Panasonic Bread Maker with 2 Dough Hooks SD-ZB2512 (38 Baking Programs with Special Programs for Bread, Cakes, Pasta Dough and Jams, Stainless Steel)

I've never had a bread machine before, so thought I'd treat myself during lockdown to cut down on shopping. I was slightly dubious about the quality of the bread which would be made, but even the first use allayed any fears. Chuck the ingredients in in the order stated in the recipe, select the correct program, press start..... done. A few hours later, a perfect fresh loaf.Use good quality ingredients, follow the recipes precisely, and this machine will turn out a perfect loaf every time. I've only had one disaster when I felt brave enough to freehand with the weights and added more fruit than asked for, and, well, I ended up with a brick (which the birds really, really appreciated).The whole machine is a dream to use. The controls couldn't be more simple to program it, with a good, clear display to show the progress. The timer is a boon allowing one to awake to a house smelling of freshly baked bread and a warm loaf just sitting there waiting. It only takes 1 minute to clean the very non-stick tin too.The build quality is extremely impressive, everything is very solid and feels like it'll last forever. If I have one minor gripe, it's the shutter for releasing the yeast which is over-engineered to a ridiculous degree and very noisy, making 4 or 5 very loud clicks which are enough to wake you up if you're in the next room, but hey-ho.... fresh warm bread awaits.Highly, highly recommended, my only regret is not having bought one years ago.

Update:It just stopped working! Lost power and that was that. There is no life in it whatsoever. I'm really disappointed.I kept the packaging and sent it back and got a refund, so I ordered another one. So far so good.Original Post:I did a lot of research before ordering this bread machine and decided upon this one because it was robust and delivered good bread; however, I was sceptical as I felt all bread machines couldn't deliver as good as a hand made loaf. I am thankful this machine delivered, not just a good loaf of bread but, an amazing loaf of bread every time!It's incredibly easy to use, robust, and quiet. You can hardly hear it and it doesn't wobble around when it is kneading at all. The outside stays cool. When it's cooking, the heat is all inside and hardly any heat escapes.It's easy to get the bread out; I just tip it upside down and give it a shake, and it just slides out, and theres just a small hole in the bottom.The bread is a gorgeous colour, evenly baked and golden, and the crust is crispy whilst the bread inside is light and soft, and not at all dense or doughy.Hubby and I were amazed when the first loaf of bread, a rapid one, dropped out absolutely perfect as I don't always have such immediate success! This delivers every time!It's quite large and we don't have a big kitchen so I can't store it in the worktop. It goes in the cupboard and I get it out when I am making bread, but who cares when the bread is as good as this? Not me. You can set the timer to bake ready for when you wake up and then put it away when not needed.I am glad my research has paid off and am extremely happy with this machine.

I can not express how much I love this bread maker. I had been pondering over 6 months or more on whether to buy this bread maker as I wanted to be sure that it could do the job of replacing all my family needs for supermarket breads.As a family of 4, we get through on average about 2 loaves of bread a week, and I was conscious that I was throwing out a lot of plastic bread bags and I'm trying to reduce the amount of plastic waste we throw out as a family.Since having this machine its been absolutely brilliant! Every loaf I've made has been delicious and its so easy to use and clean. We've made bread, pizza doughs and I cant wait to try the other settings and make more yummy food for my family. I wish I had got it sooner to be honest.If you are looking for something so replace your everyday bread from the supermarket, then I highly recommend this machine. Fantastic bread every time, easy to use and clean, cheaper then supermarket bread and no plastic waste!

If you want warm, fresh bread with minimal effort or skill, this is for you. You can produce consistent loaves - white, granary, wholemeal and many others time after time. It's so easy! This model has a separate yeast dispenser in the lid which saves you having to make walls and wells in the mixture to ensure the yeast doesn't activate too soon. It has 33 programmes for all sorts of bread and dough and even compote! There are quick loaf settings which produce an excellent loaf in under three hours, compared to the normal six hours plus.You can set it to run overnight and wake up to a fresh loaf in the morning.The only niggle, which stopped it getting 5 stars is the alarm which goes off to alert you when the programme is finished. You need to get the bread onto a cooling tray reasonably smartly. However the alarm is utterly hopeless; inaudiable unless you are stood next to the bread maker. We have to set the oven timer to make sure we know when the bread is ready. The reason that this is soooo irritating is that most of the reviews we read state this as about the only major negative. So what do Panasonic do when they bring out the 2512 series? Absolutely nothing! With all the clock radios and other electronics they make, I can't belive it's beyond them to have a louder alarm, so that's very disappointing...But at the end of the day, it turns out consistently scrumptious loaves.