Zojirushi BBCCX20 Bread Machine Review

The Zojirushi BBCCX20, also known as the Home Bakery Supreme Breadmaker, is the most advanced machine on the market, with features that make it basic and easy for the beginner or flexible and powerful for the expert bread maker. (Below are some brief visuals of the machine. Review continues below video.)

For this review, we purchased a BBCCX20 from Amazon. The Zojirushi box came within an Amazon box and was well-padded. The machine arrived in pristine condition. The first impression of the Zojirushi Supreme Breadmaker is that it is a big machine. This could be a problem for small kitchens. Nevertheless the solid construction and sharp design are reassuring. It also has a convenient hand-hold designed into the ends near the base of the machine, making it easier to carry about.

The manual is easy to read and is glossy and well-illustrated like a magazine. All functions and maintenance are clearly dealt with. There is also a video included. The video is an informative production that treats most operational aspects of the machine. We were surprised, however, to receive a VHS tape rather than a DVD (May 2009).

The high-positioned lid helps to prevent high-rising breads from sticking. It has a wide viewing screen to help the baker (and any curious kids) to see what is going on inside the machine. This is a handy feature if you want to do something special between cycles. Even so, like most bread-machine windows it requires the light to be at just the right angle to see what is going on within the bread pan.

The dual paddles can be a great advantage in that they seem to do a better job of mixing the dough than a single paddle does (even though single paddle machines do a fair job of this). It is also beneficial when cooking special breads that require thorough mixing especially gluten free breads.

We tried out several breads mostly by the manufacturer's recipes. We thought the basic white bread almost too tall. But reducing the recipe produced a good loaf. It was more than acceptable and tended to be slightly more chewy than bread made in single paddle machines. We also made bread dough by using our own basic dough recipe. The dough was up to standard. We also wanted to try out a specialty bread, so we made gluten free bread. This turned out to be of remarkably high-quality, and was relatively easy compared to past attempts in other machines.

The Zojirushi BBCCX20 has lots of cycles (10 to be exact) including: basic, quick basic, basic wheat, quick wheat, dough, quick dough, jam, cake, and homemade. The crust color can also be set for most of the cycles. The choices are light, medium, and dark. When making darker crusts, expect them also to be thicker. This bread machine will also make meat loaf using one of the three special recipe settings.

There is a 13-hour programmable timer to allow the user to prepare ingredients far ahead of baking times. We found this to work fine. The Zojirushi BBCCX20 also has a quick dough and a quick bake cycle - which takes two hours, but requires fast rising flour. The preheat functions takes the guesswork out of rising times. The temperature of the ingredients in the pan is regulated throughout the kneading and rising cycles. The negative side of these careful cycles is that it takes longer to make bread in the Zojirushi than in many other machines. A regular loaf of white bread takes 3:30 in the Zojirushi, while an older test machine in our possession will produce (a somewhat smaller loaf) in 2:10. The dough times are similarly longer.

The control panel is conveniently located on a slanted surface so the user does not have to crane her or his neck over the top of the machine to operate. The horizontal, traditional style loaf is also nice to have and makes better presentation at mealtime than the square or very-tall loaves produced by the vertical pans. Even after baking several loaves, we were not troubled by having to remove the paddles from the bread. However, this is always a possibility. Only once did we have difficulty removing bread from the pan after it had baked. Nevertheless, a plastic spatula freed the bread and a few shakes of the pan (inverted) dropped the loaf neatly on a cutting board.

All in all, the Zojirushi is highly recommended by BreadInfo.com. It can be purchased through Amazon.

See also the Zojirushi BB-CEC20.

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