The Best Bread Makers

The dual heaters are the whole point. Nearly every other machine bakes with a single element under the pan, which is why so many bread machine loaves come out with a pale, soft top. The Virtuoso Plus adds a second heater in the lid, so heat comes from above too. Wirecutter and the Good Housekeeping Institute both point to that design as the reason it browns more evenly than single-element competitors.

Two kneading blades do a better job with heavy dough. Whole wheat and multigrain doughs are stiff, and one small paddle can leave dry flour packed in the corners. The Virtuoso Plus uses double blades that work the dough more thoroughly. If your household eats mostly whole-grain bread, that's the difference between a proper rise and a dense brick with a floury seam.

The course list covers the diets people actually cook for. You get Multigrain, Whole Wheat, Rapid Whole Wheat, Gluten Free, Salt Free, Sugar Free, and Vegan settings. Gluten-free programs matter more than they sound: they use longer rest periods and different temperature curves, and gluten-free dough run on a standard cycle usually collapses or never rises properly in the first place.

You don't always have to plan a day ahead. The Rapid courses turn out a white or whole wheat loaf in about two hours and twenty-five minutes. That's not the machine's best work — fast cycles always give you a tighter crumb — but it's there when you decide at four in the afternoon that dinner needs bread.

It should still be working in five years. Consumer Reports' owner reliability data shows Japanese-engineered machines from Zojirushi and Panasonic reporting meaningfully fewer mechanical failures after three or more years of regular use than budget-tier machines. If you bake weekly, that gap is the thing you'll feel long after you've forgotten what you paid.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's big, and it's heavy. At roughly 18 inches wide and 24 pounds, this is the largest and heaviest pick here. It bakes a horizontal loaf, so it eats counter width rather than height. You're not going to want to stow it in a low cabinet and haul it out every Sunday. Give it a permanent spot or skip it.

Two blades mean two holes. The double kneading blades that handle stiff dough so well also leave two cavities in the bottom of every loaf instead of one. You can fish the blades out before the bake if you're paying attention, but that means standing by the machine mid-cycle, which defeats the point of the delay timer.

It's the most expensive machine here by a wide margin. If you bake a loaf every couple of months, you won't get your money back in bread. This one makes sense for people baking weekly or more, especially whole-grain or gluten-free loaves where the even heat and thorough kneading actually change the result.

The collapsible paddle fixes the complaint everyone has. The Custom Loaf mixes on a platform that folds in before the bake begins, so the dough closes over it and expands. You still get a mark, but not the deep crater most machines leave. Across owner reviews on Amazon, Best Buy, and Williams Sonoma, that bottom hole is the single most common gripe about bread machines.

The mix-in dispenser saves your add-ins from getting pulverized. Throw raisins in at the start and the paddle chops them into paste. The Breville's compartment holds up to two-thirds of a cup of nuts, dried fruit, seeds, or cheese and releases it at the right point in the cycle. If you like a studded loaf rather than a speckled one, this is the feature to buy for.

You can save your own recipes. Beyond 13 automatic programs — including gluten-free, yeast-free, crusty loaf, dough and pasta, and jam — there are nine custom settings where you set knead, rise, and bake times and store them. Three crust shades and three loaf sizes stack on top of that. Most machines let you pick a preset. This one lets you build one.

A blackout won't ruin the loaf. The Custom Loaf holds 60 minutes of backup power, so a brief outage doesn't leave you with a pan of dead dough. That's a small thing until it happens during a summer storm at hour three of a four-hour cycle.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It heats from the bottom only. The Good Housekeeping Institute scored bread makers on crust color, crumb texture, rise height, interior doneness, and flavor, and the Breville landed second behind the Zojirushi. The gap comes down to heat from above. Expect a slightly paler top crust on the light and medium settings.

There's a learning curve. Nine programmable settings and a manual mode are wasted on someone who wants to press start and leave. If you've never used a bread machine, you'll spend the first few loaves with the manual open. Buy the simpler machine and you'll bake more often.

It's a big appliance. At over 16 inches wide, it's not much smaller than the Zojirushi on the counter. Measure before you commit, especially if you plan to leave it out.

Seventeen programs is more range than most mid-priced machines offer. Basic, gluten-free, sourdough, French, whole wheat, multigrain, cake, jam, yogurt, and dough are all preset, and a custom setting lets you go off-menu. If you're curious about what a bread machine can do beyond sandwich loaves, this is the one that lets you find out cheaply.

The ceramic pan is easier to live with than nonstick. KBS uses a ceramic-coated pan and paddle rather than a Teflon-style coating. Ceramic releases loaves cleanly and wipes out with a soft sponge. It's also the part of any bread machine that wears first, so starting with a better surface matters more than it sounds.

A 710-watt motor and convection heating punch above the price. The extra wattage helps with stiff whole-grain dough, and circulating hot air cuts down on hot spots and pale patches. Convection fans trim roughly eight to ten minutes off a standard cycle, too. The pan takes a 2.2-pound loaf, enough for a family of four for a couple of days.

The everyday features are all here. You get a 15-hour delay timer, three crust shades, a keep-warm function, an automatic nut and raisin dispenser, and a viewing window. Load it before bed and there's bread when you get up. That single habit is what turns a bread machine from a novelty into something you use.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Budget machines don't age as well. Consumer Reports' owner reliability data shows budget-tier bread makers reporting more mechanical failures after three or more years than the Japanese-built machines. If you plan to bake several times a week for a decade, spend up. If you bake now and then, this is plenty.

The paddle doesn't collapse. You'll get the standard hole in the bottom of every loaf unless you pull the paddle out mid-cycle. Use the included hook, and don't pry at the ceramic pan with anything metal — chipped coating is how these pans die.

The glass touch panel looks nicer than it feels. Flat touch controls show every fingerprint and give you no click to confirm a press. It's a small annoyance, not a dealbreaker.

KBS backs the machine with two years of after-sales support and sells replacement pans separately.

It adjusts for your kitchen, not a lab. Dough behaves differently in a chilly January kitchen than in a humid August one, which is why the same recipe can rise beautifully one week and sulk the next. The double temperature sensor tracks internal and room temperature and auto-adjusts rise and rest times. You get more consistency without changing anything you do.

The kneading blade is built for firm dough. Panasonic shapes the blade to work stiff dough against ribs molded into the pan, so hard-to-blend ingredients get mixed properly instead of riding along in a dry pocket. That's the same problem the Zojirushi solves with two blades, handled a different way.

Twenty settings covers more than bread. Whole wheat, sourdough, brioche, gluten-free, cakes, pizza dough, and pasta dough are all preset, and manual time settings let you tune kneading and fermentation yourself. A dedicated raisin and nut dispenser drops add-ins at timed intervals so they end up spread through the loaf.

It takes up less counter than the other picks. Just under 10 inches front to back, it tucks against a backsplash where the wide horizontal machines can't. At 16.5 pounds it's also light enough to move without a plan. In a small kitchen or an apartment, that's often the deciding factor.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's tall. At more than 14 inches high, it won't slide under most wall cabinets, and you need clearance to open the lid on top of that. Narrow doesn't mean small. Measure your vertical space, not just your counter depth.

It heats from the bottom. Like most machines, it has no lid element, so the top crust browns less than the Zojirushi's. Bumping to the darkest crust setting helps, though it darkens the sides at the same time.

Twenty presets is a lot to learn. If you want to press one button forever, you'll use three of them and ignore the rest. The manual modes reward people who like to tinker and mostly confuse people who don't.