We had a Panasonic for a little over 20 years and bought this one because the pan on the old one froze up. I didn't know at the time that I could replace the pan so we threw out the machine. BIG MISTAKE!
We baked only 100% whole wheat bread using the sandwich mode on the old machine and it turned out a perfect, soft and delicious bread. I contacted Panasonic after several failures with the new machine and they informed me that it will not do 100% whole wheat bread and does not have the sandwich mode anymore.
So...now we have a $200.00 dough maker that I use and I have to bake the bread in the oven in order to get it to rise properly and bake through. Every loaf I tried in the machine was heavy, wet and fell after rising. No amount of experimentation changed that. VERY DISSAPOINTING!!
Bottom line is if you are going to bake other breads it might be ok, I don't know. However if you prefer whole grains forget this machine.
Being somewhat big on whole wheat bread, it's disappointing to find out this machine can only handle 30% whole wheat whereas most other competitors have that capability to make 100% whole wheat including gluten free bread. What's really puzzling is the fact that Panasonic UK has 2 breadmakers that were released the past few months in UK to handle 100% whole wheat. Called Panasonic USA customer service about the lack of this 100% whole wheat feature and was told this SD-RD250 machine is several years old and likely a new model may be coming out soon to include the 100% whole wheat capability as well as other features. They said they have received quite a few requests to have this 100% whole wheat feature included. Of course they won't say exactly when the new model with the new added features will be available. Since we are into 100% whole wheat, we've decided to return this product and wait for the new model. The other negative I find is the dispenser is simply too small to hold enough (e.g. raisins or nuts) for a medium size loaf, let alone a large or extra large loaf. Probably fine for a small loaf but there's no setting for a small loaf. It would be nice if the machine would provide a warning beep to allow the adding of raisin, nut or whatever manually. At least that way, you can add as much as you want.
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EDIT UPDATE: an XL loaf weighed 2 lbs 11.5 oz
I never thought that I would be so excited about an item but I truly was. I underestimated our technology because I didn't realize that you could now stick dry ingredients into a machine and a few hours later beautiful crusty soft bread pops out! WOW! Gone are the laborious & boring tasks of kneading, kneading, leaving to rise and eventually kneading again which would take away half of your afternoon. It just isn't great time management in our busy lives this day in age, to spend it preparing and baking a loaf of bread.
Hubby attempted his first loaf (ever!) the moment the box arrived. At first glance, the machine is on the large-ish side as I suspected it would be. You could leave it on a counter but if you are limited on space as we are it just wouldn't be feasible; unless you were truly making a loaf of bread a day.
There is an instructional guide with all the tidbits of info you may need on the machine's settings and problems that may occur with solutions. There are even a variety of recipes to get you started in the bread baking world. The machine's strong points are the fact that it will do all the work and provide you with a loaf of bread after a minimum couple of hours. I am very excited to try the pasta and pizza dough settings. As far as baking, I will leave that to my trusty oven. It is still a wonderfully feature packed machine that also has a fruit/nut dispenser.
We provided pictures of our first attempt at a loaf of Pepperoni and Provolone Cheese bread. The options selected were Bake Rapid, XL loaf & Dark Crust. The selected options took a total of 1 hour & 55 minutes. Preparation was 5 minutes including pressing the selected options mentioned above and the start button. Once the bread is done, the machine will beep 8 times and you are informed by the guide that it must be removed immediately and placed on a wire rack. We had to wait a bit after removing for our bread to cool down so that removal of the kneading tool would be easy. According to the directions, if your kneading tool is stuck in the bottom of your bread then you may need 20-30 more mLs' of water. We were a bit impatient so that is why we chose the Rapid Bake option lowering the total time to 1.55 opposed to 4 hrs. Next time we will attempt the longer cooking time and see what the difference in taste and quality shall be. The machine does vibrate a bit while it is kneading, but it isn't noisy in the least. At one point I was concerned because I got a hint of "burning motors" smell, but I suspect that it may be because it was the first time it was used.
Hubby's first loaf was DIVINE! We love bread in our household to the point of being able to polish off a whole loaf in one sitting. The bread was crusty on the outside and softy/fluffy in the center with little tidbits of spicy pepperoni and herbs sprinkled throughout. While it was baking it smelled very much like a pepperoni roll. Our dogs and kitten stood below the machine sniffing at the air... that is how much the aroma permeated our household. When it was finally removed and cooled we made turkey sandwiches and there are only 3 slices left today. It was that good!! The XL was a great size for our family of 5, but it would be overwhelming for a single person or small family. I am not sure how the bread stores because we don't have any left.
