This summer I used mine for making quick breads. It was so hot, it beat heating up the whole oven for one loaf of banana bread. No special recipes, just my usual favorite on the quick bread cycle. Mostly banana bread, since SO ALWAYS buys too many bananas!

I get all my recipes from "The Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger.

Of the yeast breads, SO and I love oatmeal bread the most it seems. That's seems to come out the best for us of all the breads we've tried so far. We use the bread machine as a major money saver since we like the more expensive whole grain breads. I just use the dough cycle and bake in the oven. Except I just broke my oven last weekend, :(. I shorted out something fairly important by exposing it to too much steam while canning. Now the temp. setting doesn't work, and I have no idea how to even get at it to fix it. My next stove will have the controls on the front, not the back!!

My two other faves not from the book are Annie's Cherry Yogurt bread and her Maple Oatmeal bread.

I use my Zojirushi for making dough and bake in my Solar Oven or my Sharp Convection/Microwave. I make all our breads using freshly-milled flour (including burger and hot dog buns, English Muffins, sandwich buns...). The only loaf I bake in the bread machine is the Low-Carb bread recipe I've been working on for my carb-sensitive diabetic friend. The only way she will make it is if she can use her Zojirushi bread machine, so that's where I do the testing.

A Zo does a better job kneading dough than a stand mixer - which tends to aerate the dough too much. When King Arthur Test Kitchens did a side-by-side test with 100% whole wheat bread using a Zo for making the dough and a stand mixer, the Zo loaf was at least an inch taller than the loaf made with a stand mixer. I know my 100% whole wheat loaves are as high-rising as any loaf of white bread.

-Grainlady

I only use my bread machine to make the dough - I always take it out, shape it by hand, and bake it in my conventional oven.

Here are two of my favorite recipes:

BAVARIAN PRETZEL BREAD FOR ABM

1-1/3 cups warm water
2 Tblsp. milk
1 tsp. salt
2-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 Tblsp. butter, melted
4 cups all-purpose flour

Place all ingredients in bread machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Use dough cycle. Remove dough from machine; divide in halves. Place in greased loaf pans and let rise until doubled in bulk. Bake in 375 degree F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until done.

HEAVENLY ROLLS FOR BREAD MACHINE

1 cup milk
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp. salt
3 cups bread flour
1 cup wheat flour OR use all bread flour
2-1/2 tsp. yeast

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order recommended and use the dough cycle.

Remove the dough from the machine when cycle is complete. Knead gently on a lightly floured surface.

Divide and shape into 24 smooth round rolls.

Place the rolls about 3/4-inch apart on a greased cookie sheet.

Cover the dough with a cloth and allow it to double in a warm place.

Bake for about 18 minutes. Brush with butter or a mixture of butter and honey while still warm from the oven.

You may also freeze the shaped dough before baking it, then allow to thaw in refrigerator overnight and then remove from refrigerator and let stand covered about 45 minutes until doubled.

I have an old bread maker that I don't use anymore either.
I think I would use one if I kept it out on the counter all the time but it's not something I want out. The old one was extremely noisy too. I do keep the KA mixer and FP out all the time and between those and no knead bread, I don't miss the bread maker at all. Every once in awhile though I get an urge to get a good Z. bread maker but then we don't eat as much bread as we used to and I don't need to be eating loaves!

A few more questions about bread makers. I know when I make "regular" bread, I don't bother with bread flour most of the time. Is it essential to use bread flour for bread machines. Will it affect the gluten (crumb?) if I don't use it.

I seem to remember there being yeast specifically for bread machines too. Same question. I use "regular" yeast when I bake bread now. Is it essential to use bread machine yeast when using the bread maker?

Sister got bread machine as gift MANY years ago. She made a LOT of bread until the novelty wore off. BUT she still has it and uses it just about every week for "Pizza Friday"... tosses everything in before headiing to work and sets to do its dough-thing. I bought one a while ago at a yard sale... cheap and looked pretty much unused. Used it for a while, was satisfied with results, but took up too much space. Know once something gets sent to the "dungeon" (shelf in garage)... it rarely gets used.

I have a basic KA stand mixer with dough hook... that's what I use for any dough.

booberry85-

Before the bread machine made it's way into the kitchen, we never heard of high-protein bread flour, vital wheat gluten, and several other ingredients such as bread improvers.... that all came about with the advent of the bread machine.

There is more than enough gluten in most National Brands of All-Purpose Flour (Pillsbury and Gold Medal) to make a great loaf of bread - we did it for decades before we had high-gluten bread flour in stores. We have some Kansas-produced all-purpose flours (Hudson Cream - Stafford Co. and W&R in McPherson, KS) that are also great used for making yeast breads. If you use King Arthur All-Purpose or Robin Hood, they actually have a higher gluten level than most National Brands.

What you might find using all-purpose flour is that you need to add a little more flour to the recipe. But that's something we always have to contend with once the bread machine has worked the dough for 5-minutes, or so. Check the dough to see if we need to add some liquid or flour to make sure the dough is the nice soft ball consistency.

Bread Machine Yeast is just another version of an instant or fast-acting yeast (others are SAF-Instant, Red Star Quick-Rise and Fleischmann's Rapid-Rise). An instant yeast is necessary for making bread on the QUICK cycle (1-hour or less - depending on your machine) - because it eliminates one rise. Most recipe books will give you one amount of yeast if using the QUICK cycle and an instant/fast-acting yeast, and another amount if you use the longer cycle and opt to use Active Dry Yeast. Or you use 25% less of an instant/fast-acting yeast when you need to substitute it for Active Dry Yeast - or your bread could over-proof.

-Grainlady

I'm with Grainlady on this one - I only use all-purpose flour and active dry yeast.

I third that, I never buy bread flour or bread machine yeast. I use all purpose and plain whole wheat or rye or whatever and I buy yeast in bulk at Sam's Club in two one pound packages. one goes in the freezer, the other in a quart jar in my refrigerator. I bake all our bread and rolls and buns, I don't buy it.

As grainlady pointed out, my honey wheat will rise as high as white does. I don't bake in the bread machine, it "steams" the crust and I don't like that. I use the bread machine to knead and then I shape it and let it rise, bake it in the oven. Cinnamon rolls, burger buns, dinner rolls, sandwich loaves, all in the bread machine.

I use whatever recipe I have, I don't use just "special" bread machine recipes, adn they've all come out fine.

Elery's favorite is honey wheat, I like the maple oatmeal, the Princess likes the Friesan bread from the Bernard Clayton Bread book that Readinglady sent me, with chunks of crushed sugar cubes and cinnamon.

I also made a tomato bread last week that called for 3 1/2 cups of chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup of the tomato "goo/juice" along with about half a cup of fresh herbs. It wasn't a bread machine recipe and I was afraid it wouldn't be wete enough, but it turned out extremely well.

I always check the dough after the knead cycle starts and add more flour or more liquid as needed. I always did that with regular recipes kneaded by hand too, it all depends on the flour and the humidity and a bunch of factors.

Annie

Thanks so much Grainlady, Pat T & Annie for answering my questions. Maybe I'll dust that thing off and have it do some mixing & kneading for me.