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.
