Hey Chris
Not much in tips except get a machine that's easy to clean and instead of using water as a liquid, use buttermilk because the acid in it acts as a natural preservative. (Your breads won't dry out as fast)
I love baked bread but to make it by hand is not for me because I couldn't get yeast to rise if I used a car jack, but in these machines you just dump in the ingredients and hit the right buttons and in a few hours you got hot good bread. We quit buying store bread because it's easy enough to make. Love trying new flavors so that link I found in news groups is pretty neat.
DJ

Is there no premixing of the ingredients DJ ? Or is it a case of tossing the stuff in and pressing the button.

It's basically a toss of ingredients in the bread maker with the liquids first and the flour next to last and finally make a little pocket in the top of the flour and pour in your dry yeast. Then close the lid and press the buttons and away you go. After you do a recipe you like a few times it becomes burned to memory and you just throw it together in a mater of a minute or two. They even have a delay feature you can put your ingredients and time it so it turns on 3 hours before breakfast for instance. You wake up to the smell of coffee (tea) and hot bread. It's great.
You can make doughs for awesome pizzas also or quick breads, you name it. It's a long way from Grandmas days.
DJ

My wife makes fantastic pizza dough in ours. But I think the best thing about the bread maker is the aroma of bread being baked. The bread is excellent, but the aroma is more so!

Ed

Kind of reminds you of the times when you mother baked and the house smelled sooooo good. Only you didn't have to do all the hard work she did to get that smell.
DJ

I can see I'm going to have to have a close look at this machine and get it into action, it's been sat in its box for 3 months. One of my favourites is Soda bread done the Irish way with buttermilk, if I could get that mix done I'd be a happy man. Up until a couple of years ago there was an old style bakers a few miles away with an old style bread oven which was heated with wood the night before.

I can just smell the aroma from that old bakery! I'm gonna have to get off here soon for breakfast! :D

Ed

We lived in Ghent Belgium for 2 years and the thing I missed the most was going to the bakery and getting those delicious hearth breads. Even in the grocery store I remember picking my bread out and putting it in the slicing machine and smearing butter on it when I got home. Oh God it was soooo good. A bread machine is great but there is no competing with one of those stone baked hearth breads. I have been meaning to try making the dough in the machine and baking the bread dough on stone in the oven but all I've read about the hearth breads indicates they can be difficult to do and I don't have a green thumb when it comes to breads. That's why I like the machine.
DJ

DJ,

Slicing machine ! If a slice of bread doesn't stand on end when you cut it off the loaf it isn't thick enough.

I was intriqued with it because in the US, grocers would never trust the public to run their own bread through a slicing machine and bag it themselves. Too many oportunities for lawsuits. The slices were a set size and I find it made the bread last longer with my voracious family. Left to slice it them selves, the bread is gone as soon as it's baked because thier idea of a slice is a quarter loaf. :D
DJ

Slicing machines have made their appearence fairly late here. It used to be loaves or wrapped sliced bread which was and still is appalling soggy rubbish. A lot of fresh bread is alas wrapped as well which ruins it when the stuff has been wrapped while still warm.

On my very occasional visits to hypermarkets I see people carrying off wrapped bread by the trolley load, I'm told its then frozen and thawed as required. Doesn't bear thinking about, thank God for the servants !

It's those hard crusts and soft middles that are so good. They wrap them here but I noticed the wrapers have small holes to allow the air to get to them. In the US all things have to be wrapped and germ free if it's sold to the public. (It's the lawsuit capitol of the world here) It can be left on the shelves unwrapped but the general public can't just walk up and grab them. If you buy one it's put in a bag for you.
DJ

Same here with the bags though I'm only five minutes from the bakers and it doesn't affect the breads crispness. The regulations over here are getting a bit silly. Years ago the popular take away Fish and chips(fries) was wrapped in greaseproof paper and then in a sheet of newspaper (early recycling) alas this was considered unhygenic and the outer wrapper of newspaper was banned. A pity as I thought most newspapers served better as wrapper than news !

Perhaps the stuff printed by the "news media" caused the fish to go bad and the chips to sprout when brought in contact with 'em. Tom

I only ever bought fish and chips wrapped in the 'Farmers Guardian'

Very tasteful. Tom

The bread machine has been activated and has been spitting out loaves on a daily basis and some soda bread has emerged as well(with buttermilk DJ) It doesnt last long being eaten with butter. On tour in Eire I've had to contend with some heroic Irish breakfasts including soda bread by the ton. In my impoverished days in Ireland the breakfast 'extras' were carried off and provided for the rest of the day.

I'm glad I could turn you on to a good thing. I knew you would like it once you fired it up. Can't beat how easy it is and the taste and smell is soooo good. Tends to get a little fattening though.
DJ

I think I woke up this morning smelling the aroma of fresh baked bread. Good for you Chris. Pass the butter please! :)

Ed

You know what's wierd? We now bake our own bread exclusively so when in a rare pinch, I buy store bread, it's kind of like a treat. Never thought that would happen. I still love those hot aromatic slices of fresh baked with melting butter but the texture of store bread is something I guess I miss sometimes too. Not only that but it actually fits all the way in the toaster. :D
DJ

I know, I'm strange. :D

The first toasters I can remember as a child had drop down sides and would take any size of bread and then they all seemed to cater for thin presliced shop rubbish. We're now back to wide slot so us home 'slicers' are catered for ! At the end of the day I still prefer toasting over embers or hot coals.

I have the wide slots but the toaster is not deep enough for the taller loaves. I know they make the bread makers that conform to the regular loaf sizes but I don't have that kind so our toast sticks out the top of the toaster an inch or so.
DJ

At the risk of propelling this this thread to new heights of tedium how tall is an unsliced standard loaf in the US or is there no standard DJ ?

I don't know, maybe 4 or 5 inches tall.
DJ