Zojirushi Bread Machine: BBCC-X20

You don’t always need to use the Sourdough setting on your Zojirushi when making sourdough from a starter. For example:

http://www.bigoven.com/59727-Sourdough-Potato-Dill-Bread-for-the-Zojirushi-recipe.html

Try that one. Or this:

http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/sourdo/abmsour.htm

THANKS

BMD

MMW,

I have found these recipes to work AWESOME in my Zojirushi BBCCX20:

http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/index.php/module/statics/action/view_listing/page/58

Try them and see if you get the same results. You can find the underlined ingredients at the store on this website or at:

http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/default.php/cPath/45_69

About your wheat flour. I always have the best success when I grind my own whole wheat flour fresh. I have never had good luck with store bought whole wheat flour.

I have had a problems with white and wheat bread, hard crust (overcooked) top not brown at all, very pale. Bread is very dry, even my old buttermilk recipe. Tried several times and am pretty disgusted. A lot of money for a machine that does not produce. This is my 4th bread machine, my first Zojirushi.

Umm… Grind my own wheat? What do you think i have a bread machine for? Totally ridiculous.

I recently bought this bread machine as an upgrade to a seven year old Breadman machine which still works quite well and produces nice loaves. But I wanted a newer bread machine with more bells and whistles. My experience with this bread machine so far has been a hit or miss situation. I tried using a sour dough batter (not made from this machine) for my first loaf and made the mistake of leaving the kitchen and not watching the process. It was un-kneaded when I finally returned but I caught it early enough in the baking process to be able to take out the dough, ‘repair it’ and bake it in the oven. The next two loaves I made using Zojirushi’s manual’s recipes and they came out great, as has the chocolate cake from that same manual. I’ve tried one other ‘speciality’ recipe using sauteed onions but that too didn’t turn out very well. I know now to watch the process and if the batter appears too dry, add more liquid, and if it’s not kneading correctly, give it a little help with a spatula. Regarding TWad’s advice re grinding wheat for bread: BALONEY! I’ve made wonderful whole wheat breads in both my first Zojirushi bread machine (late ’80s-early ’90s) and my ‘cheapie’ Breadman machine more recently, using good quality whole wheat flour purchased from my health food store. It’s ridiculous to say that you can’t get good WW bread unless you grind your own wheat!

Just thought I’d pass along some info for those of you who are getting very flat whole wheat loaves. You need Vital Gluten. This can be found in most stores, most likely in the all natural or health section. It comes in a box and you can add about 2T to your 2 # whole wheat recipes. Whole wheat flour lacks the gluten (protein) that white flour does. Most white flour has added gluten it in, especially bread flour, which is all purpose flour w/ proteins added. Anyway – this will make your bread rise and looke absolutely lovely! Good luck. And….for the grind your own grains person – goodness! I am a pastry chef and a purest, but time is of the essence when making your own bread for daily consumption. Blud Ofen’s reply sums my feeling up on that comment!

Thanks Kate, I will give Zojirushi a shot. I will get one as my christmas present.

After lots of frustration I found a recipe that gave me good Whole Wheat bread:
http://www.breadbeckers.com/recipes/zojirushi_bread.htm

But instead of gluten and Lecithin I use 1 tspn of Xanthan gum.

Make sure you add the egg! That makes all the difference for me.

The ZO-X20 is our second bread maker. We had one about 20 years ago that looked like R2-D2 from Star Wars. It never worked right. I was excited to find a bread maker that make a rectangular loaf. We made our first loaf following the recipe that came with the machine and it came out pretty good. It is alittle more dense and not at light tasting as we’d like. Has anyone tried to get a less dense loaf of white bread? The color and shape was perfect. We hope the machine will prove to work well. I would appreciate any suggestions for a less dense loaf. Thank you!

