Product Review: Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker

Company: Amazon

Price Range: $250 - $300

Feedback: Read Consumer Reviews on the Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker

Who Would Buy This: Those shopping for a highly versatile bread machine which can make 2-lbs traditional style home-made loaves with minimal effort.

Pros:

• The Virtuoso is stylishly designed with a silver body plus an eye catching black trim and lid.
• It bakes either 1.5 lb or 2 lb loaves beautifully with an evenly browned crust and soft texture.
• Zojirushi took on board consumer feedback of their previous model and added an additional heating element into the top lid so any heat lost from the viewing window no longer results in loaves coming out the machine with poorly browned tops.
• The wide viewing window makes it easy to monitor what is going on inside the machine during the baking cycles without having to open up the lid. The rectangular cooking pan has two large side handles which helps make light work of lifting the pan to and from the machine. The inclusion of dual kneading blades ensures that dough gets thoroughly kneaded for a great soft texture.
• Zojirushi have simplified the baking process to make it as hands-off as possible with an easy 4-step process. Simply prepare your ingredients, attach the blades to the machine, measure your ingredients then finally select which course you want to start the process.
• The top-side easy-to-use control panel features a nice LCD display with orange backlight for easy reading. The plethora of settings include ten pre-programmed options and three crust shades so you can have your loaf light, dark or somewhere in between.
• An excellent instructional DVD is included so you’ll familiarize yourself with the bread making process in no time. This is great for bread making novices.

Cons:

• The custom programming settings have some limitations which somewhat limit the machines customization. The 1st rise cycle can be set to 12 hrs opposed to 24 hrs on previous Zo models plus the 2nd and 3rd rise cycles can only be set to 2 hrs. Those who prefer low yeast breads will find these limitations frustrating.

Guarantee: 1-year warranty.

Value for money?

Is Zo the way to go? If you want the best baking results without fuss and are prepared to stump up the cash then yes it is. This is deemed by most consumers and professionals as the best bread maker in the market, for good reason.

There is no bread machine which gets perfect review scores. However, the Zojorushi BB-PAC20 gets consistently high review scores from consumers, indicating that the vast majority are thrilled with the results.