My first bread machine was a Black & Decker my mom gave me (used)... it made the tower shaped loaves and the bread was great - but it didn't look like a 'loaf' of bread. It eventually died and I did without for a couple of years, until I saw this baby... and broke down and bought one. (They think A LOT of this bread machine!)
I've probably had it for six months now and it is THE greatest thing.... loaves are perfect every time (unless you don't seat one of the paddles properly - then you have a mess.)
My ONLY issue with this machine is trying to clean the INSIDE of the two paddles, and I finally hit upon a solution. I took one of the cleaning things (technical term LOL) pictured above from my gun cleaning kit, trimmed it with a pair of sharp scissors until it would fit in the paddles, and VOILA! Now I can properly clean the entire machine. Note to Zojirushi - you need to include something with your machine for doing this - it would probably cost $0.15 to produce and add. Then your machine would REALLY be PERFECT.
Just a note to anyone getting one of these machine..... I found great plastic bags for the bread at the site below - I THINK this is the size I got but I can't remember. But it's better to have a bag too big than one too small. One word of caution - do NOT bag WARM bread - it will sweat and get soggy. But once it's totally cooled, slip it in the bag and tie it up with a piece of raffia.... makes a SUPER gift. All my neighbors got a WARM loaf of bread and a jar of homemade strawberry preserves for Christmas - I wrapped the bread loosely in parchment paper and put the bread and preserves in a little basket - and I tucked a storage bag in with it. The plastic bags are about $17/100.... and you think you will never use a hundred bread bags..... trust me - you will! (They do not come with twist-ties, hence, the raffia.
I'm experimenting with bread recipes, altho the book that comes with the machine has GREAT stuff in it. My buttermilk white is yummy and my neighbor said it makes the best French toast EVER.
HAPPY BAKING!
