bread in oven

I have never used a bread machine, all my bread baking is by hand. Patti is right about the kneading. Working the dough with your own hands, imparting your body heat to it while kneading cannot be duplicated by machine. As the dough develops into a responsive ball it becomes smooth and elastic. Never, never short change the kneading process. If the recipe says 8 minutes of kneading, do it for 10. I believe many people are not good at properly kneading dough because they don't push down hard enough or turn and fold over far enough. There is an art to it, believe it or not! The other bit of advice I would give is that if you bake bread in a glass pan, lower the heat 25 degrees. Otherwise the bread will cook too fast, have a hard crust and be dried out. Good luck.