I've tested over half a dozen bread machines. This is my favorite.

The first loaf of bread I ever made, when I was 10 or 11 years old in the '90s, emerged from a bread machine. With its pale crust, squashed crumb, and lumpy shape, it wouldn’t have fared well on Instagram. But that didn’t stop my brother and me from devouring it, piping hot right out of the appliance and spread thickly with Country Crock margarine.

That experience was instrumental in activating my interest in food. And in subsequent years, after embarking on a career in food and cookbooks, I was pretty sure that my bread machine moment was a thing of the past — now I had a quote-unquote bread practice, jar of bubbly sourdough starter included. But then a few years ago, on assignment for a media outlet, I had the opportunity to test out a bunch of bread machines ... and to my great surprise, I completely enjoyed them! Making bread was suddenly incredibly unfussy with a machine. I loved the ingenious do-it-all pan, so easy for weighing ingredients on the scale. I loved the sealed-up compartment that captured all the mess. And I really loved its perfect proofing, oblivious of my drafty kitchen’s conditions.

Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne

Despite my personal awakening, I learned that the bread machine had never actually gone out of fashion. Many home cooks have been swearing by theirs for decades. This ultimately led me to write a new cookbook, The Bread Machine Book, and in the time I spent working on it, I baked with several different models, getting a sense of how much the appliance itself affects the outcomes.

The short answer is: quite a lot. Distinguishing factors included: 

• Mixing and kneading ability: ranging from floury patches mashed into the corners to beautifully cohesive doughs 
• The temperature of its proofing stage: yielding overproofed, cratered loaves or excellently fermented doughs 
• The evenness of baking: the difference between patchy, irregular browning and an all-over golden crust 

Depending on which machine I used, the same bread recipe could meet very different ends. But one machine stood out among the rest: the Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus. It’s a behemoth of an appliance, taking up nearly the same amount of kitchen real estate as a sizable toaster oven, and it’s certainly not the cheapest option out there. But if you’re serious about using your bread machine, this appliance is in a league of its own.

Photography by Kristin Teig; food styling by Liz Neily

Most notably, it bakes traditionally shaped loaves, thanks to its larger size. They’re not the tall, boxy, tree-stump ones from upright bread machine models; slices of breads baked in the Virtuoso Plus fit properly into a toaster and are perfect for sandwiches and French toast.

In that traditionally shaped pan is another exciting feature: There are two mixing and kneading paddles, rather than the standard single paddle. Positioned at either end of the loaf pan, these dual paddles ensure that doughs mix thoroughly, requiring little if any intervention (such as using a spatula to nudge unmixed flour from the corners), and mix it better, producing more strength and better elasticity. And while lesser bread machine pans are lined in a thin nonstick coating prone to chips and scratches, the Zojirushi’s strong, smooth coating remains slick and scratch-free, even after more than three years of use.

Many bread machines’ weakest feature is their baking capability. Most have a wrap-around heating coil at the base of the pan, which generates concentrated heat from the bottom of the unit. This set-up often yields loaves with pale crusts and patchy browning on the sides, as well as lumpy doming and an overall uneven crumb — the stereotype of bread machine bread. The Virtuoso Plus, on the other hand, has a secondary heating element in the lid of the machine, which circulates heat throughout the baking chamber to yield evenly browned, attractively domed breads.

Photography by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne

If this weren’t enough, what I love most about the Virtuoso Plus is that while you can bake a very good loaf of bread with the push of a button — it has all the preset courses you’d expect, from White and Whole Wheat presets to “Salt-Free,” “Gluten-Free,” and rapid courses — you can also customize the settings. For example, you can create a program that only mixes and kneads the dough, at which point you can remove the dough from the machine and let it rise slowly overnight in the fridge. The next day, pick up where you left off — return the dough to the machine for the rising, shaping, proofing, and baking, or go manual and do it by hand and in the home oven. I use my bread machine all the time with these isolated functions, and it works especially great for non-loaf baking projects like dinner rolls, bagels, or cinnamon buns. In fact, it makes my bread machine the go-to tool when I make almost any bread at all. (Learn more here: You know one way to use a bread machine. Here are even more.)

There are a lot of bread machines out there. But because the machine so significantly affects the outcome, you will need a better bread machine if you want to make better bread. The Virtuoso Plus produces the best loaves I’ve made, and it just can’t be beat for its mixing ability, even baking, and customizable bread courses. And if you find yourself wondering if Country Crock margarine is still around, too — indeed it is. The '90s are back, folks, as if they never really went away. 

Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Bread Machine

4.8 out of 5 stars out of 5 stars 502 Reviews Reviews

$399.95

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Cover photo by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Liz Neily.