Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW Home Bakery Review

One of the newest high-quality bread makers on the market right now — imported all the way from Japan — is the Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW Home Bakery.

This isn’t quite the latest model in the Panasonic line, but it has an impressive array of features that make it stand out against its competitors, and with this investment, you can really take your homemade bread to the next level.

Sporting some incredible Japanese engineering and a userface that’s incredibly easy to work, this bread maker is good for both beginners and expert bread chefs who want the option of more complex baking options and who want to recreate the fluffy and delicious goods of a Japanese bakery.

This particular Home Bakery machine is a luxury, high-end model, so it is a bit pricier than most, but you’ll likely find your money well-spent if you’re looking for something reliable that you can use over and over again without wearing it down.

The most notable downside to this bread machine is that the LCD menu and user manual is in… Japanese. We’ve found an English and a Chinese translation, however, so this shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience.

For now, let’s take a closer look at what the Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW Home Bakery can offer.

Panasonic Home Bakery: The Details

In a Nutshell

• Weight: 13.7 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12 x 13.6 x 13.6 inches
• Loaf Capacity: 1 lb.
• Settings: 32 built-in recipe programs, yeast and raisin/nut dispenser, LCD display
• Timer: Up to 13-hour delay, baking times ranging from 8 minutes to 9 hours
• Stand-Out Feature: Easy, one-punch menu options

Features

This model has some amazing features that showcase why it’s such a high-end item.

It’s a well known foodie fact that Japan does bread well — now you can create the fluffiest and most delicious bread that your friends and family won’t believe isn’t straight from a Japanese bakery!

Menu

The big benefit to this Panasonic Home Bakery is the fine-tuned range of menu items, which lets the machine do most of the work in making anything from French bread, to rice cakes, to scones and warm, fruity jam.

The specificity is amazing, and ensures that you’ll never get bored with what the Home Bakery can do. This model has two new additions from the earlier 105 model: soy scones and French rice bread.

Here are a few other baking settings you can choose from:

• 60 minutes bread
• Whole wheat bread
• Brioche
• Marble Bread
• Bagel
• Croissant
• Soft bread
• Pizza dough
• Pasta dough
• Mochi
• Jam
• Compote
• Dumpling skin dough

The 1001 model, which is even newer than the Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW, has four extra features, but in terms of bread quality, they’re nearly identical.

Delay Timer

The timer works on a long delay, so you can mix your dough, set up your bread maker, and program it to start only at certain hours. This allows you to wake up or come home to the smell of freshly baked bread, and you can rest easy knowing that the bread will come out right every time.

(One tip: test out this feature the first few times when you’re at home, just until you know how to work the machine, to ensure it doesn’t overheat).

Loaf Size

This Home Bakery model is fairly small, so most of your loaves will come out to about a pound. There may be some variation depending on what bread you’re trying, but it’s not as wildly versatile as some other machines.

Raisin Dispenser

This machine has an automatic raisin dispenser, so no more waiting to put in your auxiliary ingredients midway through (unless it’s cheese or chocolate. Sorry, but the raisin dispenser is built for keeping large raisins, nuts, or fruit intact, so don’t put anything is the dispenser that is meant to melt!).

Automatic Yeast Dispenser

The Panasonic Home Bakery comes equipped with an automatic yeast dispenser that will drop the yeast into the bread mixture at exactly the right time.

The yeast is added in slowly to get the perfect rise.

No Viewing Window

There’s no window to see the bread rise in real time, but this is a good thing as far as having an even bake goes.

Not having a viewing window ensures that the bake is more consistent overall, since the heat is evenly distributed.

If you do want to open the lid and peek in, you may lose that glorious even bake — but it can be fun to watch all the same. Here’s a look at the machine in action:

Non-Stick Removable Pan

The bread pan is made of teflon metal, which helps prevent sticking. You can remove the bread pan at any time for easy cleaning (soaking it in warm water is the best option).

