Side by Side Comparison of: Panasonic vs Brand: Harvard Common Press vs Linear LD vs Progressive vs Yummy Sam

Have been making two to three loaves of bread weekly since early March, 2017 and can say that this machine is great. I haven't made any loaf except the french or basic sandwich loaf, but both are quite tasty. I did try a bread machine mix for multi-grain bread, but it was dry and really not worth the money. It's just so much cheaper to buy the ingredients and then follow a recipe. Yes, the machine is loud when kneading, but not generally a problem. I have a Formica counter top and the machine has never moved so I don't have to worry about it "walking" off the counter thankfully. There are only 2 of us so we occasionally usually throw away some of a loaf, but I wanted the option of making larger loaves when we have company. I have made bread pudding out of leftovers, but there is a limit to how much of that we can eat, too.If definitely like that the kneading blade stays with the machine when I remove the loaf. It is an easy machine to clean even though the loaf pan cannot be immersed in water. It has a non-stick surface that is easy to clean and the blade can be soaked for a little while in order to take out and clean. The yeast dispenser does need to be cleaned out after every use because there is condensation in the dispenser when the bread is done so that can be a little sticky. I use a small brush to be sure the opening is cleaned out while I hold the underside rubber stopper open. You can check that the stopper is moving freely by pushing in the button on the right side of the lid. That part of the machine is purely mechanical, so easy to test and clean.My only complaint is that it is impossible to change the settings once you program it. I accidentally hit the wrong setting one night when I was trying to set it up to be done in the morning and then compounded that by hitting start! I couldn't find any way to change the setting including unplugging it. Maybe I just needed to leave it unplugged longer, but it was late and I didn't think of that. I have to say that the loaf came out fine even though I used the wrong settings, but an undo button would be nice.

I have never baked anything before, either in an oven or using a machine, but on the first day I baked a carrot spice bread which came out perfect. I started it in the evening and set it to finish just in time for breakfast.Then I baked whole-wheat, French, nut brand, peanut sesame, whole-wheat herb, white raisin, whole-wheat raisin, walnut cinnamon and rye with onions and sesame. The results were delicious. Apparently the secret is to follow the recipes precisely. Recommendation: do not leave God's good earth without having tasted freshly baked rye with onions and sesame seeds.One problem was a misprint in the instruction manual, which required some heavy thinking and some wasted time to clarify. Step 7 on page 8 says “Press select to choose the type of bread indicated on the right of the display.” It should have read “Press MENU to choose the type of bread indicated on the right of the display.” Also, If you make the medium size loaf of peanut sesame, put in 1/8 of a cup of sesame seeds, not 1 1/8, which is an absurd amount. There may be other errors, so be prudent. This is a pity, because the manual is beautifully written otherwise.But the important thing is that the machine is brilliantly designed and the recipes make delicious bread.

I have made Great bread for over 13 years for myself, children, grandchildren, and occasionally for friends. Each loaf is easily cut into slices as needed and is soft, with a soft crust, and not crumbly. Correction: the kids now make all the bread. The 12-year-old grandson who now lives with me makes all the bread. We purchase organic whole grain winter wheat berries (50 lb bag from Whole Foods, then stored at the house in 1 gal. Ziplock bags. We grind the berries using the WonderMill Grain Mill (110v). One hour and 55 minutes is the cooking time required for one loaf. Recipe: 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, water, and 1 teaspoon of Fleischmann's BreadMachine Yeast. I estimate we save enough money every year or year and a half to pay for both the grinder and bread maker - - over and over, at least 8 times in 13 years. Remarkable financial investment, plus we never run out of bread, and there are no chemicals or preservatives. It's so nourishing and filling you can eat less and lose weight with this bread.

I bought this same bread machine in 1982 (no this is not a typo). It lasted me all these years - and probably made thousands of loaves. I used it for making dough a lot more than for cooking. It started to make a squeaking noise when kneading so I decided to buy a new one. I was surprised that the same machine still even existed, and decided to get it. Of course it has more features and will make a bigger loaf, but it really isn't that different from the old one. I struggled a little bit with learning how to use the features, but I think I have it figured out. I've only made two loaves so far. As far as I can tell it's as good of a machine as the old one. I'm giving it five stars mainly because the last one lasted over 20 years. I need time to use this and try the different features to give a true opinion. For example, options are different crust colors, different sizes, different types of bread such as whole wheat, french, and raisin - and there is rapid rise or regular. You cannot use all options with all types. I am not sure why. The book with it is good and has a lot of recipes.

