Karen - Just yesterday I cracked my "Bread Machines for Dummies" in an effort to finally motivate to try my bread machine. Here's a paraphrased version of their recipe. Obviously not T&T but I'd expect it to be reliable. Dump in room temp ingredients in the following order: 1 cup water 2T olive oil 1t salt 4t sugar 3 cups flour 2.25t active dry yeast Select Dough or Manual setting. Once cycle is complete, shape into a ball on lightly floured surface. Place on greased cookie sheet and flatten to a 10" circle. Prick with a fork. Arrange toppings (suggestions are thinly sliced roasted pepper, sun-dried tomato, red onions, olives, green pepper, sesame seeds, sauteed onions with sugar and salt) and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle Italian seasoning, S&P to taste. Cover and let rise about 15 min. Bake in preheated 375 oven for 25 to 30 min. Good luck!

I see hardly used bread machines at garage sales all the time. Going prices are $2-$10. I have a cheapy--regal or rival, I forget. Have never used a Zo so I may be missing out on something. Don't know. I've been mostly happy with my cheapy (a little bummed because the WW cycle doesn't work) and, as I venture more & more into no-knead/ lo knead artisan type breads w/ long ferments, I have less & less use for the bread machine. However, I did use it twice this past weekend--for cinnamon roll dough and as soon as that was out of the bucket, I loaded it up to make pasta dough for lasagna ndls. I would definitely suggest picking up a second hand machine on the cheap to see how a bread machine fits into your cooking routine before plunking down a lot of $ for the more exotic makers. (BTW, I have seen one Zo at a garage sale & mighta' bought it if I hadn't already bought a lot of stuff that day...so you could luck into one of the pricier machines for cheap.)

It's really difficult to start up a home business--you have to be properly registered, you have to keep impeccable records, charge and pay the appropriate taxes. And when you decide to do something in the food line? Multiply the red tape by ten. You'd probably better start with the health department. In many jurisdictions, it's not legal to bake/cook food in a home kitchen for sale--if that's true where you live, you'll need to find an approved commercial kitchen to rent--and that's going to cut into your profits. Look, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I've done the home business thing--many years ago, and it didn't involve food. It turned into a nightmare. You have to do every little tiny thing by the book. Perhaps check in with the agency that promotes small businesses in your area. Or what about contacting a restaurant or two, to see if they might be interested in paying you to come to THEIR locations to bake your bread for their use--you might have to do that in the middle of the night, when they aren't preparing meals, but it might be an interesting solution. Pack up some samples of your best wares and visit some of the local independents. Good luck, but please be sure to do all your research before jumping into something that could end up costing you more than you'll make. And hey, if you're good at creating recipes? I'd highly recommend considering recipe contesting. That costs you next to nothing, and can bring in truly big bucks (I've made up to $25,000 for a single recipe, some contests pay even more).

I've always found my bread machine to be very forgiving. Yes you often can tweak with the dough. Another thought is that you might not be using a recipe for a big enough loaf. You might need to go up a size if it's really small but tastes right. That would explain the smaller amount of yeast and the small loaves. Are you using recipes that were designed for that machine or generic ones? Most of the generic ones seem to be for 1# loaves that I've seen anyway. The other thing I found that makes a big difference is I warm the pan by filling it with hot water for a minute or two before use. Putting the small amount of warm water in there can easily be cooled down by the pan and room temp. Here's one of my favorites and it fills my ABM nicely and with good yeast (just test it - yeast lasts a long time if kept refrigerated or frozen) and with a warm pan. Pepperoni Bread It's like a loaf of pizza! 1 C + 2 T water 2 T sugar 3 C bread flour 1-1/2 t garlic salt 2/3 C pepperoni slices chopped 1-1/2 T italian seasoning 1/3 C mozzarella cheese 1-3/4 t yeast (I usually add a little more, maybe 2t total?) Optional: Fresh ground pepper depending on what's in the italian seasoning. When placing the pepperoni in, mix into the flour to coat the chunks. Use a basic white cycle and a dark crust for best results (on my machine anyway). Do not use timed cycle for this bread. When done, remove and cool on a rack. Heat some pizza sauce or tomato sauce mixed with garlic salt and italian seasoning and use for dunking to serve as an appetizer. ItÂs delicious toasted. Best if served warm (microwave is fine). Well, here's another two for reference: Bread Machine Garlic Bread 1 C water 3/4 t salt 2 T water 3/4 T butter 3 C bread flour 3 T parmesan 2 T bread flour 3/4 t italian seasoning 1-1/2 T sugar 3/4 t garlic salt 3/4 T butter 2 t yeast Add in order recommended for your ABM, set to light crust and rapid cycle Onion Egg Bread 2-1/4 t yeast 1 T sugar 3 C bread flour 4 T powdered milk 3 T onion flakes 2 T butter 1-1/2 t poppy seeds 1 C water 1 t salt 1 large egg 1 t lemon juice Place all ingredients in machine as directed by your machineÂs instructions and start. Do not use with the timed cycle due to its perishable ingredients. Good luck!