Zojirushi vs Panasonic - Bread Maker Comparison
Zojirushi vs Panasonic, What Is the Best Bread Maker?
Choosing the best bread makers, and the best selling bread making machines is easy if you know what to look for, when buying. The best selling is not necessarily the best one, but is the best ratio between price, features, quality and reliability.
We will show you how to choose your bread machine depending on your budget and needed features. The bread machine competition is between Zojirushi, Panasonic, Breadman, and Cuisinart.
You decided you want to bake bread at home, but you are not an experienced baker, the bread machine is the best option for you. Easy to use, difficult to miss the recipe, and makes no mess in the kitchen. I have been using a bread machine for five years now, and I can assure you it is totally worth it.
Why Make Bread at Home?
Better Bread Made at Home
Making your bread at home is simple and cheap. Anyone who eats bread on a regular basis should bake their own bread. The two main reasons to make your own bread are to save money and to better control the ingredients, and the baking process.
The bread at the supermarket is made to last long on the shelf, so it contains preservatives. It contains more yeast and water. With more yeast and water the dough will raise more so you will think you have more bread. Another trick of the bread makers is to add extra gluten to the dough, so that the dough retains more air from the rise. This makes a less-dense dough permitting to add more water. The bread is cheaper but contains less nutrients.
Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme
The right loaf shape - this machine bakes a loaf in a horizontal pan rather than a vertical pan as most of the machines on the market. The advantage is that there is less weight on the loaf and it helps with the whole wheat loaves.
You have complete control over the settings, the timing for a loaf.It has two kneading arms, believe me it helps.
The Zojirushi's "Home Bakery Supreme" looks great in anyone's kitchen, and it comes in two colors, white and black and grey.
The "Home Made" menu allows you a customized menu setting, that you will adjust to perfectly match your special recipe. In my eyes this is one of the best features of a bread maker.
- Dual-blade for an even kneading of the dough.
- Large viewing window, I love to look inside and see how the dough is rising.
- My favorite loaf form, with an even rising.
For the vertical type of loaf the dough rises more on the upper side, and the lower side is not as fluffy. This is because of the extra weight on the upper side of the loaf.
Included:
- Measuring spoon, measuring cup, and user manual with recipes;
- LCD control panel;10 pre-programmed settings;
- Quick baking cycle that works, you can make a bread in 2 hours;
- 13-hour delay timer
- 3 crust shades;
- Non stick pan but it doesn't use Teflon.
Video Review - Bread Machines - Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme
Panasonic Automatic Bread Maker with Yeast Dispenser - Panasonic SD-YD250
This machine is an excellent option for any bread enthusiast. It can bake three loaf sizes and three crust shades. It is one of the best selling bread machines on Amazon.
I love the fact that the Panasonic is so quiet, and smooth while operating. The machine doesn't jump around while kneading, and if you ever had a cheap bread maker, you know what I am talking about. For me this is one of the best features. I used this machine for a week while I was visiting my sister, and I almost bought one, but my wife reminded me that besides our Zojirushi, we have another two machines in the basement.
The SD-YD250 from Panasonic has an automatic yeast dispenser. I didn't realize how important was the automatic yeast dispenser until I used this machine. This is particularly useful if you use the timer feature. Imagine what happens with the yeast if you want to have fresh bread when you come back from work, but you need to put your ingredients in the morning, before going to work.
I was a little concerned about the vertical pan at first, because I like evenly risen loaves. With vertical loaves the bottom is always a bit more dense because of the additional weight. However, with the Panasonic SD-YD250 is not the case. Even the largest loaf size is evenly risen from top to bottom.
- Settings for quick breads, cakes, white, whole wheat, multigrain, French
- Recipes for 40 breads and dough types, and baking tips.
- It has 3 loaf sizes, and three crust shades, and the crust shades are actually different.
- The machine can even make you pizza dough and it has a menu setting for that.
- You can knead and rise dough for pastry, and then shape it and then bake it in the regular oven.
- The machine includes a measuring cup, a spoon and the recipe book.
What Is the Best Bread Machine? - Zojirushi BBCCX20, vs Panasonic SD-YD250 vs Breadman vs Cuisinart CBK-100 vs Oster CKSTBRTW20
The two best bread makers for home use on the market are Zojirushi and Panasonic. They are also the most expensive ones with Zojirushi being the most expensive of the two, but the price is justified by its reliability and features. Very close behind come: Cuisinart, Kenwood, Breadman and Oster.
All these six manufacturers have great machines, and if you only bake regular white bread you are fine with any of them, and you can save some money. But if you want to bake loaves with more whole wheat flour, the sturdiness of your machine is a must, because of the texture of these loaves. The whole wheat loaf is denser than your white flour loaf, and the machine will be heavily used. The inexpensive machines will start to break a lot faster than the more expensive and sturdy ones. Also, if you bake for more than once per week, you will also need to look at one of the more expensive machines.
- Zojirushi BBCCX20 Home Bakery Supreme
- Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic
- Breadman Horizontal Loaf
- Cuisinart 2-Pound Programmable
- Oster Expressbake
Oster Bread Machine - CKSTBRTW20 2-Pound Expressbake
A great bread machine, baking loaves up to 2 pound.
- 9 bread settings with 3 crust settings
- 13-hour programmable baking timer
- Expressbake setting bakes bread in under an hour
- Large LCD display - to indicate various stages of the bread making process.
The Oster breadmaker is an inexpensive and feature rich machine, which is worth every penny. Don't overlook this great machine just because is inexpensive, if all you want is fresh bread at your convenience this machine will cover that and much more.
On the other hand, if you need a tougher bread machine, look at either the Zojirushi, or the Panasonic.
Gluten Free Bread - Potato Bread
Gluten Intolerance
Best Machines for Gluten Free Recipes
A major concern with bread is the amount of gluten. There are many people who are mildly allergic to gluten. What this means is that they will never have a strong reaction, but their body will be in a constant stress trying to digest large amounts of gluten.
A solution is to reduce the daily intake of gluten to a manageable amount. The problem with the gluten is that you might not even know you are allergic to it, and if you only have a mild intolerance, you can live years until you discover that wheat products make you sick.
Many people eat a lot of bread, and some are even dependent on bread. Removing the bread from their diet is not conceivable, although many have done it. The solution is to eat bread with less wheat. There are various bread recipes that are gluten free or with a reduced amount of gluten. For a mild intolerance you can simply replace one third to a half of the wheat flour with a gluten free flour. For higher intolerance, you should try the gluten free bread recipes.
The best bread machines for gluten free recipes need to be more robust, with a stronger kneading power, to be able to knead the thick dough of the gluten free breads. The best machines for gluten free recipes are:
- Zojirushi BB-CEC20 Home Bakery Supreme
- Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker
- Breadman Horizontal Loaf Breadmaker