I've had this bread maker for 2 years now. I generally make one loaf of bread a week, and this unit has not given me any problems to date. Included with the unit is a recipe guide for multiple types of bread, pizza doughs, and pastries. Measurements are given for three different sizes, so you can pick how large you want the loaf depending if it is for a few people or for a larger gathering. The unit has settings for different types of bread, size, and how dark you want the crust, so there is no guess work involved. The timer can be set for up to 13 hours, so you can set it the night before and wake up to a hot fresh loaf of bread. There is also an option to double the yeast to make a loaf faster than the 4 hours that is required for a standard loaf.For those that plan on making bread often, definitely buy a 25 lb bag of bread flour and a 2 lb bag of yeast, it will save alot of money in the long term. I believe ingredients came out to 60-70 cents per loaf. Since there are no preservatives, bread is best within the first 3-4 days but can last just over a week.

I purchased this to replace an inherited Breadman Bread Machine that could no longer knead dough. Upon completion of my first loaf with the Panasonic SD-YD250, I realized I had been missing out on so much with that inherited bread machine. First, uniform crust color from top to bottom. Nice soft uniform interior. My previous bread machine sometimes had some raw parts after baking. And consistent from loaf to loaf. I wish I had bought this machine sooner.I will, however, add some thoughts. A window to see the bread. Sometimes you need to adjust water or flour based on humidity and by lifting the lid to peek, you may miss the trigger for the yeast dispenser (which is on top).Second, on the normal (non-rapid) setting, the machine will "wait" for about 30 minutes. It has thrown us off a few times thinking that the machine won't make the bread. But we learned that this wait time is normal and it is really just waiting until the temperature of the ingredients match the optimal settings prior to kneading.Overall, we love this bread maker and have been quite pleased with the 2 loaves/week we've been making.

Very nice. Supplement your bread machine repertoire with this book. Not only recipes but general information about baking and using machines. I didn't know there was that much to learn about vanilla...

Simply the best. The info can be overwhelming at first but stay with it, it clears and you have a gold mine. All those things you wonder about are in this book. And the rescipes .....oh yummy. I have not had a fail and I admit I sort of ad lib sometimes...add egg, whole milk etc. when its not called for but its fun to experiment and it all comes out yum.

I bought this along with a Cuisinart convection bread maker and Ive tried a few of the recipes. Wow, this lady knows how to bake !! I made honey corn masa bread and potatoe bread , also cinnamon swirl bread, to name a few. All of these scored an A with me. She was able to adapt these recipes to use with any bread machine and if you follow her instructions to the letter these breads turn out perfect and absolutely delicious . I think my convection machine though, is superior to the regular bread machines. This book is five star, don't hesitate to buy !! You wont be sorry !!

If you love homemade bread or want to know how to make delicious ones, this is the book for you. Soo many recipes you'll be finding reasons to bake them all before you finish the last recipe. You an even make some without a bread machine. We tried them both ways.

Absolutely fantastic recipe book!!! There is much more than just recipes in this book, though. Reading all the additional material included in the book was like attending a cooking class by a master bread maker. There were many great tips and ideas. Baked nearly two dozen recipes and every one comes out perfect! These recipes were far better than the ones that came with the bread machine. Author gives you a template to create your own breads, as well. I have stopped buying bread at the grocery store entirely, and have made jam, pasta, and pizza dough from this book in addition to bread. This book is amazing!

Every recipe I've tried has turned out beautifully-up until tonight. I have an inexpensive Oster bread machine and it has done a wonderful job with these recipes. Tonight I tried the Chocolate Challah recipe-it is a total flop-stuck to sides of pan and not rising at all. I realize I might have made an error but I've read the recipe several times and don't know how it failed. This recipe is quite rich but sounded delicious, I love the whole wheat recipes, the rye breads are fabulous and the Sour Cream Bread is to die for!! Of course, how can it be bad - it uses a whole cup of sour cream ! I thing the book is worth the price and I will just keep baking bread and see what works and what doesn't. I've made about 10 loaves of bread this month-all perfect- so I guess I was ready for a failure.By the way-have they ever published corrections to any of these recipes? Just in case it's not my mistake?

I have purchased this machine 2 times over the past 10 years. I think it makes good bread fairly consistently. I typically make 100% whole wheat. My complaint is that it doesn't last more than 2- 3 years or so. Somehow, something stops working. Currently, the bake cycle malfunctions, and this beautiful raised loaf doesn't cook right and ends up a big hard lump. It seems something similar happened to the first one I had also. And one more complaint is the 45-60 minute long rest cycle that is automatically built into the machine, (except on rapid bake), before it even starts to mix anything. I think this is totally unnecessary and wastes a lot of time. I do like that it seems heavy duty enough to knead heavier doughs like all whole wheat. The Oster was weak at this, and I had to help it mix right with my hands helping to scrape the pan sides to include it all. Now I am again looking for a replacement, but haven't decided yet.

This bread machine works fine, except it makes more noise than my 20 years old Oster.My old Oster makes scratchy noise, this machine makes clanking noise which is very loud.I had it baked on a rapid mode once, it was good. Other than that, I only use it to make dough like Ialways did with my old but still working Oster bread machine.This machine makes pizza dough in 45 minutes, quicker than the other machine. It is a good basicdough for making Chinese steamed buns and other steamed food. So basically I'm happy with it.Instead of buying a stand mixer, I use a bread machine to mix and rise dough, then bake bread in oven.It costs much less than a stand mixer and does a good job. My bread and dinner rolls taste fantastic.