I have 3 used Zojirushi’s that I bought at different times at 2nd hand stores (well, the last one I bought on Craigslist). I grind my own wheat (hard white winter) and bake 3 loaves at one time about every 3 weeks for my family. We live off grid (power with wind turbines, solar and generators) so I have to be frugal with our power. I have experimented over the last 2 winters with recipes and ingredients and now think I have the perfect loaf. I don’t let my bread machines bake my bread: purely for the lack of that much power stored in our battery banks. But it sure does save me time with the mixing and kneading. First, I want everyone to know that what I’m writing is my preference and mine only. Some might agree, some might disagree. While my bread machine is mixing, I’m using a rubber spatula to push the sides down and roll the dough over. Just be very aware of what your bread is doing, feeling and looking like in the first 10 minutes. I feel my bread and pinch it to see if it needs more water or flour. After many loaves, you’ll know what to look for. In the last minutes of mixing/kneading, I’ll add chopped nuts, fruit, ground flax seed. Oh, and I’ve set the machine to the dough setting (the longest one, if you have 2 settings). Before the timer beeps to let me know that the dough is ready to come out of the mixing pan, I will have heated up a pizza stone on top of my stove and boiled a kettle of water. Using my old large microwave oven (that I can’t use off-grid, I’ve kept it only for my bread rising) to rise my bread, I put the pizza stone and kettle in it to get it warm. Dump the dough on a very lightly greased counter top, roll out dough with rolling pin. Roll dough up, pinch seams and ends and place in a greased, metal, long, narrow bread pan. Place pans in plastic bags (like the ones on the rolls at the vegi bins at the grocery store), blow up with air using your mouth, twist tie the end shut. Remove kettle from micro wave oven (replace with a mug of hot water) and put pans on warm pizza stone. If too hot, put oven mitts under your bread pans. Set timer for 15-20 minutes. When timer beeps: Turn oven on to 450 degrees (mine is propane gas). Set timer for another 10 – 15 minutes. If oven is heated to 450 degrees at this point and the bread has risen to about an inch over the pans, you are ready to put your loaves in the oven. Remove the platic bags. YOu can cut them off or carefully slide the loaf out. Once the bread is in the oven, turn it down to 350 -375 and set timer for 45 minutes (depending on the sizes of your loaf pans). I have 2 small pans that only take about 25 minutes to bake. Using a instant read thermometer, check your bread internally, in the middle of the loaf. When done, it should read between 190 – 200 degrees. When done,remove from oven, let loaf sit in pan for 5 minutes and then take out of pan and let cool on rack for 15 minutes or longer before slicing. I only slice one loaf and the other two go into the cold room (arctic entry way which is my walk in refrigerator in the winter). I store them in plastic bags, which I would love to find an alternative to but haven’t. When one loaf is gone, I slice another using my electric meat knife and bread slicing guide — great tools to have. We don’t have a toaster but use a cast iron skillet to brown on bread. This bread makes an awesome grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich especially when I make a loaf with cinnamon in it ! Here’s my recipe:
1 1/3 c. water
1/2 c. oil ( I use olive oil)
1/4 c. honey (if you use the 1/2 c. measuring cup that you just used for the oil, you won’t have your honey sticking)
4 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. powder milk
2 tsp. salt
2 Tblsp. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. instant potatoes ( I use a fine powder that I get at Sam’s club, have never tried the flakes but don’t know why they wouldn’t work)
1 Tblsp. yeast

Hope this helps all the newbies and is too overwhelming.
For any questions: wildshannon1@yahoo.com
And while you’re at it, check out our website: wwww.power-talk.net

That recipe above makes one large loaf of bread. I cut one of my dough loaves in half to make two small loaves. If I’m making cinnamon bread, I’ll add a Tblspoon of cinnamon to the dough while it’s mixing/kneading and then sprinkle more cinnamon and raisins on the rolled out dough before I roll it up and put it in the pan to rise. *Use your rolling pin to lightly push the raisins down into the dough*
Nuts are good too… walnuts, sunflower seeds (unsalted), peanuts, pumpkin, almonds, pecans.
ground flax seed: 1 Tblspoon per loaf when mixing/kneading

I have a 4 year old V20. Do not know what the prior machines were but they wore out in 1-2 years. I make bread daily for the kids lunches. What a great aroma to awake to. I was frustrated just as some others here at first. I find the basic recipe on the side is just a guideline. I pre-measure the dry ingredients into containers. Makes it easier each night to set up for baking. I now only use olive oil. I can not attest to the bread lasting longer because it does not last more than 48 hours in our house. Being on a low sodium diet I have reduced the amount of salt. My measurements tend to be course. I measure the oil over the pan. Comes out more or less 2 tablespoons. Usually more 🙂 Reduced the water and flour to make the flour go further. Size of loaf change is minimal but I can usually squeeze out an extra loaf per bag. Kids do not like wheat especially with PBJ’s. Yuck! So my wheat is a blend. 60/40 most times so the kids will eat it. All store bought high quality. For sandwiches I always use the sandwich setting. All in all it gets used for everything from a mixer to baking.

Type of flour make a huge difference. Gold Medal Bread flour is inexpensive and I always have problems with consistency. I contacted Gold Medal due to not having country of origin on their bag label. Found out it comes from all over the world. So I pay more for higher quality US flour and get consistent results and the flour goes a bit further. If I guesstimate measure with cheap flour I always get poor results. There is good quality wheat flour sold in stores no need to mill your own.

