Zojirushi BB-PDC20BA Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker, 2 lb. loaf of Bread, Stainless Steel/Black

I have only owned this bread machine for a few days so can’t say anything about durability and reliability. But in terms of what it can do, I’m amazed. My very first loaf of basic white bread was perfect! I have tried making bread by hand quite a few times over the years and have always ended up frustrated and disappointed. I just never got the “feel” that you need to be a good bread baker. But this little “bread robot” solves the problem. Just measure the ingredients carefully and you’re guaranteed a good result. Things i was a bit skeptical about, like the loaf coming away cleanly from the baking pan/bucket, actually work like a charm. This is an expensive toy and you can’t really justify it in terms of saving money vs buying commercial bread. But if you like speciality breads that can be hard to find (like a decent loaf of deli caraway rye in coastal BC!) and are willing to pay for the satisfaction of enjoying them fresh and made with ingredients that you control, whose quality you can be sure of, then this machine could be the ticket. Also if you bake for charity or other types of bread/cake production that are not commercial-scale but a bit more than you can manage singlehanded at home, this machine can crank out that loaf for the fund raiser or potluck in 3-4 hours completely unsupervised, while you do other things. There is also almost no cleanup. You don’t have a kitchen counter covered with flour, hands and apron covered with flour, sticky dough all over the place, multiple mixing bowls to wash. You put all the ingredients in a strict order into the bucket, put the bucket in the machine, push a button and the robot does the rest. Bread making is no longer a laborious whole-afternoon undertaking involving a lot of washing up. This is a truly functional kitchen appliance. Normally I’m skeptical of kitchen gadgets, having been fascinated by and then disappointed in many of them. Often they claim to “save labour” while being fiendishly hard to clean, or are so specialised that you end up using them once a year and regretting the purchase. But this bread robot actually delivers and if you and your family like breads and cakes, you’re likely to use it often. Fresh home made bread is a whole different experience from stale factory bread in a plastic bag from the supermarket. I agonised over this purchase for over a year, despite the rave reviews from a friend of mine who uses her Zoji weekly to make bread for her family. She swore up and down I would never regret it, so I finally took the plunge. And I think she is right. So long as there are no reliability issues, I am not likely to regret this appliance purchase. Highly recommended, lives up to its golden reputation. PS my friend said it was worth gritting my teeth and shelling out extra for the high end model because it has a heating element in the lid to make a proper top crust. Definitely did make a convincing top crust, so I agree with her that it’s worth it. It doesn’t look or feel like real bread if it has a soft steamed top.

Tengo un hijo con intolerancia al gluten y a los lácteos, y yo soy alergico a la nuez, encontrar un pan que no tenga esos ingredientes es prácticamente imposible, sin embargo con esta máquina he podido hacer pan para sandwitches, pan de chocolate, pan de calabaza, muy deliciosos, Tanto con levadura como sin levadura, gracias al plan de programación manual. Excelente producto.

I’ve been using the Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker for a bit now, and it feels more like a dependable kitchen appliance than a flashy gadget. The dual kneading blades do a good job of mixing dough evenly. I have not had issues with dry flour sitting in the corners, which tends to happen often with my older single paddle machine. The horizontal loaf shape is practical, slices fit the toaster and work well for sandwiches. The top heating element actually makes a difference. The crust browns evenly all around, including the top, without having to finish the loaf in the oven. Whole wheat and multigrain loaves come out consistently, and the gluten-free and specialty settings have worked as expected so far. It runs quietly and stays put during kneading, which I appreciate since some machines tend to vibrate or creep on the counter. Once started, it really is hands-off. Cleanup is easy since everything stays in the pan and there is no mess left behind on the counter. It is larger and heavier than other breadmakers I have used in the past, so it does take up space, but it also feels solid and well-built. All in all, If you make bread regularly and want consistent results without extra fuss, this machine does the job reliably. Highly recommend!

Inmediatamente que recibí la máquina se ve la calidad de ella, también en los manuales y el equipo adicional, es el costo alto pero a las personas qué les guste la calidad se las recomiendo ampliamente al probarla hoy no funcionó

I have and several bread makers over the last 25 years, my last was a Cuisinart Convection which I had for 19 years and it was really good. It never failed me until the shaft finally spun off and when I tried to replace it with the same make and model I got a dud and had to return it (after 5 failed loaves). It wasn’t cheap-twice the price of my old one. I figured if I was going to spend serious coin I wasn’t going to limit myself to just that brand after being disappointed. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of choices in the way of convection bread makers, so I started looking at brands that offered better heating. Enter this beauty. It offers dual paddles, no more scraping down corners like before. The long bread pan is my favourite, I don’t like the vertical loaf pans. The dual paddles make this type of pan make sense. The dual heaters ensure the top browns as well as the bottom. I used my sourdough sandwich bread recipe that I have used for the last 5 years and it came out perfectly. More than perfectly. It’s the best loaf from my recipe I’ve ever seen. No need to pull the sticky dough out to remove the paddles, the small paddles easily release the finished bread without any noticeable damage. The inside finish is truly non stick, I had no trouble releasing the bread immediately after it baked. The machine arrived within two days which was well before the estimated delivery time and we are in a rural area. This machine has 3 programmable settings if you want to customize for your preferences. This machine is much more automated than other bread makers; other than an audible for add ins it does not let you know where you are at in the cycle until the last 30 minutes, so that caused me some angst at first. Not to worry. This little beauty has you covered. Put your ingredients in in the order they give and let it work its magic.