Nom, nom, nom!! Let me start by saying that before I got this bread maker, I sucked at making bread. I bought this bread maker about 2 months ago, and now I make bread all the time.I used it to make pizza dough, and my husband and son don't even want to order takeout anymore. I made a braided raisin loaf, and my dad took one bite and said it was much better than store bought. I've made sandwich bread, and my son came home from school and said it was delicious. (I hadn't even asked him!)If you are just making a loaf, it is super easy. Just throw in your ingredients (you don't even have to stir them), put the yeast in the yeast dispenser, set the program, and walk away. It does the rest -- kneads the dough, lets it rise, and bakes. Depending on what you are making, you can choose the size of the loaf and you can set the darkness of the crust. It has programs for basic bread, whole wheat, multigrain, and french. It also has a program where, if you are making raisin bread, it pauses for you to add the raisins.Most programs take 4 or 5 hours or so, but there is also a quick bake program that takes only 2-3 hours. I used quick bake for a basic white bread and found there wasn't much difference in how it tasted when compared to the regular bake. Also, for some cooking programs, there is a timer so you can put the ingredients in and set the bread to be done at a specific time -- such as in time for dinner or breakfast.There's also a program for just making regular dough and pizza dough. I've used the basic dough program to make hamburger rolls.There's also a cook-only program for things like quick breads, but I don't really see the point in using that when I can just as easily use my oven.So far, for the most part, I've followed the recipes that came with it. The recipes list both volume and weight measurements for measuring the flour and the liquid. I use my kitchen scale to measure because the company said that weight is more accurate then volume (ie. the measuring cup).I would love to give it 5 stars, but cleaning it can be a little annoying. The cooking bowl is not dishwasher safe. You aren't even supposed to submerse it. Also, it can be a little difficult to make sure everything gets clean underneath the mixing blade. There is a round seam there that just wants to trap tiny bits of the dough.All in all, I'm having a good time with my bread machine.

I have finally entered the world of bread making, I am way too late into the game. If you know me, you know that I am a carb junkie. I absolutely love bread and will eat whole loaves (and I have). This is the first bread machine I have ever owned or used. I decided to buy one after my partner made me bread using his and I struggled to restrain myself from eating the entire loaf. It was so delicious I couldn't have just one piece or two.So, I have had this machine for about a month now and I do enjoy it. It has lots of options and recipes in the included booklet. I appreciate the automatic dispenser because I really don't have to do anything after loading it up and starting it. It does all the work! It's great having freshly baked bread at home and knowing what goes in them and knowing that it's much better for mine and my family's health.The only problem I have with this is that it makes a loud noise during the kneading process. I don't know if it's just my bread maker or if it's normal, but when it kneads it makes a loud, grinding noise. I've checked it during the process and after the bread was complete and the machine and pan appear to be fine. It's annoying but I can live with it.Aside from that, I would recommend this machine, it's fantastic.

I've had the machine for almost a year and make bread almost every week. I've tried Panasonic recipes as well as my own. It's easier to stick with their versions because the machine is sensitive to the amount of ingredients you use and that includes water. the reason for the sensitivity is that machines are stuck with a particular temperature and time for baking that can't be varied as you can in an oven. It is all based on the machine setting for the type of bread and size you make. And yes, the size versus amount of all ingredients can make a huge difference. If you stick to their recommendations all will turn out great. You'll have tasty bread make with a minimum amount of fuss. I use the dough only setting a lot when making various versions of rye and multigrain when I'm looking for an open density. That often requires baking in an oven. However, mixing and the first rise is wonderfully easy and convenient using the machine. I highly recommend this unit. The only downside is the rather vertical loaf it produces. If I had to do it all over again I'd pick the Panasonic with duel paddles that makes more of a horizontal loaf. Oh yes, a number of the low reviews talked about damage to the internal heating element. I've therefore been careful about inserting the loaded container so I didn't bang up the elements that hold the heating wire. As a result I've had no problem with the unit in any way.

I bought this to replace an older Zojirushi bread maker when it died and their service support wouldn't help. I don't think this is as good as the Zojirushi but on the other hand, I couldn't support that company any more after the way their service support treated my problem. This breadmaker is definitely good. My one complaint is that it makes a very loud knocking sound for a few minutes during the dough cycle, but because it's just a few minutes, I can live with it. I think the dough it makes is comparable to the Zojirushi. I am definitely happy with my purchase, just hoping this one will last!

