Love Bites

heart shaped cookies on dish with strawberries

Chocolate chip cookies and coffee must be a match made in cookie heaven, agree? I decided to combine the best of both worlds for Valentine’s, using the Recipe of the Year from King Arthur Flour® and Zojirushi’s newest coffee maker. The King Arthur Flour company claims to have baked over 1200 cookies to perfect this chocolate chip cookie recipe, and used over 38 pounds of butter in the process.

I didn’t use that much butter, but I did use a cookie cutter and my Zojirushi Toaster Oven to bake these lovelies.cookie cutters in heart shapes

I was worried about the cookie dough spreading out into an unrecognizable blob when it baked, so I simply baked them right in the mold. All it took was greasing the sides of each cutter, then baking like any batch of cookies.

If you like your cookies on the cakey side, this recipe is for you—you can find it on their site. I like mine chewy more than cakey, so I’ve had better IMHO. But they go great with coffee, so let’s segue into my new coffee maker, shall we?Zojirushi coffee brewer

First impressions — Zojirushi didn’t mess around with the design; it’s compact as can be for a 12-cup coffee maker. Fantastic use of optimal height, width and depth in a no-nonsense, sleek, small footprint design. I was happy to see a setting for brewing small amounts of coffee, which I experimented with immediately for my first test. I used grounds that I consider to be a cut above old school 1st wave but lower than craft coffee 3rd wave. If you’re a coffee snob you’ll know what I mean, and you’re probably into a 4th wave yourself.

I brewed only 4 cups, and the coffee was delicious! I tested the Taste Tuner feature that controls the brew strength and that worked too, turning my mid-level coffee beans into a pretty rich blend. I love the sound of percolating coffee.

A few years ago I reviewed my Zojirushi Breadmaker by baking a crazy looking Rainbow Bread with it, kinda going overboard with the food coloring in the process. I decided to tone it down for this Valentine’s, but not by much — ha ha!hand rolling pink and white dough together

I just used the Homemade Course on my Breadmaker to make the dough first, then flattened it out and rolled the two colors together as tightly as I could.

The dough should look something like this when it’s rolled up.rolled dough pink and white

The Homemade Course allows you the time to do this step in between the knead and rise cycle, so when you’re done you simply put the dough back into the baking pan and start the baking cycle again. I would advise you take out the kneading blade at this point because it’s no longer kneaded (get it?). You want to minimize the hole at the bottom of your bread.

Bake according to regular White Bread instructions and the Breadmaker does the rest. Look…look into my bread…are you getting sleepy? Watch the pretty pink spirals go round and round and round. When you wake up you can eat it for breakfast; trust me, it’ll be delicious.

pink swirl bread

What do you guys have planned for Valentine’s? How about a picnic or a brisk hike in the woods; maybe you have kids who play sports like we did and you spend a lot of time following them around, sitting on cold metal bleachers while you watch them for hours. The good ‘ol days! I don’t regret them — it was fun. We didn’t have Zojirushi Food Jars back then, but I wish we did. We would have made clam chowder like here, and packed a hot soup snack.clam chowder soup in food jars

I’m not gonna lie, I was already expecting the thermal insulation to be top notch (it’s Zojirushi after all), but I didn’t expect it to blow me away like it did. We heated and packed this soup in the afternoon at around 2pm, and we had it for dinner at 6:30. It was literally too hot to eat without blowing on it to keep it from burning my tongue. Maybe it was the type of soup too—clam chowder is thick and retains heat well. We also pre-heated the food jars which also probably helped.

Are these the perfect His & Her food jars? These might be the best designed jars that Zojirushi has made yet—minimalistic yet very sleek, in muted colors for sophisticated boys and girls. Lots of features in these new food jars; a better insulated, one-piece lid that’s easier to clean, and it’s designed to relieve the pressure build-up from hot foods when you open it. I even liked the octagonal packaging. Pretty cool.blue and pink food jars shown with packaging

Well, that’s it for me this month–have a great Valentine’s everyone!

Products used in this post: Micom Toaster Oven ET-ZLC30, Home Bakery Maestro® Breadmaker BB-SSC10, Dome Brew Programmable Coffee Maker EC-ESC120, Stainless Steel Food Jars SW-KA40 and SW-KA52H

Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.

All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2024

Product Inspirations –
Home Bakery Virtuoso® Plus Breadmaker (BB-PDC20) – December 2019

It is the perfect season for baking, and we’d like to share our flagship breadmaker, the Home Bakery Virtuoso® Plus Breadmaker (BB-PDC20) with you this month.

2-lb automatic breadmaker bakes a horizontal loaf

The Home Bakery Virtuoso® Plus has a smart mix of the best features traditionally found in our breadmakers along with new, healthy menu settings. It makes traditional, rectangular, 2-lb loaves and also has settings to mix dough, create sourdough starter and make cakes and jam. It features 14 pre-programmed course settings along with a Homemade setting that allows you to store up to three custom settings.

