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

We had an older Zojirushi for over fifteen years and bake 2-3 loaves a week so opted for the Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker as a replacement. I should point out that after hundreds of loaves the old machine still worked but it was in need of a new bake pan and paddles.
The new machine has some great features like a heated lid and what seems to be a better, more thorough kneading system. There is also a bigger variety of options, most of which we will never use. There is a timer system that tells you the time when the loaf will be ready.
I have a couple of criticisms of the new machine:
1. It’s noisy – there is a persistent buzz of metal against metal that is impossible to eliminate.
2. Opening the lid stops the action – in the old machine, you could keep an eye on things with the lid open and add water etc by looking at the texture of the dough.
Other than that, it’s mostly an upgrade for us and we’re hoping for many more years of great bread.

I hesitated to buy this bread-maker and I shouldn’t have. While I like to bake my own bread in the winter months, living in the Phoenix area, I do not like to bake in a full-sized over with the A/C already straining with outdoor Summer and Spring temperatures between 90 and 115. So I bought this to use on a shelf in my un-insulated garage mostly during the warmest weather.

The instructions and minimal recipes provided come in English and French. I’ve tried most of the recipes and they produce very respectable 2 lb loaves of bread. The programming is fairly rigid and you can select three levels of darkness to the final loaf. The elongated Teflon-coated “tray” has two spinning paddles and cleans easily. At a time when a good, tasty loaf of bread can cost $4 – $6 dollars for just a one pound loaf, after the initial investment in purchasing this bread-maker, you can save a lot of money making your own bread over the long haul.

If I have any negatives to report, it’s simply that I would like more control over the programs used by this machine. The periods of kneading, resting, mixing, and rising are relatively fixed within each of a number of programs, and there are three levels of darkness to choose from. I like my bread crust a bit dark, and like to add semolina flour to my bread flour for a more Italian or Sicilian-style loaf. I’m not sure if I can adjust a recipe to adapt to the relatively fixed baking routines. I’ll need more time to figure that out.

If you want an easy solution to having fresh bread, have a few mouths to feed, and don’t like paying $5.00 for a loaf of bread whose ingredients cost about $0.50 for a one pound loaf, this bread-maker is about as good as they come.

For a busy household in need of very good sandwich bread, I highly-recommend this machine. If you are into baking artisan loaves of ciabatta bread or French baguettes, this or any machine is not what you are looking for. If you enjoy making good bread and want to customize your loaves, you’re somewhat limited with any bread maker. I do compromise and use a “poolish” or “biga” fermentation to get the best flavors from my loaves, and I simply adjust the recipes provided by this bread-maker. You’ll get great artisan flavors in a very typical-looking bread machine loaf if you do that. This bread-maker also can make pizza dough and other types of food that are outlined in the manual.

overall fairly simple straight out of the box. i am fond of this appliance. wanted to start eating gluten-free and healthy bread options found it was likely better to make at home than buy in the store. id like to replace buying store bread and make a loaf or two a week with this. i don’t think that will be a problem with this machine. i bought this mainly for gluten-free and pizza dough. i made two loafs right away that turned out decent and edible. i was using pizza dough yeast, i think if i get better yeast ill get the higher rise. one was medium crust and one light crust. i have some playing around with the flours and ingredients to get a few mixes i like. on the first one, the darker one i went with more earthy ingredients. i replaced the xanthan gum with psyllium husks, flaxseed meal, bobs red mill gluten free flour blend and a nut- almond flour blend. ill have to experiment with the mix to bring out desired flavors sugars etc.
machine is fairly simple to operate place wet ingredients, then dry on top, then yeast and hit the button i left it alone and came back when it was done. there is a period in the cycle for you to scrap the sides though for me it was not messy and did not require it. being a stickler id imagine the pan is Teflon coated
most things are these days i may bake it at 400 degrees to off gas the coating. not a deal breaker for me.

this thing has been around a while. and doesn’t seem to have changed much. looked at these years ago.
since newer cheaper models have come out that may or may not work comparable to this one. for me it was between this one and a $150 unit. the cheaper unit may have did everything just as good as this one though it had a vertical pan instead of horizontal and i thought that might bug me. decided to go with this one was 2xtwice the price but had the best reviews. seems solid and simple. i could definitely recommend this product though ive only used it twice and had it less than a week. i was going for a set and forget bread making and this things does the minimal fairly good so far once i get it down ill probably be able to mix ingredients and load the machine in less than 10-15mins go about my day and come back a few hrs later to baked bread and that is what i was going for and on that feature this product appears to deliver.

When we got our new ZOJI BB-PDC20BA Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker I attempted to make a basic white loaf and followed the instructions exactly. Loaf 1 did not rise fully and was a bit heavy but still very edible. I checked out google and the Zoji site suggested more flour or more water so I added more water 320 to 360 mls. Loaf 2 was the same. I asked questions here on Amazon.ca and many replied and I again researched online. Loaf 3 used salt free butter, non-iodized salt and 360 mls water 2 1/2 tsp yeast and still same. Loaf 4 remained same as recipe in Zoji book but 360 mls water and 1 tbsp or vital wheat gluten (even though my Robin Hood all purpose flour had enough protein (13%) as what they called bread flour. THEN, I researched yeast and realized that the yeast I had been using though best before date was well into 2022 had been in a sealed plastic container in the cupboard since April 2020 and that once you open the package (I should have known!) it counts down and quickly in a cupboard (fridge could give me 4 months use). Well, I was out at 7 months before the Zojirushi was delivered and even though my yeast was working, it was struggling. I opened another bag of Fleishman’s Instant Yeast I purchased here on Amazon.ca and this time divided it into four containers and put them in the fridge. I make Loaf 5 with exactly the Zojirushi basic white bread recipe BUT with FRESH YEAST. Eureka! Loaf 5 rose beautifully to beyond the top (but not too much) and browned beautifully on all sides. And, is it every fluffy and tasty! Thank you to all who tried to help me with my question about what was wrong with my first three loafs. I am now very happy with my ZOJI BB-PDC20BA Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker making fluffy tasty basic white bread, being very quiet in operation, easy to use (if you use the freshest and correct ingredients) and easy to clean. My recommendation is if you can afford it and will use it regularly it is worth the price. Realize before Covid-19 we had an old Black and Decker breadmaker and it worked fairly well but was brought out of storage in April. I feared it may break eventually and leave us stranded so we got a good price on the ZOJI ($423 before tax, shipping Prime free) and ordered it and will use it lots. If you are a novice and think maybe you may only use it occasionally then perhaps start with a less expensive model and if you get the baker habit order this one a few months down the road. YEAST!! Make sure it’s fresh…sheesh what a fool I was!