Yes, w book is packed with lots of recipes for your bread machine, but should you buy it? If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't buy it. Although the recipes are great, I just wanted basic bread machine recipes. If all you want are basic bread recipes, the King Arthur Flour website has a wide variety of bread and dough recipes available for FREE. If, however, you want a larger variety of recipes and more in depth explanations of the art of bread-making, this is the book for you.

I enjoy lots of wonderful recipes throughout this book. Very easy recipes to read and understand. If you are new to bread making this is a good book to have in your collection!

Very good book on the subject, unless you are married to gluten free nonsense. All the recipes here, more or less, demand more, not less, gluten.

Great book for bread machine recipes but the Kindle version is not as useful as a physical book for something like this. The designer that made the kindle version could have put more thought into where the page breaks etc (like they do on the printed book). And there are mistakes in the Kindle version (see the White Country Bread recipe for example - no measure for potato flakes and obviously a mistake). Also one suggestion to the author is provide the weight in grams. More specific and easier for bakers using scales.

This is a fantastic cookbook, I use the recipes in here every week and have found a few reliable picks that the kids love for daily sandwiches as well as pizza dough and tons of interesting breads to try out. Our favorites are banana sandwich bread, maple sandwich bread, and semolina pizza dough. At first I was disappointed that all the measurements are volume based (cups, etc) instead of using weight for the flour, but I've found I still get consistent results by carefully scooping and leveling my flour. I expect to continue experimenting with these recipes for years to come.

I bought this book with my breadmaker. I'm glad I did, because the number of recipes that came with the breadmaker was appallingly slim.I've made several types and they've all come out great. Be warned, however, that most of the recipes ask for gluten, so if you don't have some, get it. It's easily available in your grocer's baking aisle. And the "Orientation" section is a good read if you are new to making bread in a machine. She also includes a chart to convert measuring cups to weights for measuring ingredients (and after doing weighed amounts for flour for my last couple of loaves I highly recommend picking up a small digital kitchen scale and using it in your baking).Some notes:- I made the Dutch Sugar Bread and it was AMAZING, but the cubes did scratch the corners of my bread pan. This is my fault; the author warned that she's heard of this happening. It does not appear to have affected the non-stick nature of the pan, but I will be more careful next time. Of course, I also didn't get the little gooey pockets of sugar, so I might just use granulated or totally crushed sugar cubes next time. But the flavor was out of this world!- Under pizza dough, she has 1 and 2lb recipes. Unless you have a giant pizza stone, make the smaller batch. I only have a 12" stone, and my last two crusts have turned out impossibly thick, almost like deep-dish. Incredibly good, but very thick. I thought this might be because of the rise period after you turn out the dough, but now I'm thinking that I've got too much dough for my stone.- There is no recipe for cinnamon raisin bread, which I find almost unbelievable. But there are recipes for raisin bread, so I'm sure you can add cinnamon to taste. But still - that's such a staple bread (IMO) that I can't believe it's missing.But well worth the purchase and a really good reference.

I had purchased a similar model years ago while my 3 kids were small. It worked very well and thought I'd try the same thing again because it's hard for me to get out and shop. Well, this particular machine has a few drawbacks VS my previous machine. Also the price as in most anything has basically skyrocketed over the last probably 15 years since my first machine. The problem with my new one is that if you don't clean it perfectly especially where the yeast goes in it can plug up. Moisture or yeast stuck in the edges of where it dumps in can prevent the yeast from emptying completely. This is a death sentence for the bread. It won't mix into it properly causing the bread not to rise properly producing a deflated loaf of bread that you can't salvage much from. I also have seen a lack of complete mixing of the ingredients. After the baking cycle you can end up with flour or other things trapped along the outsides of the loaf. As I encounter these problems I am learning what to do or not do in order to have a decent loaf of bread. I have also began using medium and large instead of the default extra large setting. I believe it has helped in the blending and rising processes without so much material to mix perfectly etc.As far as decent bread goes when it works properly the bread is quite good. I haven't used it for any other functions other than to bake bread. This was the only machine I found under $100.00 or less. Most were $150.00 on up but didn't have any obvious benefits over this. The instructions for making bread or other things were a little confusing. The measurements were given in oz. Tbs. Cups and off to the left it would say measurement by weight is more accurate for things like flour and such. It really was confusing until I figured out they were specifying by weight rather than volume. Considering I don't have a scale as such to weigh food I try and stick with the volume measurements I'm most familiar with. I get in trouble when I'm asked to measure something like 13/16th of a cup so I try to figure out the closest measurement I'm familiar with and mark it in the book.I do think it will be generally OK eventually once I figure everything out. I don't believe it has any actual problems per say, just some idiosyncrasies that are taking some getting used to. Call it a learning curve I didn't have with my previous bread machine.