Easy-to-read key code on lid for course selection

The course settings work by altering the time the breadmaker kneads the ingredients, allows them to rise, and bakes them to the desired crust. Each course setting sets a different time for each function based on the type of bread to be made, ranging from classic White, Wheat and European breads to health-conscious options like Gluten Free, Salt Free and Vegan breads. A rapid course setting allows you to bake a loaf of White or Whole Wheat bread in just two hours and 25 minutes!

Easy-to-use control panel

Along with the pre-programmed course settings, the Home Bakery Virtuoso® Plus comes with a special Homemade course, which allows you to input up to three of your own custom recipes and store your own knead, rise, and bake times.

Cakes, jam and sourdough starter is just as easy to make as bread and dough. Simply add in the ingredients, select the appropriate course setting and let the breadmaker work. Detailed instructions can be found in the easy-to-read instruction manual that comes with the machine.

The easy-to-use LCD control panel and convenient key-code make it easy to choose the course setting, select the crust color – from light to dark – and set the optional 13-hour delay timer. Our website features seven videos with how-to tutorials for using the breadmaker to its fullest. Learn about How to Measure Ingredients, How to Make Bread, How to Set the Clock and Timer and How to Clean and Store among other great tips.

Homemade loaf of bread

In order to make these delicious foods, the Home Bakery Virtuoso® Plus utilizes heating elements in the lid and bottom of the machine, promoting even baking and browning. It has dual kneading blades that rest inside the baking pan and do a great job of mixing all of the ingredients. The baking pan is removable and nonstick coated which makes it easy to remove your delicious creations from the pan.

Both the pan and blades are easy to clean, and all surfaces that come into contact with food are BPA-free. Accessories include a full-color recipe booklet with 50 delicious recipes, nested measuring cups for dry ingredients, a liquid measuring cup and a measuring spoon.

Baking pan with dual kneading blades

All of these smart features are nothing compared to the food the Home Bakery Virtuoso® Plus makes! You can find many recipes on our website in the Breadmakers section but we wanted to share our favorites from the recipe booklet. The Multigrain Raisin Bread is to die for, as is the Italian Herb Bread. We love the Breadsticks and the traditional Pizza Dough. And no one can go wrong with Pound Cake! The truly amazing surprises are our suggestions for the Homemade course. You have to try the Meatloaf Miracle and the Tomato Pasta. And when you do, be sure to come back to our website or our Instagram page and share your creation with us!

Happy Holidays and good baking to you all! See you in 2020!

Product Inspirations – Home Bakery Maestro™ Breadmaker (BB-SSC10)

It’s time to get baking, and we’re so excited to introduce our newest premium breadmaker: the Home Bakery Maestro Breadmaker.

We’ve created this breadmaker to make 1-pound loaves of bread, doughs, cakes, jams or your own creations, and have loaded it with healthy course settings. And we’ve designed this breadmaker with our newest innovations.

The Home Bakery Maestro Breadmaker features 15 courses, each of which alter the mixing, kneading, rising and baking functions according to the type of food to be made. Ten bread settings include traditional courses like White and Whole Wheat, as well as new settings for healthy baking, such as Multigrain, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Salt Free and Vegan. The breadmaker also includes four specific courses for Bread/Pizza Dough, Pasta Dough, Cake and Jam. One of the most unique features of this breadmaker is the Homemade course, which allows you to customize the knead, rise and bake time as well as store up to three custom programs to match your own homemade recipes.

The Home Bakery Maestro Breadmaker also comes with a new Auto Add Dispenser, which automatically adds ingredients such as dried fruit and nuts during the knead cycle.

No matter which setting you choose, the Home Bakery Maestro Breadmaker uses double heaters built into the bottom of the breadmaker to rapidly heat the interior of the baking pan to facilitate oven spring, helping to make breads with an airy crumb and a superior crust.

The easy-to-read LCD control panel and convenient key code on the lid make it simple to choose the course setting, select the crust color and set the delay timer. And cleaning is simple, as the baking pan, kneading blade and Auto-Add Dispenser are all removable so they can be cleaned with mild dish detergent and warm water. The sturdy handle makes it easy to move and store. Accessories include a full color recipe booklet with 50 delicious recipes, a liquid measuring cup and measuring spoon. All surfaces that come into contact with your food are BPA-free.

This compact breadmaker comes in a modern white finish, perfect for any kitchen decor.

But what kinds of goodies can the Maestro make? Health-conscious recipes include salt-free and sugar-free breads, like Salt Free Whole Wheat Bread and Sugar Free Whole Wheat Bread. Gluten-free breads are also easy to make in this breadmaker, especially ones like Gluten Free Brown Rice Bread. And our new setting for vegan breads includes a great recipe for Vegan Cranberry Walnut Bread where you can add the dried cranberries and walnuts using the Auto Add Dispenser. Recipes such as Lemon Cake, Quick Cheese ‘n’ Onion Bread, Blueberry Jam, Naan, Spinach Pasta and Whole Wheat Pizza Dough are just as easy to make.

Try out our new breadmaker, and find how-to videos and more recipes on the Home Bakery Maestro™ Breadmaker (BB-SSC10) website, exclusively for this new machine. And don’t forget to share your recipes with us!