I've never baked a lot of bread but up until now I have always made mine the old fashioned way and baked it in the oven but yesterday I bought my first bread-maker. Today I made my first loaf ..... but I'm not happy with the results.

I followed the instruction manual and used the recipe that came with the machine, and although the loaf looked beautiful and smelled wonderful, I wasn't happy with the taste.

For a start it looked more like cake than bread and it tasted sweet to me. I bought the special bread-making flour so that should not have been a problem, but I added the sugar that the recipe called for. Do I have to add sugar to the ingredients or can I omit it all together?

Do you have a tried and true recipe to share? The bowl holds 4 cups of flour. Thank you.