I'm still trying to learn to use it. So far it is only so-so - doesn't do nearly as well as the old bread maker that I had which finally broke after many years of service. I'm only getting about a 3/4 rise with a very rough top. The kneading process doesn't seem to be long enough or vigorous enough. I'm using my own sourdough recipe which has done very well in two other machines, and am hoping that eventually I'll find the key to getting this machine to work for me. It is easy to clean, but very difficult to see the control panel clearly. I purchased this machine because it was highly rated at a moderate price. Not sure yet if it was the right choice.

I bought this to replace another bread machine that I'd had 4 ten years. I have a large family. I generally only bake extra large loaves. The manual says to lay the loaf on it's side before slicing. The problem is that on it's side, it a little too long for an adequate sawing motion with a standard bread slicing knife. Attempting to cut the bread in a normal upright position doesn't work well because although the loaves are too long to be cut on their side with a regular bread knife, they're too short to get enough slices cutting them with the loaf in a normal, upright position.My other complaint is that according to the manual, quick breads like banana bread are supposed to be mixed in a bowl first and then poured into the machine. That defeats the purpose of using the machine.

I first tried the extra large loaf - mistake. The loaf was so large that it almost pushed up the lid and baked to the inside of the machine. The large is just right and made a great loaf of bread. Otherwise, it works great. Not too fond of the ingredients measured in such small (16th of a cup) amount so I wound up weighing the flour out which is the more accurate way of doing it. Right now I'm not sure I would buy another Panasonic Bread Maker.

My review is for the SD-YD250, still being sold new by Panasonic in 2012. But in fact, the bread maker I received is model SD-YD200 which is at least nine years old. I was very disappointed to learn this, and in order to download a correct manual for the model I have, I had to get it from a web site in New Zealand! It has less features than the model listed and is a very basic machine. Having said all that, I will say the machine works very well. I am making my fourth loaf of bread in it tonight. Overall, I have been pleased with the breads I've made. But I will say that if I had known which model this really way, I probably would have looked further and made a different choice. The price seemed reasonable for a two year old model, but a little pricey for a estimated nine year old model. I am not looking to return it, so far it has performed very well, which speaks well for the age of it, and I will continue to use it.

I read all the reviews before I bought this. So I am puzzled as to why mine is not living up to these other glowing reviews. The 1st time I used this to make bread, I thought it was going to walk it way right off the counter. Ok, maybe it was not quite that bad. But its noisy and does vibrate a lot.I cannot tell why since I can see it as it is working. But when it was done, I looked inside. The heating element is lose so it would well be a cause of some of the noise when the unit is agitating.The other potential problem is the bread pan itself. It is supposed to lock in place. You have to turn it counter clockwise to get it on and off.It does not really lock in place like it should. This could be an issue as well. When the bread machine is making bread, it is pretty noisy. it also vibrates quite a bit. I would compare it to our washing machine.Not sure if all these units are like this, or I just got a lemon. I will probably be returning this and likely will get a different one.

Not sure why, but some of these were not tested right. They are a total failure ...

I bought this book and hoped it would be very easy to understand and use. The reading is easy but the recipes seem very dated. The types of flour and the use of gluten separate might be useful as a modification to a recipe but the recipes seem to belong to someone making the bread by hand. I tried one recipe and decided that an online cookbook was more valuable to me. Disappointed.

Though there are many great recipes which I have tried, most seem to be too fancy for everyday needs

I was really excited about this book from the reviews, but was less impressed when I realized nearly every recipe asks to add gluten. I just use bread flour, I don't own gluten. It would be nice if there were more recipe variety in that sense, being so many rely on an ingredient I don't keep. I ended up using Google search for recipes way more than this.

If you are looking for recipes for basic breads this is not the book for you. However, if you are open to trying a large variety of breads this is your book. I did however really enjoy the gluten free chapter

To be honest I haven't tried any recipes from this book yet, and will likely update my review accordingly once I do, but I wanted to write a quick review warning people of some very confusing information about yeast in this book.I got a bread machine and all the basic ingredients for it and made a couple loafs of bread from the instruction manual, so I got this book to make some more interesting breads. The first recipe I looked at said I had to use X amount of SAF yeast or Y amount of bread machine yeast. The yeast I had been using was Red Star active dry yeast. I looked up yeast in the appendix to see what SAF (a brand) yeast was equivalent to, and, to my dismay, found a section in the book saying that active dry yeast and fresh yeast should NEVER be used in a bread machine. This was extremely confusing as active dry yeast was the yeast that my bread machine's manual said I should use for all settings except express bake.Further searching through the cookbook led me to the introductory section about yeast and it's various forms. Hensperger claims there are five varieties of yeast: active dry, fresh cake, fast-acting/instant, bread machine, and quick-rise. After extensive internet research, I have determined that this information is WRONG. fast-acting/instant, bread machine, and quick-rise are all different names for the fastest acting form of yeast. Active dry yeast is what Hensperger refers to as SAF yeast (I think she maybe got confused because most of the labelling on SAF packaging is in French?), and can be used in a bread machine perfectly fine. The only kind of yeast you shouldn't use in a bread machine is fresh cake yeast.Hopefully this information helps other readers.EDIT: I tried a number of simpler recipes from this book. I found that with my Oster bread machine the bread always came out much larger and heavier than expected from the recipe amount, as in the 1.5 lbs loaf would overflow my 2 lbs bread machine. The recipes are tasty enough, but I find it difficult to get the density right.

