Mini Zojirushi Bread Machine. Basic Bread Setting (Regular).

This is what it does

BASIC BREAD SETTING
20 min rest, so that at the beginning of mixing the blend is at 24C

19 min kneading, dough reaches 30C, gluten is developed, blisters appear on shiny dough surface of kneaded dough.

64 min first rising, dough is sitting at 32C, top of the dough is 28C, inside the dough temperature is 29-31C
stir down 

20 min second rising (rounding up, pre-shaping)
stir down (shaping step)

50 min proof, until loaf rises right to the edges of the pan, dough temperature 38C, walls of the oven and bread pan - 40-42C.

47 min baking for light crust, 57min baking for the regular crispy crust.

In my experience this bread machine makes perfect bread given Hecker's-Ceresota flour of normal 14.5% moisture. It also makes perfect bread with Canadian all purpose flour and 30% more water than in the manual for the MiniZo and a bit more yeast (10% more of Fleishmann's ADY). Presoaking of yeast in hot water is not necessary if the flour is strong and contains Vitamin C additions.

You can observe what your bread machine does too, just remember to spritz  inside with boiling hot water< each time you take a peak, spritZ! Each time you open the machine to measure temperature or check for the gluten development, etc, you let the heat escape. This will also dry dough a little. So keep the mister with boiling hot water inside nearby. A small one will suffice.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Small volume loaf, dense crumb, top crust is lighter than side crusts.

too little water - dense dough cannot rise high, yeast ferment sugar slowly in dense dough, a lot of sugar is left and the sides of the loaf burn, the flavor is flat (immature dough), taste too sweet (too much leftover sugar in the dough).

not enough yeast or wrong yeast kind - not enough lifting power for the given amount of dough. For example, if you add 30% more water than in the manual, you need to increase yeast and salt 10% more than in the manual.

160g water - 208g water
2.8g yeast  - 3.0 g yeast
2.8 g salt - 3.0 g salt

All recipes in the instruction booklet had been tested wtih Fleischmann's ADY, which is an American strain of yeast, selected for drying. Switching to the European active dry yeast, for example to SAF-levure would require no adjustment or a small adjustment (depends on how fresh the other yeast is).

For example, instead of 3g of Fleischmann's ADY you can bake with 3.0-3.3 g of SAF-levure, without re-hydration step, but compensating with the addition of small amount of vitamin C to flour. I add 1/8 tsp of Ca-Mg supplement, it contains enough vitamin C for 250g of flour

No gluten development by the end of kneading cycle

1) not enough water
dense dough requires longer kneading time in  bread machine, about 30 min instead of given 20 min.
this is how underdeveloped (underkneaded dough looks)

too dry and underkneaded - bumpy surface, not smooth, not shinly, no blisters

proper moisture content (dough consistency), but underkneaded - shiny, but sticky and uneven surface, no blisters. 

rounding up produces no blisters on the surface.

2) not enough gluten has formed in dough during the first 20 min after mixing flour and water.
If there is no gluten in the dough, it cannot be 'developed' by kneading, because there is nothing to 'develop'. Some flours require 20-40 min rest between mixing flour and water and kneading per se - developing gluten. Such flours are not suitable for delayed baking cycles, but you can bake with them if you add another kneading step in the beginning, for example, make dough on Pasta Dough setting and then turn on Basic Bread cycle.

So if your dough has proper consistency, but kneading it for 20 min is not enough, give it 20 min rest in refrigerator and start the BASIC bread cycle anew, from the beginning.
The dough from this

will look like this, after 20 min of cold rest

and like this after second 20 min of kneading: satiny shiny with small blisters

completely non-sticky and even not tacky anymore.

The blade is stuck inside the baked loaf

I usually remove the blade altogether, shape by hand and bake loaf without the blade. But in fully automatic setting blade does stick inside more often than not.

Scrape carefully the crust around the metal hole with plastic or wooden toothpick or skewer.

Scrape off enough crust, following the metal so that all of the blade base is visible!

Insert the toothpick ot skewer inside the hole of the blade and carefully pull the blade out

Normal bread from the bread machine has top crust at least of the same color as side crusts

At least a small shread and break is usually desirable

Although American and British bakers usually welcome more drama in that department: Wonder bread leads the way!

The crumb is soft, pearly (shiny), moist, fragrant, stays fresh for 48-72 hours.