If you love the smell, taste and texture of freshly baked bread, then a bread machine (also known as a bread maker) is a must have appliance. No matter what your budget is or what your needs are, considering that there’s such a huge number of different models of bread makers on the market today, chances are that there’s one out there that’s just right for you. You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg for a state-of-the-art model if you don’t need one. A quality, budget-friendly unit will, in most cases, more than suffice if your baking needs are simple.
After painstakingly analyzing, reviewing and comparing a number of different bread makers, we chose three units that we considered to be the cream of the crop.
Best Overall: Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Bread Maker
The Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso is, in our opinion, the best bread maker currently on the market. It is our top pick and we give it our highest recommendation. The Zojirushi BB-PAC20 bread maker produces extremely high quality and delicious loaves of bread that are uniform in shape and aesthetically pleasing. It produces very consistent results as well, as you’ll almost always get evenly formed bread without any defects, every time you fire it up.
The Zojirushi BB-PAC20 is the ultimate in convenience and versatility, as you can bake the bread for as long as want at each step of the baking process. This means delicious, perfectly baked bread virtually every time you make bread with it. But this machine isn’t just for baking bread; you can also use it to make meatloaf, jam, cupcakes and much more using the 10 built-in pre-set baking functions. And when it comes to bread, the Zojirushi gives you an unparalleled ability to make just about any bread your heart desires – everything form white to wheat bread to sourdough and French bread. If you can think of it, the Zojirushi can make it, regardless of whether you’re a pro baker or a baking novice. It’s so easy to use, even your kids can use it.
Best Value: Conair Cuisinart CBK-200 Convection Bread Maker
If you’re looking to get the best “bang for your buck,” look no further than the Conair Cuisinart CBK-200. This bread maker is loaded with value. It has a very modern, simplistic design and offers a slew of features and baking options. This machine gives you the ability to prepare a wide assortment of baked goods, including whole wheat, Italian, and French bread, fruit cakes, gluten-free bread, and it even works with pre-packaged bread mixes. Now that’s what we call versatility.
But not only is it multi-functional, the Conair Cuisinart CBK-200 convection bread maker is surprisingly uncomplicated to use. In fact, even if you are not tech or computer savvy at all, you should still have no problems using this device, as it has 16 pre-programmed baking options that allow you to basically “set it and forget it.” The machine let’s you choose from 3 different loaf sizes – 1, 1.5 or 2 pound loaves – and it even allows you to set how dark or light you want your crust to be. In addition, the unit has a built-in convection fan that circulates hot air, resulting in very evenly baked bread with excellent crust color. The included recipe book provides very easy to follow, step-by-step instructions on baking a wide range of breads, which basically just involves you pouring the ingredients into the baking pan in a certain order, and then letting the machine do all the hard work.
Best Budget Model: Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake Bread Maker
If you’re looking for something affordable but don’t want to sacrifice too much in the way of quality, then the Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake is your best bet. It’s priced very affordably, making it great for people with limited budgets. The Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake was designed for people who just need a simple bread maker that will get the job done without any frills, gimmicks or hoopla. Although it doesn’t have all the latest and greatest “bells and whistles” of some of the higher end models on the market, it’s still a fairly good bread maker, especially when you take into consideration how cheap it is. The Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake is lightweight and has a very small footprint, so if countertop space is a valuable commodity in your kitchen, then you’ll really value this aspect of the Oster.
But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in efficiency of design – it can bake bread loaves up to 2 pounds in size. Additionally, the bread pan is completely non-stick, so the bread slides out easily when you’re done baking. And if you’re really price conscious, you should also consider the fact this machine will save you money in the long run because it’s significantly less expensive to bake your own bread than it is to buy it already baked at the store. So if you’re tight on money or just don’t want to spend too much for a bread maker, then the Oster is what we recommend.
How They Compare
Construction Quality and Design
The BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso is both aesthetically pleasing and built to last. It has a sleek, stainless steel body that makes it very easy to clean and maintain. At 11″ x 13″ x 18″ and weighing just over 20 pounds, this unit feels quite heavy and sturdy, not flimsy like some of the cheaper, lower-end bread makers that we looked at. We really can’t emphasize enough just how much we like the look of this bread maker with its contemporary silver/metallic body and black lid. Another thing you’ll like about its design is that it has a relatively large viewing window, which allows you to easily watch your bread as it bakes in the machine.
