Using your bread machine to make dough will give you a base to make many different recipes. Once you make your dough, you can experiment with folding and cutting it into various shapes, in order to create numerous homemade recipes. Bread machines make the process relatively easy, requiring minimal preparation on your part. Your bread machine will have a "dough" setting, generally visible on the machine. Furthermore, once you are familiar with a basic dough recipe, you can experiment with the recipe by adding different herbs and spices for flavor, and ingredients such as oats and cornmeal for texture.

Prepare all the ingredients according to the recipe's specifications.

Add the ingredients to the bread machine.

Turn on the bread machine, and set it to the dough setting. New bread machine models will include this setting, though some may call it the manual setting. If you cannot find this setting, consult your owner's manual.

Check on the dough throughout the cycle. If it looks too dry, add 1 tsp. of heated water. If it appears too moist, add more flour a teaspoonful at a time. Be careful, though not to add too much water or flour at once in order to ensure the balance between the two is correct.

Remove the dough from the bread machine once the cycle is complete, and transfer it to a well-floured surface to begin work on the dough.

Follow the bread recipe for how to shape the dough for the bread you are making, as well as for baking instructions.