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While I like the concept of making bread entirely from scratch, spur-of-the-moment bread is out of the question. Enter the best bread machine. Most bread machines require about 10 minutes of prep time, which is mostly spent measuring ingredients and putting them into a pan. Then, you pick a setting, turn on the machine, and three or four hours later you have a warm, golden-brown loaf.
"At a minimum, I'd want a machine with a standard cycle, a whole grain or whole wheat cycle (if you enjoy whole-grain bread) and a dough cycle, which simply mixes and kneads the dough, then keeps it warm as it rises," said P.J. Hamel, senior digital content editor for King Arthur Flour and author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion."
That's why I put each bread maker in this guide through a series of tests to see how they handled basic white bread, wheat bread with seeds, and gluten-free bread. I also assessed the ease of use, setting options, baking times, noise levels, and special features like pre-programming.
Our top picks for the best bread machines
Best overall: Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker - See at Amazon
Best compact: Zojirushi Home Bakery Maestro Breadmaker - See at Amazon
Best overall
This bread machine kneads thoroughly, bakes evenly, and, unlike many of its competitors, turns out standard-sized loaves.
- Wide variety of settings
- Ability to customize cycles
- Pre-programmable
- Expensive
- Takes up a lot of counter space
The Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus is my top pick for the best bread maker machine, thanks to its stellar reliability and variety of settings. After putting nine different machines through three rounds of tests (or two, for machines without gluten-free settings), I found that this was the only one to turn out perfectly domed, uniformly browned, and consistently fluffy bread with evenly distributed mix-ins every time.
The Virtuoso Plus can be pre-programmed (a feature that worked perfectly and allowed me to wake up to the smell of fresh bread during testing), and the machine's 5-minute power backup means you won't automatically lose your bread-in-progress if the power flickers.
The Virtuoso Plus also stops kneading when you open the lid, which is useful if you want to add mix-ins to your bread. And if you need to measure those mix-ins, the machine comes with four nested measuring cups, one liquid measuring cup, and a double-ended measuring spoon — add-ons that are unnecessary but appreciated.
Timing-wise, the white and wheat loaves of bread took about 3.5 hours to bake, while the gluten-free loaf was done in 2.5 hours. The clock displays the time your bread will be done, rather than the hours left, which I found helpful when planning my day.
The Breville Custom Loaf was a close second to the Zojirushi, but my first attempt at white bread came out slightly darker at the sides than on top, and the gluten-free bread wasn't quite as fluffy. The Breville Custom Loaf has two features we really loved: a paddle that collapses after kneading, so there's no paddle-sized hole when you pull the baked bread from the pan; and a fruit and nut dispenser that will automatically add any mix-ins at the appropriate time in the bread cycle.
Best compact
This bread machine is specifically calibrated to bake excellent one-pound loaves of bread, making it a solid choice for one or two-person households.
- Pre-programmable cycles on a variety of settings
- Perfect for small households
- Features top handle to easily move it around
- Loaves are more cube-shaped
- Bread can be difficult to remove
Since I'm typically baking for one or two people, most standard two-pound loaves of bread go stale before I can finish them. (In other words, I've made a lot of croutons lately.) Typically, bread machines offer 1.5-pound loaves as their smallest option, and those that do begin at one pound aren't necessarily calibrated to excel at loaves that small. When I tried making a one-pound loaf in Cuisinart's Compact Automatic Breadmaker, for example, the results were dense, with a thicker crust than I would have liked.
Zojirushi's Maestro, however, is designed with small households in mind, and during my tests, it consistently turned out solid one-pound loaves that ticked every box on my bread checklist: golden-brown color, domed top, fine crumb, evenly risen, and evenly distributed mix-ins.
I appreciate the fact that Zojirushi didn't scale down its flagship bread maker's features just to make smaller loaves; the Maestro can be pre-programmed in advance and includes a 5-minute power backup (as mentioned in our Virtuoso review, this can really save your loaf in the event your power flickers).
The Maestro's narrow dimensions make it easy to store in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. It's also the only bread machine I tested that features a convenient top handle, making it easy to transport. Its interior top handle, however, isn't as solidly constructed; I yanked it off the first time I pulled the pan from the machine (although it popped back in easily).