Lastly the kids followed my directions when I had heart surgery. They did not want to resort to store bought bread 🙂 That attests to how easy it is to make a good loaf.

We have had our Zojirushi X20 about a month now and I have tried several recipes. We are very pleased! the only comment I have is that the top of the bread does not brown very well, but it is okay. It is definitely cooked and tastes yummy! I had an old Oster Bread Maker before that made a round loaf and it never did work right. It was also very noisy. I love that this machine is so quiet, easy to operate and the bread slides out of the pan, without the paddles…it’s great! Thank you for all of your tips and recipes. For a relatively newbie at bread making I appreciate the comments. Happy Baking!

I make wheat bread but I use less wheat flour then the recipe calls for. I use bread flour for the difference and it always takes a little more water because it is so dense. We put the Watt-A-Meter on our breadmachine and in the fast mode, 2 hours, it used .21 kws. Which is 3 cents for electricity.

This is my first bread machine and we love it. We make a loaf of cracked wheat bread about everyother day. We’ve had the machine about 1 month and only have excellent reports. The loaf is picture perfect each time and we are a tough/picky audience. I think the issues folks are having is not with the machine, but with their recipes and ingredients – a common problem with baking. It is almost impossilbe to make 100% whole wheat bread that is any good with store bought flour unless you can shop at specialty stores. Also, measuring is key! All measurements must be exact and the temp. of your ingredients is also important. Try books like “Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand” – the NY Times said every recipe is a winner (note that they mix white flours in w/the wheat flours because store bought wheat is low quality).

This machine is incredibly quiet, and makes suberb bread. My only suggestion – the recipe book could be more extensive. I have used my other recipes in it and everything including the heaviest 100% whole wheat, oatmeal sesame and raisin bread have turned out perfectly!

A couple of ideas that may be useful: When I moved from sea level to 4000 feet, a recipe adjustment was needed because the dough dried out in the kneading cycle, probably the much drier atmosphere, so changing the balance of liquid to flour and weighing all dry ingredients produced success every time. Hard winter wheat, about half white, one quarter whole wheat, and one quarter whole wheat spelt sweetened with honey makes wonderful toast and sandwiches. Also commercial yeast used by bakeries turns out far superior flavor and appearance and is readily available.

An excellent source of recipes baked in the Zojirushi is at King Arthur Flour web site. In their test kitchens they use the Zojirushi for mixing their dough as well as baking — it is their bread machine of choice I have made made many of their recipes – most very satisfactory — especially the Pecan Wheat Bread.

I have had my Zojirushi BBCC-X20 for 2 years and love it. I agree, the crust gets too dry, and the pan won’t release the bread – I seem to have scuffed the teflon interior. It has stood up very well to the whole wheat bread. Having read the discussions here, I will play with custom settings and hope I can find a cheap new pan.

Wheat grinding, with the right (electric) grinder, takes no time at all and the bread/dough comes out 100% better than with store bought flour. There is no comparison. Simply pour the grain in the mill, start it, and while the flour is being ground, measure out the other ingredients for the bread and put them into the bread pot. By the time you are ready for the flour, it should be done. Add yeast and voila! You’re good to go. Even the busiest people can manage this.

Does anyone know what the dimensions of this unit is?

Marcia F., I just got my machine a week ago and had the same problem — undercooked top, overcooked sides. I changed the crust selection to light and reduced the flour by a tablespoon and the problem was solved. But I find most breads and cakes are drier than I would prefer, so I’d like to see some suggestions in that area.

I recently got myself a bread maker from a flea market. It looked like it had hardly been used, cost me the equivalent of ~$6 (40 Swedish kronor) and turned out to be either a rebadged Zojirushi BBCC-V20 or an exact clone. The thing is sold under the name ‘Nordica 6573 Traditional Bread’ and looks – and seems to work – like the aforementioned Japanese machine. As to what to feed a machine to make ‘whole wheat bread’ on the cheap I’d say do what I’ve been doing for the past 25-odd years: mix oats, crushed rye with normal white flour and you’re close to the whole wheat thing without having to grind your own or pay triple for a flour which is easier to make for the factory. Add some boiled whole wheat grains for an even more interesting bread. Put the oats and rye in a blender for a fibre-rich yet ‘white’ bread. Dried yeast works just as well as fresh, I use them both with similar results. I don’t know why so many people keep on harping about getting ‘good ingredients’. Is the ‘normal’ wheat flour sold in the US so bad? Here in Sweden as well as in the Netherlands (where I’m originally from) I get splendid results with just any bag of flour I buy. You can buy good ingredients (wheat and rye flour, crushed rye, oats, whole wheat) in any supermarket.

