While I had a bread machine years ago, I am taking my new one more seriously. That is partly because where I live there are really no decent bread options and, well, almost no bread options at all. I have a Zojirushi machine which was described by many as the best that can be found. It certainly is a serious step up from the old machine I had. I am very happy with it.

The other big change was that I was at altitude 5 meters with the old machine. I am now at 1400 meters so things are a bit different. My first experiences were bread that would rise too much and then fall. I tried less yeast and more salt. Same problem.

Then a person on NicaLiving told me the secret—less water. As you go up in altitude, lowering the water content is the solution. In general, I put about 1/8 cup less water in than the recipe calls for. Seems to work.

Before I had this solution, the one bread that would regularly come out OK was an oatmeal whole wheat recipe. Oatmeal is a very forgiving ingredient. That is, it can absorb more water. Thus, it's a good ingredient to use in your bread when you are trying to get the right flour/water balance.

How do you know about that balance? Bread machine recipe books tell you "the dough should form a ball in the middle". That is the most important sentence in the whole book. If the dough is too wet, it will stick to the sides. If it is too dry, you will get two (or more) chunks of dough. You can add flour or water to adjust this as the machine runs.

Finally, if you have a recipe that calls for an egg and you would like a Vegan bread (or don't have an egg), you can use flax seed. About a tablespoon seems to be pretty much an egg equivalent.