If you are thinking about getting one of this bread maker, please make sure you pay $7 for "Asurion 3-Year Kitchen Appliance Protection Plan".My bread machine broke down after 3months purchase which had been used for around 5times. It made good dough at first and soon after few time used the screen was frozen. I contacted Panasonic customer service center for three times, every time I was informed to return the machine back to the Panasonic facility located in TX. What made me upset about their service was they refused to provide me the shipping label of this return. I paid less than $100 for this product and the shipping fee for repair would be $60+. Few days later then I realized that the insurance was purchased along with this product. After providing basic info they gave me the full refund of the machine and a free shipping label for returning it. So glad I had the insurance with this purchase. Again, no defense at all, if you are planning to get one bread machine, INSURANCE for this Made in China product is SO NECESSARY.

This machine does NOT have a sweet bread setting.. my favorite recipe is Portuguese Sweet Bread... It took a little experimenting but I finally perfected the recipe. I put the machine on Basic, Medium Loaf, and set the crust to light....came out perfect. When I first got it, .. it burned the crust on this recipe. (I had it set to medium for the crust) was going to return because I thought it was defective but I made the recipe from their book for white bread and it came out perfect so I tried my recipe again using the Light setting for the crust and it came out perfect. I like experimenting with different flours so I also made a loaf with half white flour and half wheat flour with caraway seeds. The first one was too brown on the medium crust setting but second with Light crust came out perfect. I used the Basic and medium size loaf with this bread also. Am glad I purchased this machine.. am looking forward to making cinnamon raisin bread for my grand kids. Love the smell of baking bread. UPDATE: 03/17 .... I am not sure what the problem is but all of a sudden my bread is not turning out... I have been using the same recipe but now the bread is only about three inches tall... Yes I figured maybe my yeast was too old so I bought new... ( bread machine yeast) .... still having problems.. So I have now bought new bread flour.. but honestly the flour I have is only about three months old... I think the yeast dispenser is not working properly.. My daughter bought me a new bread machine for Mother's day so this one is going to goodwill..

This is truly a good bread machine. However, it lacks a pause button in order to check the progress of the process, and allow you to remove the mixing paddle prior to baking. It can get rather noisy while kneading, but, it is not annoying. My concern was there would be a gaping hole where the paddle is during baking, but it is not as big as I thought it would be.Jan 23, 2016- After using this for a month, the devil is in the details. I managed to start a cycle I didn't want to use, and was under the impression I could reset the setting according to the owner's manual. Wrong. After following the manual instructions, and making several attempts to reset it without success, I called Panasonic's help line. The call taker walked me through the manual steps, told me to unplug the machine for five minutes to allow it to reset. After doing these things, it still wouldn't reset. He then told me to leave it unplugged overnight to see if it would reset. After bantering back and forth, he finally told me I would have to let it complete the cycle before I could start another cycle. Great. I've got a hopper full of ingredients ready to go and the machine is on the wrong setting, and what I have made is for pizza dough, not bread. I removed the hopper, left the lid open, and threw the dough batch away, and let it complete the cycle. The call taker could have cared less about the problem, and acted as though I was a bother to him. I would encourage anyone considering this machine, to strongly reconsider buying another brand. Don't get me wrong, it makes great bread, but is far from user friendly, and Panasonic's customer service is poor at best.

I absolutely LOVE my bread-maker! We don't but bread from the store anymore. I add the ingredients - flour, salt, sugar, butter, water, and yeast - exactly per the measurements in the manual, and get a fresh, beautiful loaf in 3 hours (I only use the Rapid Bake setting). It takes me about 10-15 minutes to get all the ingredients in the machine and get it baking. Couldn't be better!HOWEVER - I have to take off 2 stars because the 'lighter vs darker crust' setting was inoperable since I received the machine. It has never worked from day one. When the machine is on - there's no light, or arrow, or clicking sound when I push it (the other settings have all of this), or ANY sign of life at all. It was DOA.Fortunately, the vast majority of the time the crust has been fine - only once it was too dark and too hard (but I wouldn't call it 'burnt'). So I opted not to bother with the hassle of returning/exchanging it. Of note - I purchased the discounted machine which said there was 'mild COSMETIC damage' but that the machine was still in it's original packaging. But now I'm thinking that maybe they're selling them at a discount because some of the machines are a little defective. I'm not accusing, but under the circumstances, I have to wonder.But overall I'm getting exactly what I had hoped for - fast, cheap, easy-to-make, all natural bread - so I'm satisfied. If it wasn't for being sold a machine with a broken setting which was advertised as being to be intact, I would have given this bread-maker a perfect 5 stars!Update 5/27/16: I changed my 3 star rating to 2 stars because after just 1 year and 5 months the machine completely broke down - 5 months after the warranty is expired. I expected much longer use with such a product. I loved it while it lasted and I will likely buy another bread maker, but not from Panasonic.