I found a recipe online for my Zojirushi BBCC-X20 and it goes against all the recipes that the company gives. First, you mix water, sugar and yeast in the pan and then the flour. My white bread had been heavey using the recipes coming with machine. You want to try this — it came out perfect.

Here tis

1 1/3 cup warm water (110°F)
2 tbs white sugar
1 (.25oz) package yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil

where can i buy this bread maker ?.
I am in France
Thanks

I bought a Wolfgang Puck bread machine, but haven’t gone to pick it up from the post office yet. Now that I’ve read online about all of the problems with that machine, I’m thinking that I should just ship it back and try and find a Zojirushi Bread Machine in Canada. Any ideas as to where I could source one? I’ve found all of the discussions very interesting regarding flours. I know that a cousin’s wife in SC gets her canadian inlaws to bring her big bags of canadian flour, she won’t bake with anything else. I’m hoping I won’t have to resort to milling flour but will hopefully find something here, or at the very least across the border (I live about 45 minutes from the US border, but don’t get to the US often because of health issues) and bring it back and pay duty at the border. I’m disabled from a car accident and cannot do all of the kneading required for breadmaking anymore due to a neck injury. I’m looking for a machine that will make very healthy breads, 1005 whole wheat and hopefully able to use some ancient grains in mixes too.

I’d appreciate any expertise and advice you might have, especially regarding recipes and where to source this obviously great machine in Canada or mailorder in the US, and I’ll have to find a place to get it sent close to the border–I’ve heard such places exist.

Thanks so much,

Joanne

I have had my x20 for over a year. The only time that a recipe does not work is when I have done something wrong! You cant expect to just load everything into the pan and walk away. I programmed a setting that I use for all of my breads and I alway use light crust. My pre programmed setting does not preheat since my ingredients are room temperature. My bread machine work so well that I have begun to make up my own recipes. You MUST watch the machine while it is mixing, if the dough is too crumbly, I add more liquid, if it sticks to the paddles, I add more flour. Really, it is goof proof! Unless you use too much yeast and it bakes to the top of the window 😀 Honestly, I am no professional and this is my first bread machine and it is TOTALLY AWESOME. I have 4 teenagers and they LOVE my bread… especially any kind that has chocolate in it. Most of my loaves are 2+ lbs and rise at least 2 inches above the pan. I would recommend this to everyone!

I like the Zojirushi best of the several bread machines worn out over the years. A bread machine reduces about 75% of the labor of making bread, making it easier for those with injuries/limitations. It also reduces the time required due to external weather conditions affecting the yeast. Although Zojirushi bakes bread well, I’ve always preferred convection or regular bake and adjusting traditional bread recipes for the bread machines. After living in tropic (dry and wet seasons), swampy states, northern states, and mountains, all I can say is may need to adjust recipes according to weather temperature and humidity. Had no trouble using store flour, but freshly milled wheat, buckwheat, etc has so much more flavor. One word of warning, secure that machine before violent dancing due to drier recipes.

@Katie Rendon: I doubt it’s the brand of mix you’re using. I suspect that this mix makes a small or medium loaf? That is, if you were to make a large bread using your own flour, you’d be measuring 3-4 cups of flour into your Zo (I have an X20). My guess, assuming nothing is wrong with your machine is that you will need to watch closely half way through the kneading process to be sure it has enough moisture, which will allow the dough to “flow” across the pan better and rise evenly. Also (after your machine beeps to add ingredients like nuts) and when it reaches the end and begins the rise cycle, you can also open the cover and use an oiled spatula to spread the dough across the bottom (gently) so that it “flows” across the pan bottom evenly if the moisture issue is not the problem. The Zo can make a very large loaf, so often the prepackaged mixes make smaller loaves. They’re convenient, but sometimes even with the two paddles on the Zo, I have to do this with small volume recipes, like the one I use to make soft 50/50 sandwich bread, which requires that I “proof” the yeast with water and sugar “before” adding the flour to the recipe (counterintuitive to the manufacturer’s instructions but the only way I can get soft and airy bread using whole grains. If used 4 cups of flour instead of the 3 cups called for in the recipe, the dough would overflow the pan because the proofing of the yeast produces more loft and more sponge-y texture in the bread. Doing it this way, I have no problem using King Arthur white/whole wheat bread flour and flaxseed meal to make good sandwich bread with a high fiber content. I also recommend using KA “whole grain bread improver” or a similar product. This helps improve the rise and the texture of bread that has whole wheat or other heavier grain content.