The Conair Cuisinart CBK-200 2 Pound Programmable Breadmaker has a simple yet elegant look and design. It measures 18″ long, 12″ wide, 15″ tall and weighs about 16 pounds, making it slightly on the heavier side as far as bread makers go, but is still compact enough to easily store in your cupboard or leave on your countertop without taking up too much space. The body is stainless steel, and the unit itself has a simple design in the shape of a box. It’s obvious that it was constructed this way – with very few nooks and crannies – in order to make it as easy to clean as possible.
One of the best features of the Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake is that its small and compact, making it very valuable in small kitchens. And at about 8 pounds, it’s also very light, which makes this appliance extremely easy to handle and move around. This also makes it ideal for people who only plan to bake bread occasionally – packing it up and setting it in the cupboard for storage is a breeze. The construction quality of the Oster, however, is somewhat questionable, as the unit is comprised mostly of plastic materials. The machine still feels sturdy, though, and you should expect it to last for several years.
Controls & Programmability
The Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso is very simple to use and has a plethora of built-in programmable options. If you think using a bread maker would be too complicated for you to use, think again. Zojirushi has gone to great lengths to ensure that virtually anybody – even a child – can use their bread machine. It has 10 pre-set baking functions that allow you to bake everything from gluten-free rye bread to pastries. This a multi-functional device that can basically double as an oven. The controls are entirely digital as well, and if you have bad vision.. don’t worry, the LCD screen is large enough for all but the very blind to read. One downside of the Zojirushi is that it can only be programmed to bake a 2 pound loaf of bread. Although there’s no specific setting for small loaf sizes, there is a workaround to this which involves reducing the dough amount in order to get a smaller size loaf of bread.
The Conair Cuisinart CBK-200 has a large viewscreen and intuitive digital controls. This Cuisinart bread machine is so easy to use with so many programmable baking options that it can turn just about anybody into a professional bakery chef. This state of the art machine has 16 bake settings (you can bake 1, 1.5 or 2 pound loaves of bread) and a 12 hour delay timer that will allow you to set it to automatically bake at a predetermined time. This is a very useful feature for those who want to be able enjoy freshly baked bread in the morning without having to wake up extra early – just set the delay timer the night before just before you go to bed. Talk about convenience.
The Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake has 9 different settings for bread baking and three crust settings. The Oster is also a very versatile machine that can bake bread, cakes, pasta dough and a whole bunch more. The digital controls are simple to use, and only requires the push of a few buttons to operate. The device has an “expressbake” setting that will allow you bake a loaf of bread in less than an hour.
Value For Money Spent
The BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso is not the cheapest bread maker out there but it’s worth every penny. A quality, non-commercial bread machine can run you anywhere from $100 to well over $300, with the Zojirushi being on the higher end of this price scale. But don’t let the price tag scare you if you’re someone who’s serious about baking delicious and varied types of breads at home. Performance-wise, this bread machine is unbeatable. You’ll get consistent, evenly baked bread that’s perfectly formed virtually every time you fire it up. This bread machine even has a heating element on its lid to ensure even baking, which very few bread makers have. Some machines, due to a flawed design of the bread pan, can leave you with oddly shaped bread loaves, so consistency in results and bread formation should be a very important consideration when shopping for a bread machine.
The Conair Cuisinart CBK-200 is quality all around. This reasonably priced unit has multi-loaf size baking options, a built-in “viewing” window (so you can check up on how your bread is doing while its baking), easy-to-remove lid, and all of the additional accessories it comes with, we feel the Conair Cuisinart CBK-200 gives you better “bang for your buck” than any other bread machine on the market. If you don’t quite have the budget for a Zojirushi BB-PAC20, then this is your next best bet. It’s almost just as well built and possibly even easier to clean. You’ll also get a nifty recipe book that is very useful in helping you bake things you never imagined you ever could from the comfort of your own home.
The Oster CKSTBRTW20 Expressbake is a very good bread maker, especially when you take into consideration its budget-friendly price tag. Considering how small this unit is (it’s downright diminutive compared to some of its larger cousins), we’re quite impressed by the fact that it can bake a whole 2 pound loaf of bread. This is easily the best inexpensive bread maker you can buy. But if you just have to have all of those fancy features of the higher-end models, the good news is that you’re going to get many of the same features that you would normally find on a $200 bread machine. It has multitude of programmable settings, crust options, and can bake many different kinds of fancy breads and even jam, believe it or not.
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