I've been making my own bread for 40 years and have had, I think, 3. The first was a Breville, which was great. When that eventually gave up the ghost I bought its direct replacement, Branded Anthony Worral-Thompson, before he screwed his reputation. The cycles were different and I could never get it to bake properly. So I used it to make the dough, let it prove and then bake it separately when I was happy with the rise.
I now have a Panasonic, but I have become a bit intolerant to bread, which is a real pain (little French joke there

), so I don't eat it much and I can't remember when I last baked a loaf.
You do have to use good flour (it does make a huge difference), but the bread is far superior to anything in the supermarket. I use one scoop of granary (malted flake), one scoop of strong wholemeal and make it up to 450g with strong white.
Dried yeast is fine while it is fresh, but doesn't keep very well once opened. I tend to get it as fresh yeast from Tesco (free), cut it 2:1 with flour and then freeze it in cling-film, 36g in a screw. There is an Instructable about it
here.
I miss my bread
