My new Japanese friends asked me to buy Panasonic SD-BMT1000. They did not have to persuade me much when I heard that this imported bread machine can make mochi. My favorite Japanese dessert!
This bread maker looks extremely elegant. I got mine in a color that is best described as a blend of purple and brown, a color that is not often seen with bread machines. It cost me quite a bit, but Panasonic bread machines have always convinced me with their quality and technology.
However, I find myself helpless before this bread machine to begin with. I barely managed to use three or four of the menu options! This is because I did not expect the instructions to be only in Japanese. Even the YouTube video for using this bread maker has narration in Japanese!
Recipes did not bother me, since I’ve got plenty of bread machine recipes already, but it did not feel good to be using only the four setting options out of 34. Yes, a whopping 34! I wish I had bothered to learn to read Japanese. Fortunately my friends helped me with the display and I labeled the buttons in English.
On the bright side, the bread from this bread maker is perfect. I’ve tried my hand at several types of loaves and they come out beautifully every time. The bread, however, takes longer to bake. One large loaf took me almost 3 hours for baking.
My kid says that the bread from this bread maker stands erect like the Statue of Liberty. The truth is that this bread maker does not make horizontal bread.
As soon as I was able to figure things out, I made mochi. I can eat a lot of that stuff! Finally I don’t have to go to Japanese restaurants for good mochi. I ended up translating the recipes after all, since I wanted to make udon, compote, melon pan and all the alluring food this bread machine claims to make!
I was able to make good pizza with this and I actually learned how to make chocolate on my own using this very bread maker. It takes just about 17 minutes for making chocolate. Marble bread is another recipe I’ve tried intuitively, and succeeded in making. This is just too good to be true.
I have, thanks to one of my friends, learned how to set the timer too. The timer in this bread machine can be set for a 13-hour delay.
I do wish that Panasonic would do something about the language in instruction booklet as well as the LCD display. Without English anywhere, I feel like fish out of water. But to be fair, this bread machine makes a ton of stuff and makes them good too, so if you care to figure out the settings on your own or if you can read some basic Japanese, the Panasonic SD-BMT1000 is a really good bread machine to get!
