Dakender

I just bought a new bread machine. I can provide the make and model if it is required, but I am here to learn, not to advertise a product. The problem I am facing is that I am used to imperial measurements, and most of the recipes I find, even for basic breads use them too. The machine doesn't care what the recipe is or the units of measurement (it's just a machine), and there are measuring cups that are metric if I want to use a metric recipe. The settings on the machine are also in metric, however This is a source of confusion. For example, a recipe may be for a 1 pound or a 2 pound loaf. I have even found some that do not mention the size of the loaf at all, which is another issue I need to ask about. The machine I have can make loaves that are 500 grams, 750 grams, and 1000 grams. I thought this would be a simple matter of conversion. If you convert a pound to grams and round to the nearest gram, you have 454 grams and 2 pounds is the same as 907 grams. Obviously, 454 is closer to 500 and 907 is closer to 1000, but I have also read that measurements are important in baking. Is a pound "close enough" for the 500 gram setting? Is a recipe for a 2 pound loaf "close enough" for a 1000 gram setting, or will I have a baking disaster on my hands? I would rather ask someone who knows better than find out through trial and error. The machine I purchased is a nice machine in other respects: it has a ceramic lined bread pan instead of Teflon, a device that dispenses fruits and nuts into the dough at the right time (or so it claims) and so on. If I can learn to use this rather than returning it, I believe I will be able to bring fresh bread to family and church gatherings. If it is too complicated and I am better off returning it and getting another machine, I would like to know before they say "the time limit for returns is past, you're stuck with it." From what I have read, though, the units they are using are what professional bakers use , so maybe they made the machine this way for a reason other than to make Americans like myself wish we had switched to the metric system like most of the world has done. Thank you for any advice you can provide.

You can call me Dakender. Da is like "Da Bears!" or "Da Yoopers" (if you like music that is funny). Kender are a fictional race in a role playing game I used to play, that I found very amusing. Just in case you were wondering where the heck the name came from. On to why I am here. I recently bought a new bread machine - my dad used an older one and we enjoyed pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, banana bread and so on, even if it was a round, tall shape rather than a traditional loaf. The new machine has a bread pan that has a ceramic coating rather than Teflon, so it should be safer, can produce traditional loaves of different sizes, has other neat features to learn how to use and so on. After opening the recipe book and reading the manual, though, I found that I have more learning to do than I thought. Everything is in metric units, and most of the recipes I find are not, for one. 🙄 Still, a machine is a machine. If I can learn how to put the right ingredients in with the right amounts for the right size, I should be good. The machine will just do what I tell it to do. I'm also finding that there is more to this than I realized. Different kinds of flour, real science behind what works and what does not and so on. That, and being able to show up for the holidays (when this pandemic is over and we can do that again) with something no one else can offer: fresh, homemade bread, whether it is pumpkin bread for thanksgiving, cinnamon and raisin bread (for any occasion, really), banana bread...the possibilities are endless. So I'm excited about the opportunity to learn and be able to bring something to the table (literally) that others cannot or will not. I do need help with that, so that is why I am here. Please be patient with me if I make mistakes like starting a topic that was addressed a year ago and I was unaware of it.