This Breadmaker Turned Me Into a Home Baker (Even Though I Hate Baking)

When it comes to bread, I don’t discriminate. Bagels, babka, baguettes – I’ll eat them all and snag the crumbs like a pigeon living outside a patisserie. But I’ve never been much of a baker – not even during the homemade sourdough renaissance of 2020-21. I far prefer the spontaneity of cooking to the precision demanded by cakes, loaves and biscuits. If you’re in the same camp, a breadmaker might just help your relationship with baking – it did for me.

The settings

I’ve spent the past six weeks testing Panasonic’s compact breadmaker, an all-in-one machine with 18 settings. It covers everything from white, wheat and raisin loaves through to pizza dough and cake. One of the model’s biggest selling points is its size. At 40cm wide and 36cm tall, it’s compact enough to fit into one of the taller drawers in my kitchen – though it hasn’t spent much time there.

In the last month and a half, I’ve become the friend who brings homemade bread to dinner parties, weeknight catch-ups and postpartum meal trains, a loaf tucked under my arm like I trained at Le Cordon Bleu. “You made this?” my friends say when they crack into a still-warm golden loaf. And honestly, I don’t deserve the praise. This machine is so easy to use.

I started with the basics, working through the white, whole-wheat and raisin settings. (The first two also have rapid modes that halve the baking time, but I found the standard settings gave a fluffier, more complex result.) Across 10 trial loaves, the results were consistently good: a crisp outer crust and a fluffy interior. The standout was the raisin loaf, which was unreal with a swipe of butter and even better reincarnated as bread pudding. Next, I started playing with different flavours. Loaves studded with olives or peppered with bagel seasoning were real crowd-pleasers.

The size

At 400 grams, the compact loaves are easy to work through in a few days, which is either a draw or a limitation, depending on your household. A bread-loving duo or a small family will likely find themselves baking every couple of days. If you’re regularly feeding a crowd, you’d be better served by a larger model.

The highlights

A big perk is the delay timer on the classic settings, which means you can queue one up before bed and wake to the smell of a fresh loaf (which has made Melbourne’s winter mornings slightly more bearable). On loaves where it’s available, you can also choose your crust, from a light golden shade to something darker and crisper. 

The machine comes with a recipe book covering all the settings, and there are plenty of options beyond conventional loaves. I gave the gluten-free function a whirl a couple of times. It’s fluffy, crusty and a little sweet – perfectly good if this is the only loaf you can eat due to dietary restrictions. One of my housemates even said she preferred it to the regular loaves, though I won’t be swapping out my classic glutinous bread for it anytime soon.

The extras

The machine has options for baking both standard and gluten-free cakes. Of course, this is a breadmaker, so whatever cake you attempt comes out loaf-shaped rather than round. I followed the instructions for the standard cake setting, spiking mine with orange peel and a splash of triple sec. Despite the unconventional shape, my friends at work and home inhaled every sandwich-shaped slice. It’s a good basic cake, but it’s not good enough to replace baking one properly by hand. 

The verdict

Should you buy a breadmaker? It depends how much bread you eat. If breakfast toast and lunchtime sangas are a daily fixture in your house, this earns its spot in your kitchen. I can get a loaf started in the time it takes to boil an egg.

Of course, no machine is perfect. On some settings, the kneading cycle can be noisy – not something you want running during a work call or a film. The interior scratches easily, so stick to silicone and non-metal utensils, and don’t soak any knives in it (a lesson I learned the hard way). And while the settings are impressive in scope, if you’re hoping to replicate the complex tang of a proper sourdough, you’ll be disappointed – this isn’t that kind of breadmaker. Nor is it the kind of artisanal loaf you’d pay $14 for at an inner-city bakery.

But this bread is budget-friendly, delicious and rewarding. I’m not sure I’ll ever get sick of slicing into a still-warm loaf I made at home. I might even start calling myself a baker now – to strangers, at least.

panasonic.com

The writer was given the breadmaker to trial by Panasonic.