredients. With the manual, follow the instructions, and your loaf of bread is ready in no time.
A bread machine is designed to provide the ideal environment for your dough to proof properly and rises beautifully without regard to the condition of your home. It also spares you of the effort of kneading the dough for long. Some bread maker models even have automatic features so all you have to do is put the wet and dry ingredients inside and come back when your bread is done.
Another feature with a bread maker is programmed buttons. Your bread maker machine already comes with preset controls for different types of bread like a loaf, sourdough, and pizza dough. You can also make other bread varieties like whole-grain, wheat, and gluten-free wherein settings are already programmed based on the ingredients.
When looking for the best bread maker machine for your needs, you must check some important factors like yield size (the weight of the bread it can make in one go). You have to consider this if you are feeding only yourself or your family.
Aside from yield size, you can now check for other features you prefer your bread maker to have such as programmable delay/start, crust control, and manual adjustability. As long as they can help you make the most out of your bread maker, the better.
Are you convinced that you need one? Check our top three recommendations here.
| Name | Key Feature | |
|---|---|---|
| Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker– Editor’s Choice | With dual paddle attachments and an additional heating element at the lid (for even crust texture and color) | Check Price |
| Breville BBM800XL Custom Loaf Bread Maker | With automatic nut and fruit dispenser and a collapsible kneading paddle | Check Price |
| Cuisinart CBK-100 2 LB Bread Maker, Compact Automatic | Removable lid, pan, and touchpad control for easy cleaning | Check Price |
Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker – Editor’s Choice
If you are looking for a bread maker that can make ample serving sizes for a family or a couple for several days, this is the way to go.
This bread maker can make long loaf sizes similar to what you buy in the store. This is supported by two paddle attachments to evenly combine and knead your ingredients inside its coated baking liner.
The Zojirushi home bakery Virtuoso plus Breadmaker can make 2-pound loaves of bread – massive and filling enough for your family’s meals. The whole process is semi-automatic to still provide you with control over how your loaves of bread will come out. But don’t worry, it is just minimal to interfere with your other activities at home. And this bread maker emits a beep sound after each process is done, so you’ll know when it’s time to check.
This Zojirushi bread machine has 15 Course options for different types of bread, including some dough settings and other food types like cake and jam. It also has an option for programmed settings wherein you can input up to 3 settings of your most favorite recipes in its memory.
You can also use it to prepare your dough for your other meals like pizza, pasta, doughnuts, etc. And to help you expand your menu and the value of your investment, this bread maker comes with a full-color recipe book that contains 50 delectable recipes you can re-create using your machine.
If you are particularly busy and want to have some two and a quarter hours to spare, you can use the Rapid settings. Included in the 15 Course options, you can choose between Rapid White or Rapid Whole Grain course settings.
This Zojirushi bread maker also has a Crust option, that allows you to set the brownness level of your bread. You can go from soft loaves of bread to crusty ones. To achieve this, and for even cooking, the lid comes with a heating element, too.
For your convenience, this bread maker has intuitive push-button controls located conveniently on the side of the machine. The lid also has a viewing window where you can check your dough’s activity. If you are like me who finds looking at the dough being kneaded, this becomes an exciting feature.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Loaf yield: Up to 2 pounds | Takes up big countertop space |
| With removable dual paddle attachments | |
| Automatic and manual settings | |
| Can store up to 3 user settings with its Memory function | |
| 15 Course settings | |
| With 2 Rapid settings (bakes bread in about 2.25 hours) | |
| Crust settings | |
| With viewing window | |
| With an additional heating element at the lid | |
| Comes with extra accessories for measuring wet and dry ingredients | |
| With a 13-hour delay timer |
Conclusion
The Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker is perfect for families. This bread maker yields evenly-cooked fresh loaves of bread because of its advanced kneading and heating technology. The Crust option is also a nice feature.
Breville BBM800XL Custom Loaf Bread Maker
This bread maker has some integrated modern features that might be a result of listening to real user feedback or from a true baker’s experience. And this is the very reason why it earned its spot on this list.