How we test bread machines
Before I began testing the best bread maker machines, I spoke to Marsha Perry, the writer behind the popular Bread Machine Diva blog, and P.J. Hamel, senior digital content editor for King Arthur Flour and author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion." Both have decades of experience testing bread machine recipes and providing their respective readers with bread machine tips.
Bread quality: The best bread maker machine has one job — to make good bread. I tested how each one handled basic white bread, wheat bread with mix-ins (in this case, a combination of sunflower seeds and flax seeds, to see how the machines dispersed mix-ins of different sizes), and, for the machines with a gluten-free setting, gluten-free bread. I used the same basic ingredients throughout testing.
Each loaf of bread was examined for consistency of texture, a golden color throughout, and an even rise; points were docked if the domed top fell. I cut several slices of bread from each loaf to look for air pockets and under or over-baked spots.
Capacity: While every bread maker I tested — aside from the Zojirushi Maestro — was built with a two-pound loaf in mind (aka the size you'd find in a grocery store), I made note of the models that had the ability to bake loaves in three or four different sizes; one pound was the smallest I saw, and 2.5 pounds was the largest.
Noise: Extra noisy machines were dinged, as were ones that "hopped" across the counter during the kneading cycle. The top three picks above all operated at a low hum, and were, as far as I could tell, motionless.
Unique features: I noted setting options (some machines had special cycles for things like jam, yogurt, and pasta dough), especially fast baking times, and special features like pre-programming or auto-dispensers for mix-ins.
Bread machine tips and tricks
Don't throw out the manual
Most of the best bread machines come with a few recipes, and they're often tucked away in the back of a guidebook. These are crucial since they're calibrated to work well with that particular machine's features and specifications.
"Once you've made some of those and understand how the machine works — how much flour it can handle, how long each rise cycle and bake cycle are — you can start to adapt any of your own favorite yeast bread recipes to bake in the machine," P.J. Hamel, senior digital content editor for King Arthur Flour, said.
Have fun with the dough cycle
By taking care of the mixing and kneading, it allows you to start a little closer to the finish line if you're making other yeast-based baked goods. The Bread Machine Diva's Marsha Perry recommends it for pizzas and dinner rolls.
Experiment with settings
"If your machine is programmable — that is, you can program in your own mixing kneading, rising, and baking times — you're golden," Hamel said. "Your machine is then simply a mini oven, ready to bake macaroni and cheese, apple crisp, bread pudding, cheesecake — even soup, stew, or lasagna! Once you get to know your machine, and if it has that 'homemade menu' capability — it becomes so much more than a machine that bakes bread."
Invest in a kitchen scale
Bread machine baking is all about precision, and measuring your ingredients by weight will clear up any confusion as to whether or not that tightly-packed cup of flour is more like a cup and a half.
Bread machine FAQs
Do you need special bread machine yeast?
Most recipes will specify which kind of yeast to use, but in general, you can rely on the active dry yeast that you use in regular bread making. That being said, some rapid-rise bread machine recipes may call for instant yeast.
Can you use regular flour in a bread maker machine?
Yes. All of my bread was made with King Arthur bread flour and gluten-free flour (both of which I purchased before reaching out to PJ) and Whole Foods 365 whole wheat flour. "Cheap ingredients yield a crummy (rather than crumby) final product. Flour and yeast quality are super-important," said Hamel. "You don't have to use bread flour in your bread machine, so long as you use flour with a protein content higher than 11.5% or so."
How long does homemade bread last?
If kept at room temperature, homemade bread will be noticeably stale by day three. If you're pretty sure you're not going to finish an entire loaf in that amount of time, you can always wrap a portion tightly in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.
If you're storing homemade bread for a day or two, plastic or foil will help lock in moisture. Since direct sunlight can cause bread to overheat, it's best stored in a cool, dry place like a bread box or cupboard
Is bread from a bread machine different from oven-baked bread?
In terms of appearance, most loaves made in a bread machine will have a hole in the bottom where the mixing paddle was. Taste-wise, bread machine bread is pretty universally light and fluffy.
"You won't be making crusty artisan bread in your bread machine (though you can certainly make the dough for them on the machine's dough cycle)," Hamel said. "Bread machine bread may taste a bit yeasty, but beyond that, it's up to you to add flavor with spices, herbs, dried fruit, and nuts. Most bread machines won't deliver loaves with the rich, nuanced flavor of an artisan loaf, since that flavor comes from a series of long rises, some of which may be in the refrigerator. Bread machines simply don't have that capability."