This was my first bread-making machine and I was very happy with it, hence the two stars. One reviewer said the machine is quiet, but I found it extremely noisy, not constantly but at times during the operation with loud banging noises, which would be an issue if you wanted to set it up to have the bread freshly made for breakfast and your bedroom is within earshot of the kitchen and you don't sleep like the dead.It is big and heavy so a decently large counter-top space is needed if you make bread regularly, which you will do, and it's too heavy to be lifting in and out of cupboards.The deduction of three stars is because the machine died after 8 months. Upon looking at the reviews I see that many people have had the same trouble with this machine. Unlike most of them however I didn't have any trouble with Panasonic Customer Service, my only minor complaint being that they made no mention, and I forgot to ask, about reimbursing me for shipping costs. Anyway I duly mailed the machine to the nearest Exchange Center and after a week or so got a phone call saying that they didn't have the same model to send to me in exchange but would send me a refund check in three to four weeks.So even though I liked the machine and the bread it produced, I must reluctantly choose another model now, and probably brand too, since this one has died after a very short time for too many people.

After reviewing many bread makers I decided on the Panasonic due to the good reviews. Sorry to say I should have read further into the bad reviews on service issues. I purchased my machine in April 2012 and have used it a total of 5 times, the last time was on 6 June 2012 when it developed a leak on the bottom of the baking pot. I called Panasonic service and gave them the purchase info and sales receipt along with the serial and model number. I received a call back from service wanting me to take it to Norcross, Georgia for repair and I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I said that was out of the question and the service tech then asked me to take pictures of the unit and send them to them for further review. At this point I was frustrated with their avoidance of taking responsibility for a manufacture problem and insisted that they ship me a new holding pot and I will send this one back and then they can take all the pictures they want to see why it is leaking. The tech insisted on not sending me a new pot and would call back tomorrow with their final offer. I paid $133.00 for this unit and if the call tomorrow goes anything like today's call from Panasonic this bread maker will be in the waste management container after the call. Do NOT buy from Panasonic, their service is awful!

We've had terrible luck geeting these recipes to work in our bread machine. But, to be fair, I don't know whether the issue is the recipes or our bread machine.

this book is outdated

I bought the paperback. I agree with the reviewer who complained about the font and ink. The font is too small, probably to fit in all the extraneous stuff into 643 pages. To add insult to injury, the ink is light brown. The ingredient lists are in the same typeface on a very green background. It is very difficult to read and use. I am surprised a professional cookbook writer would allow a book like this to be published, it is not user friendly. I am not sure if I even want to try any recipes after reading some of the reviews.

Lots of speacial ingredients like vital wheat gluten, instant potato, dry milk ect...Free online recipes as good or better.

More like a textbook about bread machines than a cookbook about making bread in a Bread Machine. The format of this book was exactly like a textbook but the recipes seemed to be secondary over the subject of bread machines.There is a lot of unnecessary information in this book and I did not like the fact that it is over 15 years old, it was last published in 2000. And bread machines, peoples' tastes and recipes have changed a lot since then. Plus this book makes it seem like making bread in a Bread Machine is a major undertaking and it is not. This book could easily turn learning how to use your bread machine into a daunting experience. Which is not why you bought a cookbook for it in the first place.I disliked this cookbook, so much that I sent it back. And instead, I got Donna Washburn & Heather Butt's, "300 Best Bread Machine Recipes." And I am so glad, I did because this is a much better cookbook and I am making fantastic and tasty bread.

This is a great book but only if you buy the print edition. There are numerous errors and omissions in the ingredient lists and quantities in several of the recipes. Some are obvious and easy to spot but there may be others that aren't so obvious.As a result, I can't trust the recipes which makes the Kindle edition practically worthless to me. I returned it and reported the errors to Amazon. Hopefully, the publisher will proofread it more carefully and issue an update. I hope so because I'd love to own it. The author is one the best known authorities on breadmaking in general and in bread machine baking in particular.

Purchased the bread maker in June 2016. Worked great until Dec. 4 2016. And I just found out what a nightmare the Panasonic customer service is.They are not easy to contact via phone. Automated voice on the line states that if product is in warranty you are entitled to a FREE customer representative call, otherwise you have to pay $9.99 for the honor to talk to them! This was of no help as after this announcement they said goodbye and the call was disconnected. At least they offered a free chat on their website which I used.The customer representatives told me that I have to ship the machine to their service center. They have only ONE service center in Texas for the whole US. And shipping would cost me about $50. And there is no guarantee that after repair I would not have the same problem again.This is not what I expected from Panasonic and I will never buy a product that might fail from them again. Instead of shipping the broken one for $50, I bought Oster bread maker for $60.