Options for baking bread:
Dough type: Basic or French
Baking speed: Bake or Bake Rapid
Size: Medium or XL
Crust: Light or Dark
Timer: When you want a loaf to be ready at a certain time up to 13 hours later.
Options for making Dough:
Dough Type: Basic, French or Pizza
Option: Dough
If you choose Pizza then you skip Dough type and go straight to start.
No timer because with these options(other than pizza) you must shape the finished dough and allow it to rise and then bake in oven.
Options for making Pasta:
Select: Pasta
Rest dough for 1 hr in the refrigerator before cutting.
No timer option
Option for Baking Cakes:
Select: Bake Only
Select: Baking Time
No timer option
Total baking time cannot exceed 90 minutes.
Highly recommend for bread lovers that would like to have control of what goes in their bread. Also recommended for families/individuals that like fresh bread daily. It is wonderful to be able to make a loaf and not have to go through all of the babysitting and effort that accompanies making fresh bread. True time saver with wonderful results.
INCLUDED IS A 1 year warranty... wish it was longer!
Read Best Reviews of Panasonic SD-RD250 Bread Maker with Automatic Fruit & Nut Dispenser Here
My research on the internet leads me to believe the Panasonic bread maker is the better, if not the best, machine... I really want one, but recently, I let Panasonic know my money may be going to the competition unless they start offering a North American version of the SD-257WXC:The SD-RD250 is good but can't deal with whole (100%) grains and is a lesser machine when compared to the SD-257WXC; I find it perplexing Panasonic would offer the better machine in Europe and Australia but not in North America????
Read the reviews on Panasonic's European machines, the SD-255 and the newer SD-257, and I think you'll agree we're getting the lesser machine.
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I've been making bread twice a week since I bought this bread maker six months ago. It's effortless compared to my previous bread maker. I bought this newer version of their popular bread maker, even though it had fewer reviews because it seemed to be just a newer versiondate and because I felt Panasonic probably tweaked their older model to improve the quality. Even though there weren't a lot of recipes that came with the bread maker, I've found that once I have made one type of bread successfully a few times, I could vary the basic recipe and still come out with quality loaves of bread.
With my machine, I found that I had to drop the amount of water by 3/4 of an ounce for a perfect loaf. I also altered the amount a yeast very slightly because I dropped the amount of salt in recipe (to decrease our salt intake in our diet). This is what I do to make sure I have a good loaf of bread:
Weigh, don't measure ingredients.
Use bulk white and wheat flour made for breadmakers...it seems to be fresher.
I melt my butter prior to measuring the amount.
I flour all dried fruits that I cut up to place in the dispenser so that the fruit doesn't clump up in the bread or stick to the dispenser lid.
Since I enjoy fruit/nut bread, I have increased the amount of dried fruit/nuts that I add for a loaf of bread. I can put up to 5 1/2ounces in a loaf without affecting the amount of rise in the loaf. Usually, I am only limited by the amount of space in the dispenser.
I always set an alarm to remind me to take the loaf out when it's done. Using the "light" bread setting, I often take the bread out five minutes early to get the lighter crust that I enjoy.
When baking a loaf, don't ever open the bread maker top to take a peak. The bread will be fine.
July 2012 Update
It's hard for me to even eat store-bought bread anymore because of the great loaves this machine makes. I am experimenting with various recipes with my machine. I have made various fruit breads, as well as walnut, sliced almond, peanut, and pumpkin seed bread. For fruit bread, try a raisin and dried pineapple. Walnut bread is wonderful. I just stick to the basic bread loaf (I use the whole wheat recipe which is 1/3 whole wheat flour but I've made a 50/50 blend as well). I also make an oat bread by adding 1 cup of quick oats and increasing the water content to 14 ounces. I tend to take my bread out about 5 minutes early for a light moist loaf. I don't like to use sugar so have found that using molasses creates a better loaf than honey. I wish that there was a more extensive recipe list for this machine but it's easy to experiment successfully just altering the basic recipes.
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If you buy this part, make sure you give it 24 hours to work. I was expecting it to start working right away as soon as I installed it. I was very frustrated when I didn't see the dial start to spin when installed. I actually took the part out and sent it back thinking it was defective. Well it turns out the part has an internal thermostat that has to get cold to the right temperature in order to kick the icemaker on. They failed to leave out this very important bit of information. The common lay person would never know this. So don't send it back, give it 24hrs to work!
