Zojirushi Home Bakery Mini Breadmaker (BB-HAC10)

I have been living on my own since I was 23 (I'm 27 as of the time this review was written;). It was hard to get adjusted to having to have a full time job while still maintaining an apartment. One thing that was a little tricky was getting used to cooking for myself. Since I live alone, and live 30-45 mins away from work, I usually prepare simple things like salads and sandwiches because I didn't find a reason to make extravagant, time consuming meals for just myself and well... I am also extremely lazy lol, I am a successful young professional but lately the domestic housewife in me has been slowly coming out. However, my limited cooking skills and experience, as well as my busy life (and ok.. LAZYNESS TOO lol) were still nipping at me. Being able to bake my own bread was something that "Domestic Danielle" always wanted to do, but "Clueless Baker Danielle" showed me a flash into the future and all I saw was my kitchen covered in flour and a cage match between me and a lump of dough trying desperately to knead that thing and then having it jump on my face and start to consume me like the blob. OK.... not a pretty sight I know!! There was only one way to satisfy both of my desires, and that was a BREAD MACHINE!!!My sister has a bread machine and she loves it. When we would get together for family gatherings she would bring a loaf and it was always so delicious, and that too inspired me to start researching them. When I came across the mini Zojirushi, I knew it was love at first sight and absolutely PERFECT for me!! It makes a nice and small 1 pound loaf, which really can last you a couple days if you make small slices. It is also incredibly easy to use and the manual that comes with it is great because those recipes were made strictly for that bread machine. I also love the timer option on it! a couple times I have dumped the ingredients in either before I go to bed or before I go to work and set it so that I can have fresh bread when I wake up or when I come home from work (and waking up or coming home to that wonderful smell is ALWAYS a bonus hehe). And probably the best thing about this machine is that it does EVERYTHING for you!! It kneads and rises and bakes it all in the same cute contraption! As long as you measure everything as it is supposed to be measured then your bread will come out fine. I have made several loaves and they always come out great!The only word of warning is that you might become like me and become a bake-a-holic. Since its so easy to do and since its so cute to watch it in the machine (I love the little window on the top hehe), you might find yourself becoming bake-crazy! Lately I have been experimenting with the recipes in the book and have been baking loaves for work or baking loaves for friends and people I associate with. I am thinking about baking one for my personal trainer and her family, because I mean what says thank you for helping me attain a hot body like a gift of an adorable bread loaf lol!!Bottom line is that this is a great product that makes great bread! I am THE bread winner and this bread machine is a winner too!! Its just win-win all around!! I am also psyched to try out the dough function and try to make my own pizza and soft pretzels!! The possibilities are endless!! Uh oh world watch out!!! DOMESTIC DANIELLE IS TAKING OVER!!!

Worring about the fact that my store bought bread had so many preservitives in it, that it stayed semi- fresh for 2 months, My husban and I decided to go the home made bread route... After careful research we choose this Zojirushi 1 lb machine. I NEVER bake bread soo I was concerned that this was gonna be a BIG ol expensive dust grabber... MUCH TO MY SURPRISE, I got the machine on Thrusday, watched the video ( fortunaly I still have a vcr, they do need to up date that) but went straight into the kitchen and MADE MY FIRST LOAF OF PERFECT BREAD ... This is such a NO BRAINER, that my husban came home and has made bread all weekend! You basically slop all your indgredients in the bakeing bowl (IMPORTANT: in the order the book say's to put them) lock the loaf pan in the machine and TA DA !!!! As little as 2 hours later you have Hot Fragrant Delicious Bread! I've already devieated from the recipies and made some artisan breads that I made up the recipies.... you can fudge on dry indgredients, except flour, ie more sugar than it calls for, more spices etc... Right now I have cranberry-raisin,nut bread raising.... I added an extra 1/2 c of nuts and cut the raisin and cranberry to 1/4 cup so I had the correct amount of dried fruit in the dough.I can't say enought about the way this machine works, it is almost totaly silent, and the bread loaf pan is soooo heavy compared to other brands I have looked at. My one and only complain, and it's really weak, is I wish this had an auto dump on it so I didn't have to wait 19 mins to put in my extras. (Really Lazy huh??) But that also might increase the size of the machine, and this is an awesome size, It fits under my cabinets on my counter top and is easy to store away when (if that time ever comes) it isn't in use. Yet the loafs that come out are Big (1 lb loafs but so much bigger than I thought would come out of a machine this small!)So if you want to just jump in and bake wonderful breads this is the product for you!For size 5 starsFor ease of operation 5 starsFor ease of clean up 5 starsFor quality of breads 5 starsFor prep time to mix up the dough...5+++++ starsEvery one I know is getting a specialty bread for Christmas this year!!! Oops forgot to mention, my hubs is a french bread FANATIC... he made 2 loafs this weekend and they were soooo much better than I have ever bought in ANY BREAD STORE!!I fiugred the cost of a white bread loaf, and it has less than .46 in it, so compared to store bought bread not only are we getting a better tasteing healthier bread but I'm saving over .58 cents (on a 2 lb store loaf) YAY Life is good