If spreading your dough in the pan with a spatula before the first rise does not help, check the dough later in the cycle too (after the first gas squeeze and at the very beginning of the second rise cycle) and VERY gently coax the dough across if it is sitting mostly to one side or the other. Having said all that, if those tips still don’t work, I would suggest two things: First, try to make your own bread using “bread” flour. If you live on the east coast, your King Arthur flour in stores will be relatively fresh, but if you live in the West as I do, your KA flour will have taken a long time to come across in unrefrigerated trucks and may have been exposed to 160 degree heat in the shipping process for extended periods and then sat on the shelf of your market for several months. I prefer ordering directly from the KA website and have it shipped to me from Vermont, and then I know it’s fresh as it comes double bagged. It does not ship to stores double bagged, so it is quite often, literally open to the air for weeks/months. You do not have to grind your own flour to get fresh flour, but be aware that the bread flour you buy may not be fresh at all. If you don’t want to order from KA or other flour supplier (I just happen to love them), you may want to find a local co-op and ask them where is a good place to get fresh ground bread flour. That may help your dough have better loft and “flow” more easily.

Alternately, while you’re troubleshooting, try removing the dough at the end of the second rise before baking begins, divide it up and place it in oiled cupcake pans and bake into rolls or shape into a loaf and bake in an oiled pan until you can figure out what’s going on. You didn’t mention anything about your dough consistency, moisture, what cylce you were using (try rapid bake for a mix would be my suggestion)… if you are at sea level or high alititude, this will make a difference too… This is the best I can do on the little info you submitted with your question… hope it helps.
Roxy

I bought my BBCC-X20 four years ago and its crust problem is my biggest complaint. As a result, I don’t bake in the machine, just use it for kneading.

The machine-baked loaves develop an unacceptably tough, thick , and overdone crust on the sides and bottom while the top crust is very light and just barely done. That’s on a medium setting. Using the light setting improves the bottom & sides somewhat but then the top is barely cooked. Using the dark setting cooks the top a bit more but then the bottom & sides are horribly overdone.

I ended up buying a Panasonic SD-YD250 last year to be my “summer” bread baking oven. It’s missing some of the Zo features , but it bakes better. The sides & bottom are only slightly darker than the top crust. So I use the Panasonic during the summer when the heat keeps me from wanting to use my oven, and I use my Zojirushi during the cooler months and bake in my regular oven.

Warning!—- If you need belts for the zojirushi you have to take it to a service center (or ship it them) and pay for them to put them in. You can not get belts for them. I wish someone had told me before I bought one. I will look for one that I can get parts for.

I have a Charlescraft bread machine that our son gave us for Christmas about 15 or 16 years ago. It’s big, bulky, and strong and still works really well. I could probably use it to mix cement, it’s so strong! It makes nice bread, but we find when slicing it up, the machine-baked slices are too big to fit into the toaster or sandwich bags. Also, the crusts turn out too thick for our liking. I now usually use the dough cycle and do the final rising and baking in the oven rather than the machine, but if I do bake the bread in the machine, I’ll put the still-warm loaf into a plastic bag to soften the crust and that’s fine. I would dearly love to replace this big old powerhouse Charlescraft machine with the lovely new Zojirushi-x20, but can’t justify the expense because there’s nothing wrong with the old one. It just won’t die! Does anyone else still have one of these things?

Zojirushi BB-CEC20 is great for making bread. I love adding dd chopped nuts, fruit, ground flax seed to the mixture.

Buyer Beware: My brand new (1 month old) Zojirushi breadmaker pan has such soft Teflon coating that 2 spots rubbed off after only FIVE loaves. No utensils have ever touched it, only bread dough. The company is NOT standing behind it — won’t even look at it — because I didn’t buy it through one of their preferred vendors. The replacement pan is $112! I would think they’d be trying to figure out what is wrong with my pan’s coating, but they don’t seem interested. They just keep saying that their coating is safe. I don’t think the life span of this pan is going to be very long, and expected more for the price.

i’ve had my zoji bbcc x-20 for about 4 years. it worked great at first. but about a year after i got it, the paddles started to get stiff, meaning,…they wouldnt turn as easily as they did when new. ( i always check the paddles by turning them by hand before i start making the bread). the past maybe, year and a half, one paddle would not budge after i would bake. my hubby had to coax it every time. yesterday, the paddle died! hubby couldnt fix it and i have to order another pan!! $65.25!!!
i paid over $200.00 for this machine expecting it to last more than 4 years! i could have bought a new bread machine every year for that price. zojirushi should be ashamed of themselves for producing an over priced product that doesnt last! shame, shame shame!