Carbs are bad

I haven't had much luck with my bread maker, which I bought a few years ago.

The first loaf, I found too salty.

The next loaf, I used the timer on it so that it would be ready when I woke up. I got up that morning to find dough that had grown so big, the lid had popped off the machine and it had spilled down the side. It was burned on the bottom and (obviously) raw on the top and outside.

I tried that same recipe again, without the delay, and had the same problem. I ended up taking the bread out and baking it in the oven. Not having much experience with bread, it turned out very undercooked and had to be tossed.

I made one loaf of wheat bread that was so-so. It didn't rise properly, though, and was kind of squishy on the inside.

One loaf turned out to be my biggest success so far. It was an herbed French Bread. I cut the recommended salt in half but I still found it way too salty again.

Then, I tried to use the delay function again to make white bread for this morning. I work up to find baked flour, and realized that I'd forgotten to put the blade in that kneads it.

The last time I gave it a shot (over a year ago), I tried to make cinnamon raisin bread. I gave up about a half hour before it was supposed to be done because I could smell burning on the bottom while the top seemed to remain in a liquid form. I put the bread machine in the far back corner of the pantry. The intention was for it to be added to the items available at my garage next sale.


Last month, thinking that perhaps the user might be the cause of the problems, rather than the machine, I decided to give it another shot. Since the recipes that came with it failed me, I bought a cook book that was written specifically for Canadian bread makers. (Our flour is different than yours, and we use metric measurements.)


This is a sure fire plan, right? I could practically taste the bread.


It's not going to happen. Every single one of those recipes lists the ingredients and then provides two basic cooking instructions:
1. Place ingredients in machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer
2. bake in ____ (quick, delayed, whole wheat, etc) mode.


How the heck am I supposed to know what order I should place the ingredients?!?

Needless to say, I've got another item for my garage sale pile this spring. Unless somebody else happens to store the instruction booklet from their black and decker bread machine.