The short answer to this question is: a pack of ready-made bread mix and water. This is how easy it is to make a home-baked loaf with the breadmaker. If you really want to bake your own bread, then of course you choose to put together your own recipe. As a base, you need four or five ingredients: flour, wheat flour, yeast, salt (unless you're baking low-salt bread) and water. You can expand that base with ingredients like raisins, nuts, seeds, chocolate, you name it. Often the bread maker you buy comes with a booklet of recipes.