I resisted buying a bread maker for a long time because they're bulky and I don’t have much self-control around bread. Then Panasonic released a model that could make sourdough and suddenly I became interested.
Some bread makers are squat or compact and will sit nicely in a corner. The Panasonic models are tall and the entire lid opens upwards so they need a lot of clearance. I’d anticipated putting the bread maker on a countertop that has cupboards above it but I wouldn’t have been able to open the lid. Instead, the bread maker now has its own dedicated table as if it’s some kind of kitchen appliance royalty.
I bought my bread maker back in 2015 and it’s been lightly used although that’s changed now we’re in Covid-19 lockdown. I’m probably making a loaf a week and I’ve discovered that I like using the bread maker just to make dough rather than making and baking a loaf from start to finish. Baking the dough in an oven means that I can choose how to shape the dough and I get a better, crispier crust.
The good bits
Sourdough
First things first; I bought this machine for its sourdough capabilities. Panasonic enlisted Rachel Allen to make a series of videos using this bread maker, which I found useful and reassuring. After watching the sourdough video several times I had a go and 28 hours later (after fermenting, rising and baking), out popped a small sourdough loaf. There are probably two schools of thought on the sourdough that this machine produces:
- It’s inauthentic, it contains yoghurt and the texture’s all wrong.
- I barely had to put in any effort and I’ve got a lovely, tasty loaf of bread.
I’m not a sourdough purist and I’m lazy so I’m definitely in camp 2. Having read up on how to make sourdough starter the traditional way, I now appreciate this bread maker even more. The starter takes just 24 hours to make and none of it gets thrown away. The loaf it produces isn’t a rustic, chewy, open textured cob but it tastes really good and if you can be bothered to prove it in a banneton and finish it in an oven, it gets even better.
Dough making
This leads me to my next point: the dough making capabilities of the ZB2512 are great. I’m not an enthusiastic baker so getting a machine to do it for me makes sense but I quickly got bored of the soft, square loaves of sandwich bread that the ZB2512 produced. I missed the small, crusty loaves that we used to get from the supermarket bakery. Eventually I bought a couple of bannetons and got the ZB2515 to just make dough and this opened up a whole new world of bread. Wholemeal, spelt, sourdough, rye… they’ve all turned out brilliantly and I'm enthused about using my bread maker all over again.
Rye
A quick note on rye: I made a 100% rye dough and when I opened up the bread maker I thought something had gone horribly wrong and I’d wasted a load of flour. I had a quick Google and it turns out that it’s normal for rye dough to look like a lump of grainy clay. I figured that I had nothing to lose so I floured it and left it to prove. It did rise, encouragingly, but I baked it with great suspicion and no expectations. It turned out absolutely fine! Rye flour has different properties to wheat and 100% rye dough is dense, which is why it’s often combined with other flours. If you’re not familiar with it, the dough can look weird but I should have expected this as the ZB2512 comes with its own special rye kneading blade.
Timer
The ZB2512 has a timer option and waking up to freshly baked bread is a treat.
Versatile
It’s possible to make gluten-free bread, cake, jam and compote in the ZB2512 but I’ve only used it to make bread. There’s a dispenser on top so you can add additional ingredients like fruit, nuts, raisins, chocolate, cheese and bacon. These will be dispensed at the appropriate time in the programme.
Cleaning
The bread pan and ingredients dispenser are easy to clean although you do need a pipe cleaner or small brush to get bits of dough out of the blade. None of the parts are dishwasher safe but hand washing doesn’t take long.
The bad bits
Don’t drop the bread pan
Replacement parts are ridiculously expensive. If you damage the bread pan then you’ll need to part with around £70 for a new one. From what I’ve read online most people end up buying a new bread maker.
Beep
The beep that sounds when the programme finishes is pitiful and can barely be heard over the noise of a kettle, let alone in another room. I set a timer on my phone.
Recipe booklet
The accompanying booklet is helpful, detailed and has plenty of recipes but I wish they’d proofread it more carefully. I’m not bothered about the odd typo but there’s a recipe for spiced raisin bread, which instructs you to use a programme that doesn’t dispense the raisins. When the programme finishes they’re still nestled in the dispenser and the loaf is raisin free. If you’re making bread that uses additional ingredients, check ‘When adding extra ingredients’ on page 14 (programmes 3, 4, 7, 16, 20, 21, 23 and 31 open the dispenser).
There are loads of bread recipes but less dough recipes and the ingredient quantities change when you’re making dough. I’d like to bake a 50% rye dough but I’d have to calculate the quantity of water using other recipes as a guide and it would be an experiment. With dough, the ingredients need to be precise and even a tiny amount of water can make a big difference. When I followed the recipe for sourdough dough, it couldn’t hold its shape. After I contacted Panasonic’s customer services they instructed me to reduce the water by 20ml and it made all the difference. I know that I could probably find a 50% rye recipe online but I bought the bread maker for convenience and it’s a shame that the booklet couldn’t have been as thorough for the dough section as it was for bread.
The booklet itself is pretty flimsy. I wish Panasonic had provided something more robust like the spiral-bound, plastic covered booklet that came with my Magimix food processor.
Yeast dispenser
The yeast dispenser drops yeast into the dough at just the right time. It's a great feature because you don't have to return to add yeast later. The only issue is that the dispenser often stays open. It’s never caused any problems and springs back into place if I give it a tug but I wonder if it'll be a point of failure one day (update, eight years on: it's not an issue). If I accidentally leave it open, the yeast falls straight into the dough ingredients, which isn’t ideal.
Be warned that when the yeast dispenser opens it makes four loud clicks. It’s not a problem during the day but it has woken me up when I’m making bread overnight and forgotten to shut my bedroom door.
Footprint
You’ll need space in your kitchen for this large machine and a sturdy surface as it vibrates when it’s kneading dough. While it’s smaller in width than other bread makers, it’s tall and you’ll need a lot of clearance to open the lid.
The measuring spoon
This is the tiniest of bugbears but the measuring spoon perplexes me. Both the teaspoon and tablespoon are smaller than standard measures. I use the Panasonic spoon to measure yeast and my regular measuring spoons for everything else. (Update: I don't use the Panasonic spoon anymore.)
Overall thoughts
It’s hard to comment on build quality as I haven’t used my bread maker regularly over the years but all the parts feel sturdy and the stainless steel casing looks brand new despite being five eight years old.
I assumed that once I owned a bread maker I'd never buy a loaf again. This hasn’t been the case and there was a period of a year or so where I barely used it at all. Now that I’ve discovered the joys of the different dough settings, the ZB2512 has sprung back into life.
A newer model, SD-ZX2522 (affiliate link), has been released, which has four new menu options and a glass touch display but otherwise looks similar to the ZB2512.
Would I replace it if it broke tomorrow?
I would probably wait a few months but I’m sure I would eventually replace it.