To pull the bread out to cool, just remove the pan by the handle and gently slide the bread out onto a plate (be sure to have some heavy oven mitts with you for the job).

Panasonic SD-BMS106- NW Review

The Positives

Overall, this is a solid bread maker, with more than enough features to make it worth the money. Let’s get into the details…

Creates Excellent Quality Bread

We were seriously impressed by the bread we create in the Panasonic Home Bakery — light, fluffy with a crunchy crust and just the perfect consistency.

We didn’t manage to try every single baking program, but we very much enjoyed the ones that we did.

Lots of Creative Freedom

With 32 built-in recipe programs to choose from, you can really go crazy with the Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW.

There’s seriously enough here to start up your own bakery!

In addition to the usual bread programs, there are the multiple doughs available as well as a few wildcards — scones, for instance, pasta and dumpling dough. Amazing!

Easy to Use

You may think that this is counter intuitive considering the LCD screen and user manual are in Japanese, but we’ve found an English version of the user manual for the Panasonic SD-PT1001 which is very similar indeed to the SD-BMS106-NW (it’s just the next model up).

The automated features streamline the baking process so much that you’ll feel like you hardly have to lift a finger. With all the options at your disposal, you can adjust for dark, crunchy crust and a soft interior while retaining just the right consistency, so that your bread won’t end up looking like a collapsed, flaky mess.

Durable 

The menu options are packed with flavor, and unlike some bread makers, the Home Bakery has staying power and shouldn’t wear down over time. Your twentieth loaf will be just as fresh and springy as your first.

This is definitely a plus considering the reasonably high price of the machine.

Light and Portable

This Home Bakery is far more lightweight than the Zojirushi Virtuoso models, which means it has a relatively small loaf capacity, but its upright design and sturdy handle makes it highly portable and easy to lift. It even has a small compartment where you can store the power cord.

Everything about the machine is made for easy storage and portability, without sacrificing baking quality.

The Negatives

Everything is in Japanese!

Unfortunately, it may take some time to find your way around the user manual and menu. Because it’s a Japanese import, the menu options are set to Japanese by default, and the only other widely available manual is in Chinese.

The best way to get to know your machine is through Panasonic’s Hong Kong site, which offers an English version of the standard features and links to some handy tutorial videos that will help. You can find their main site here: http://bit.ly/2mtWDoa. And the English manual for the newer Panasonic Home Bakery (the 1001) is here: http://bit.ly/2mc1QjB.

The machines are very similar, with just a few additional features on the 1001, so you shouldn’t have any trouble, especially since the manual is presented in such a simple, straightforward way. Minimal technological skills needed.

You May Need a Transformer

This model also uses 100v and is not designed to work at full capacity outside Japan, so it’s possible you may need to invest in a transformer/voltage converter to make sure it works in your home, although this may not be necessary.

These are fairly cheap and can be purchased at any department store.

No Gluten Free Baking

If you’re hoping to make gluten-free bread, the Panasonic Home Bakery is not the best option. Several recipes make use of low-gluten flour, but Panasonic recommends avoiding these if you’re allergic to gluten.

One possible substitute is to replace low-gluten flour with muffin mix when the recipe calls for you to combine the flour with sugar and baking powder, which Panasonic recommends in its user manual.

Some users have had success by using gluten-free sandwich bread mix or gluten-free wholegrain mix as alternatives.

If you’re familiar with using bread makers without gluten, you might be able to customize your recipes and combine ingredients, but you won’t get any pre-set options with this machine, unfortunately.

Overall Verdict

We highly recommend the Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW, with a few caveats.

It’s incredibly versatile and great for experimenting, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to get excellent bread every time.

Although it’s a little on the small side and might not get a very wide reach with its price and limited Japanese market, it’s worth it for bread aficionados who want reliability, quality, and portability.

Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Where to Buy the Panasonic SD-BMS106-NW

Searching high and low across the interwebs, the only place we’ve found that sells this Panasonic Home Bakery machine to the US is on Amazon. Check it out!