The Breville bread maker comes with an automatic nut and dried fruit dispenser that releases the ingredients at the perfect timing during the kneading process. Home bakers will surely find this as a thoughtful and useful feature in many instances, granting you a bit more precious time than you could’ve given to the job when done manually.
The Breville BBM800XL Custom Loaf Bread Maker also made the paddle attachment collapsible. It automatically collapses after the kneading time so you won’t have the holes beneath your loaf. And if you are particular about the holes beneath, you also do not need to wait for the kneading process to finish and remove the paddles. This bread maker will do it automatically for you.
Meanwhile, this bread machine white bread already comes with pre-programmed settings. So, you are not just able to bake white bread loaves – whole wheat, gluten-free, sweet, and yeast-free.
This bread machine pizza dough can also do pasta doughs, do rapid loaves of bread when time is extra tight, or just bake loaves with the dough already prepared ahead. You can also make jams or meatloaf with customized settings. Aside from that, you can also do crusty loaves of bread with customized crust settings.
More on adjustability, you can also customize the loaf size up to 2.5 pounds (4 sizes) with the right amount of ingredients. You can also delay the start of the operation, turn the alert beep on/off, and turn on/off the light to take a peek at your dough inside. This bread maker also comes with power interruption protection to keep your bread baking for up to 60 minutes.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Pre-programmed settings for different bread varieties | Some find its operation noisy |
| Customized programmed settings for Rapid bake, Crusty loaf, Dough (Pizza or Pasta) | |
| 3 Crust levels | |
| Digital smart LCD | |
| With automatic nut and fruit dispenser | |
| Collapsible kneading paddle | |
| Customizable loaf sizes | |
| With power interruption protection, up to 60 minutes |
Conclusion
The Breville BBM800XL Custom Loaf Bread Maker is true to its name – you get a gamut of customizable features to help you prepare a variety of bread types for your family according to their preferences. It has an intuitive interface and looks modern in your kitchen.
Cuisinart CBK-100 2 LB Bread Maker, Compact Automatic
This bread maker also hosts many customizable features but the processes automatic for convenience. You can choose from many pre-programmed settings for different bread varieties, crust levels, and loaf sizes.
This Cuisinart bread maker has 12 programmed settings, which include 5 bread varieties (white, French/Italian, sweet, and gluten-free, and whole wheat). It also has settings for pasta and pizza doughs. You can also do rapid bake when time is tight. You can also bake pre-made dough with the Bake Only setting, straight from the packet with the Packet Mix setting. With specific ingredients, you can do cakes and jams.
Looking for a bread machine sourdough? You can choose the Custom setting and manually set the knead and baking time, and finish the dough in the oven.
Meanwhile, this Cuisinart bread machine allows you to customize Crust texture with a light, medium, and dark. You can also customize the loaf size with pre-programmed settings. You can choose from one, one and a half, and two-pound settings.
This Cuisinart compact automatic bread maker has the pan, lid, and touchpad control removable so you can clean them separately and safely. This bread maker also has a power interruption safety feature that can retain the last setting within 15 minutes so it can automatically continue the operation when the power is restored.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 12 pre-programmed settings – 5 bread varieties, 2 dough settings, rapid bake, bake-only, packet mix, cake, and jam | The number of beeps to signal you to do certain tasks like when to add nuts or rest the dough are confusing and too many to count |
| With Crust settings – light, medium, dark | |
| With Size settings – one, one and a half, two pounds | |
| With power failure backup – retains last setting up to 15 minutes | |
| With delay set timer | |
| Removable lid, pan, and touchpad control for easy cleaning |
Conclusion
The Cuisinart CBK-100 2 LB Bread Maker, Compact Automatic simplifies the bread-making process for you. This bread maker’s pre-programmed settings are ample, and the crust and size settings are definitely value-adding features.
Final Verdict
The best bread maker should provide you with convenience in making homemade bread and serve them fresh for you and your family to enjoy. Thus, having many different pre-programmed settings with a handful of adjustable ones for customized baking should be your priority.
With those in mind, the best bread machine on this list is the Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker.
The Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker does not just provide you with versatility when it comes to bread making. It is also consistent with yielding evenly cooked and tasty bread. The additional heating element at the lid ensures this. After all, performance is what defines a bread maker.