OK breadmaker unless you need warranty support. Fail.

I bought this product in December 2015. I used 3 times in the past and worked fine. Now it's totally not working. Function key pads do not engage at all after I put all the ingredients and set to go. It's very frustrating. First of all, from all the selections I had, I picked this product because of its nationally well known name brand. But it didn't last long. I am very disappointed. Sorry Amazon and Panasonic I have to write a bad review for the first time.

I had the original made in Japan Panasonic bread maker for 20+ years. I replaced it with this made in China version. The reviews made me think twice as there were many reviews where the product stopped working very soon after purchase. However, these reviews were nearly a year old. I thought a year was ample time to get quality control issues resolved. WRONG. My machine made ONE loaf of bread and after that the machine mixing / kneading cycle quit working. DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!

This product was defective and Panasonic does not replace defective items; the buyer has to pay for shipping to a service center, as though shipping the POS back and forth again will improve things. On the third phone call (after I reported the defective product to my credit card company with which I paid so that they could offer additional warranty coverage advice) the supervisor I spoke to actually said "the second time it breaks we pay the shipping, we never pay the shipping the first time you send it for service." The product weighs 16 pounds and the box must be at least 12 x 16 x 18 inches. Based on having previously shipped items at work I think this could easily cost me $30, which is ridiculous.The yeast dispenser won't work and I ended up with a three inch lump of crap in the bottom of the tray which I could barely remove. Panasonic will get around the bad reviews by discontinuing this model and producing a new one, but the important take away here is that they don't stand by their products upon notification that a new product is broken. I will never do business with Panasonic again on any type of product. In 24 years paying with the same credit card I have never called to ask about help with a defective product, so my credit card company took me seriously.

This is my second Panasonic bread machine. I gave my first, older unit (which I bought second hand and used for 5 years) to my son. I am spoiled and need really fresh bread so I find even the small loaf capabilities of the new unit to produce a loaf too large for a 3 person household - the bread goes stale before it is consumed. And I really don't need all the programming capabilities. However I bake bread 3-4x per week and while this unit worked great for the first 8 months, today it failed. Wouldn't kneed, wouldn't heat.,. Further, when I search for a neighborhood warranty service center, I find it is 1700 miles away and though Panasonic may repair the unit (at their election) I must pay the freight and insurance for round-trip shipping. Give the premium price for this unit, it's short service life, features I find unnecessary, I'll replace it with a simple unit at costs similar to round-trip "warranty" repair costs.

The cookbook does not have any images; it would have been extremely helpful to see the end product before attempting to create it. I am using You Tube instead. Much more helpful!!!

Not what I expected for recipes.

So far I have tried 3 of the white bread recipes. For all of them I used the dough cycle and baked in the oven. None of the recipes that I tried produced a light fluffy loaf.I tried the milk bread recipe that was quite chewy, then I tried the honey white recipe that was very dense and heavy, then I tried the homestyle white that was spongy and heavy. All the recipes tried were fair but nothing fantastic. I'm going to try the hamb/hotdog buns and the english muffin recipes but am not expecting anything special as the other recipes were just mediocre. Found a recipe for fluffy white on the web. So far this book has not impressed me and as it is I wouldn't recommend it.

This is not the bread book that I thought it was. You have to be experienced with your breadmaker to enjoy using this book....it isn't for newbies for sure...

I rarely write reviews but I was so disappointed by this book that I felt moved to share my dismay and even warn others not to buy it. I've made lots of good bread in my Zojirushi from borrowed recipes, but the first recipe I made out of this book just yielded a panful of baked crumbs! I couldn't even imagine what went wrong--I had followed the recipe to the letter, and it wasn't a case of bad yeast (although the author's discussion of yeast is confusing and makes one doubt the validity of every recipe in the book). I wasted 4 and a half cups of good whole wheat flour on this recipe, not to mention 3 and a half tablespoons of vital wheat gluten--now if that couldn't make the crumbs stick together, nothing could! I wish I had taken these one-star reviews more seriously before I bought this book. I'm wondering now how to return the first book I've ever returned to Amazon....

I really wanted to love this kindle book. But i dont. The problem isnt the recipes, they are well authored, there is a lot of information about the ingredients, there are several variations of many recioes. The problem is the kindlization of the book. There are two indexes, Subjects and Recipes. Neither contains page numbers or location numbers or hot links. So they are just a list of things you could,at best, consider to be search terms. However, you cannot rely on their finding anything useful. Case in point: the subject index contains the phrase "tips for starters" as in sourdough starters. If you enter this term in your kindle search, you get one result: the listing in the Subject Index. Circular and useless. I own many Kindle cookbooks. This one is poorly crafted and frustrating to use. Stick to paper on this one.