Which breadmaker 2018

Loaves from the T-fal came out evenly kneaded and risen. They had a fine, even crumb and a smooth domed top, without any of the floury, unmixed corners or the collapsed, overproofed, sunken tops that we got from machines like the Oster 2-Pound Expressbake or the Hamilton Beach HomeBaker. Their only flaw was that, when we baked bread on the medium setting, the crust came out dark. The white loaf was still tasty and evenly baked, but at least a shade darker and with a thicker crust than loaves we made in most of the other machines.

The whole-wheat loaf sweetened with honey which scorches easily looked burnt. The order of the programs on the T-fal is a bit illogical, with the gluten-free settings as the first three programs, and the basic bread program is all the way at number nine.

A few of the other settings on the T-fal seem unnecessary, such as a program for making pasta dough or salt-free bread. It also has options for making jam and cake, standard for most bread machines.

The buttons are clearly marked, the settings menu is easy to navigate, and the backlit screen is easy to read. The T-fal is a much lighter-weight machine than the Zojirushi, which suggests to us that it may be less durable. It comes with a one-year warranty, and T-fal sells replacement pans and paddles on its website. The Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso is the previous version of our top pick, and very similar. It has four fewer programs than the Virtuoso Plus, but otherwise performs the same and looks almost identical.

While it does use two paddles to make a standard-shaped loaf a rare feature among bread machines it generally disappointed us. The Breville Custom Loaf was one of the more expensive models we tested.

It has some nice features, like an automatic fruit and nut dispenser and the ability to adjust the time on any cycle as well as program your own. The Oster 2-Pound Expressbake is inexpensive and a best seller on Amazon. Like the Oster Expressbake, the inexpensive Hamilton Beach HomeBaker ran hot and overproofed our white bread, leaving the interior spongy and the top sunken in.

It also has a gluten-free cycle that goes through two rises instead of one. We chose not to test the Breadman Professional after reading many Amazon reviews complaining that the paddles scratch the nonstick coating off the pan and release black grease into breads.

We found a lot of Amazon reviews complaining that the Panasonic Gluten-Free Bread Maker stopped working after a few months or less of use, and every single one mentioned that customer service had been unhelpful and unwilling to replace the machine. The Rosewill Programmable Bread Maker has a lot of negative reviews on Amazon, so we chose not to test it.

The belt on the motor breaks easily, and this lightweight machine has a tendency to walk off of counters. Marguerite Preston is a senior editor covering kitchen gear and appliances at Wirecutter, and has written guides to baking equipment, meal kit delivery services, and more.

She previously worked as an editor for Eater New York and as a freelance food writer. Before that, she learned her way around professional kitchens as a pastry cook in New York. Our pick. Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus The best bread machine A favorite among the pros, the Zojirushi is sturdy, super reliable, and makes a standard-shaped loaf, unlike most other machines we tested. Budget pick. It came as no surprise to Sharon Davis, director of programs at the nonprofit Home Baking Association.

To see which bread makers are easiest to use and turn out the best loaves, Consumer Reports bought three popular models for Casaregola to test in her home kitchen, which included developing and following a test protocol just like we do in our on-site lab tests.

As part of these tests, Casaregola baked basic white bread and whole-wheat bread, choosing from the recipes that come with each model. With bread flour sold out at supermarkets when she tested these bread makers, she used all-purpose flour instead. She made recipe adjustments for different types of flour.

Casaregola evaluated how easy the bread makers were to set up and use, how noisy they were during kneading and baking, and whether the loaves of bread looked evenly baked. Despite the set-it-and-forget-it nature of bread makers, it's possible to botch a loaf. Doing so ensures that you get the right ratio of ingredients, and that makes for a better loaf of bread. Casaregola's tests revealed some marked differences among these three models.

Although the fad soon faded, bread-making appliances stuck around, remaining popular with those who love the taste of regular bread. But not all bread machines have gluten-free features, and of those that do, only some can bake tasty gluten-free loaves. This includes soft slices with the perfect outer crust. Some bread makers do better than others at this, based primarily on the way the machine distributes heat. While slicing bread, if you accidentally drop a slice, it means friends are on their way.

Your parents and grandparents may also have included bread as a good luck charm to new homeowners. Stephanie Faris is a novelist and professional writer. She's also a foodie who loves trying out new cooking techniques and tools.

She is addicted to meal preparation kits and regularly shares photos on social media of her creations. Her favorite thing about traveling is trying out new restaurants and tasting different cuisines.

DWYM simplifies the research process by aggregating the reviews of the top product review sites. The result is the DWYM Score which represents the overall true rating of a product based upon a scale. For the Bread Machine category, we analyzed 44 of the most popular reviews including reviews from and more.

Skip to content Don't Waste Your Money is supported by our readers. When you purchase an item through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The Best Bread Machine - Last updated on July 8, We looked at the top 10 Bread Machines and dug through the reviews from 44 of the most popular review sites including and more.

Look for the DWYM seal for products that are the best in a category. Show Contents. The Best Bread Machine 1. Oster Expressbake Bread Maker 2. Cuisinart Compact Automatic Bread Maker 4. Zojirushi Virtuoso Breadmaker 5. Zojirushi Programmable Mini Breadmaker 8. Panasonic Automatic Bread Maker Machines 9. T-fal ActiBread Bread Machines Our Take.

There's also no viewing window for spying on our bakes. Still, our breads all tasted fantastic and our strawberry conserve was very tasty too. There's no ingredient dispenser but it helpfully makes a noise when it's time to add extra ingredients. Like the Panasonic model above, it makes a near-perfect wholemeal loaf. Ours had a crisp crust and was light and springy inside, with an authentic farmhouse flavour.

It cooked a large white loaf all the way through and gave it a brown crust, but left our small one with an uneven rise. It has a viewing window, albeit on the small side. There's a gluten-free setting, too, but no gluten-free bread recipe in the manual. It's quite basic, with just 12 programs and fewer manual settings, but it does feature a viewing window for hungrily watching your loaves.

Both our wholemeal and white loaves had a light, springy texture, an open crumb and a rustic flavour. They slid off the non-stick bread pan with ease. The rapid bake function lived up to its name, producing fluffy loaves in just an hour and a half, but our gluten-free loaves were quite dense and poorly risen. That said, this still feels like a steal for the price. This Panasonic bread maker is one of the older models in the brand's range.

Like its other machines, this one comes with an extensive choice of settings. There are 25 in total, plus an automatic ingredient dispenser. It impressed us in every test, producing good white and wholemeal loaves, but these took a long four and five hours respectively to bake. Fans of fruity bread will love this model's automatic ingredient dispenser that evenly distributes fruit and nuts throughout your dough.

Its controls are straightforward to use and it's easy to remove your freshly baked loaf once your chosen program of 33 finishes.

The rapid bake setting produced an impressive loaf with an evenly browned crust and no air pockets. There's no viewing window for watching it in action and the dispenser is very noisy, but we're hooked on its versatility.

Key specifications Number of settings: 33 Settings of note: Rustic artisan, rustic sourdough, rustic scone Gluten-free setting: Yes Jam setting: Yes Choice of crusts: Light, medium, dark Choice of sizes: Medium, large, extra large Dimensions cm : H