Zojirushi BB-HAC10

The new Zojirushi BB-HAC10 home bakery mini bread maker can be enjoyed 7 days a week. The 1 pound loaf is the perfect size for smaller households to savour the taste of freshly baked bread everyday without waste. Its compact design also makes it ideal for kitchens with limited countertop space. The Home Bakery Mini makes it easy to prepare a wide variety of breads, cakes, and fresh fruit jams as well as dough for rolls, croissants, pizza, pasta, cookies and more. This machine has three bread textures that you can choose from: Regular, Firm or Soft. Another new feature unique to this model is the cookie/pasta dough setting to prepare homemade cookies and pasta. It also is has settings for French bread, dough, cake and jam. This unit includes an easy-to-follow instruction video, manual and recipe booklet.
Programmable bread maker produces 1 pound loaves of cakes or breads
Settings for cookie/pasta dough and fresh fruit jams; quick-bake cycle
13-hour delay timer; LCD control panel; viewing window; carrying handle
Non-stick kneading blade and baking pan; instructions and recipes included
Measures 8 by 11 by 12 inches; 1-year warranty

The Zojirushi BB-HAC10 bread maker is terrific for couples, singles, or apartment dwellers wanting a small loaf of bread (1 LB). While at first, its price may be offsetting, it is a fantastic device and made of high quality materials. Most bread makers are too large and end up being stored in the closet, but this machine is small, sleek, and bakes perfect loaves of bread. The size of the machine is very acceptable and you can store it in the cupboard. This machine fits very nicely on the counter taking up only a little more space than a blender. The carrying handle on the machine makes it very convenient for moving it to a storage area if you do not have much counter space. It has a nice appearance and will fit well into most kitchens.

The loaves on regular cycles take between 3:40-3:00 to bake, but it has a timer and a “keep warm” feature. It is quiet and an 8-year old could easily operate its simple push button controls. One issue to note – It bakes a small, vertical loaf of bread and a 1 LB loaf is smaller than you think it is. So the “rounded” part on top takes up about 1/4 of the entire loaf. Also, your bottom slice will have a gaping hole where the paddle bakes into it. While this is not much of a problem for a large 2 LB loaf, for this small loaf, it is a bit of a waste.

The only thing programmable on the Zojirushi BB-HAC10 is the delay timer. You cannot pre-set the time of rise, kneed and bake. The Zojirushi is relatively quiet and its compact size allows it to fit nicely in a limited space. The beep sound (for adding raisins, nuts, etc.) is not too long or annoying like the BBCCX20 which would wake me up in the middle of the night. It is very easy to clean.

The two-pound loaf Zojirushi is best for larger loaves, but this will be the perfect size for just two people. There is also a “Quick” setting which requires two hours or less, depending on the light or dark crust selected. The Zojirushi has some great features that may not be apparent when reading the manual. The water I put in is truly cool to lukewarm. I learned that during the “rest” phase (the first phase), the water is at the bottom of the pan and the machine warms it up during this phase to the perfect temperature. This will help to minimize any impairing of yeast activity.

The mixing paddle is relatively small and thin compared to the paddles on other bread makers. While it does make a small hole in the bottom of the loaf of bread, the small profile of the mixing paddle makes the hole unobjectionable. Initially, if you encounter difficulty removing the mixing paddle for cleaning you will notice a tiny hook on the bread maker shaft that helps retain the paddle while you remove the bread from the bread pan. Counter rotating the paddle slightly allows it to be easily removed from the bread pan shaft.

The bread pan can be removed, inserted and locked in place very easily. The design allows you to place all of your ingredients in the bread pan prior to placing the pan in the baking chamber. This is a nice feature as it prevents the mess of ingredients ending up in the baking chamber, particularly if you are like me and tend to be messy.

This breadmaker makes a rectangular loaf of bread that provides a slice of bread that is about 20 percent taller and slightly narrower than a commercial loaf of bread. It will provide you about 8 to 10 slices of bread depending on how thick you slice the bread. I slice off both ends slightly thick to make a fresh and tasty hamburger bun.

The Zojirushi is at the high end of the price range for breadmakers. However, in this case, you get what you pay for. The design, quality, and construction of this breadmaker make it well worth the price. It provides a large variety of options for making bread, dinner rolls, cakes, cookies, pizza, croissants, jams and even meatloaf. If you are serious about having fresh bread every few days (or daily if there are two of you), then this is an excellent choice.