For home bakers

steve, bread you bake yourself is of course the best (and allows for more variety than the machines), but for people who are convinced they don't have the time or don't know how to make their own bread, or think it's too difficult, a machine is a good entry tool.

Go easy on the wonderful cakes and pastries, you'll end up with a paunch. :-)

Wife and kids want one after making bread at a neighbors.

I know it will be used once and sit on a shelf for 99.9% for the rest of its life... I'll stick it next to the takoyaki maker, juicer, gyoza maker, donut maker, food processor, cotton candy maker and water purifier.

Baking great bread needs a great oven and high quality flour. I use flour from Hokkaido, hopefully it is safe. I found that mixing 10% of bran into it gives very good results and at 430 Yen/kg you can't beat it. It is cheaper than rye or wholewheat flour and so healthy. Ash content of 0.45% and 11.5% protein content of the flour gives best results. I mix in walnuts, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame....you name it, all easy to order from the net.. Japan used to be hell for me but thanks to the bread maker it has become paradise waking up with a fresh loaf of bread without any chemicals. Even my Japanese husband is impressed about the great taste.

A normal one is 3 times cheaper, so this one is overpriced. Plus, the Gopan is only 5,000 Yen more eventhough it is supposed to be really noisy.

I am still trying to bake a bread as good as the ones we buy from our bakery. There are obviously a lot of secrets that we don't know about involved with bread baking. And, I have read all sorts of bread baking internet sites.

I know it will be used once and sit on a shelf for 99.9% for the rest of its life.

Don't be so sure, Cruz....even machine-made bread fresh-baked is so much better than the stuff in the shops. Also the Coop (if you have the delivery service) has Canadian bread flour, so you can avoid the home-grown glow-in-the-dark stuff.

Hmm, I recently heard similar complain from friend (that the bread is not as oishi as from the specialized bakeries). I like French and Italian variety breads but can't eat them every day.

I was opposing to my wife's pressure but finally gave up and bought Panasonic cheaper model 2 years ago. I knew I have to take care of bread making but once I started it was very easy and faster than washing rice! Set up in the evening - eat warm bread in the morning!

I never use the "soft" from the menu as I hate the sponge type bread. Follow the recipes in the Pana booklet , and use some creativity. I add some full grain flower, nuts, resins - every day different type real high density bread without chemicals!

ooooh, i love my breadmaker but would never ever pay that price. i have had mine for years and it gets a real workout. i, too, get creative and most of them are successes. i really hate the white poofy stuff in the stores.

Really good bread takes a long time to make and uses good quality flour and yeast. Bread from a machine will be better if the ingredients are better, but you can't ever expect it to produce the kind of bread a bakery takes many hours to make. Most people would prefer fresh bread which is still hot from a bread machine to something out of the supermarket though!

Canadian flour. French water. American butter. French yeast. Dutch milk powder. Voila: none tainted bread. x

Artisan bread from [this] machine? That is a very bold statement.

Don't waste the money. Leran how to bake yourselves, of course you need a good oven. My wife bakes wonderfull cakes and pastries for me. She is baking an English style farmhouse loaf as we speak. For those with cramped living situations i am sure you can find a bit cheaper than this. No rice flour if you want real bread.

We tried it a few weeks ago. Wasn't really all that tasty.