You can make bread. Yes! I've learned that baking bread can be as easy and delicious as it is in your dreams, if you're willing to try it. In fact, now that I've gotten over my fears, making bread is a regular part of my life. I've even given up store-bought bread completely! I don't have any special skills, I just know how to follow a recipe. So, if I can do it, you can do it. Let's start making bread-bakers out of you! I'm convinced that once you have this skill in your back pocket, you'll be all the happier for it.

If you're unfamiliar with the method and means of bread making, a recipe can certainly look intimidating. The instructions may seem lengthy and riddled with rising time, and the phraseology alone is enough to frighten people away. But, guess what? "Yeast" is not a scary word! Let's just get over that hurdle right now. Here are some important things I've learned in my experience with bread dough. 6 basic steps to empower you and your bread. Following the tips, I'm giving you the bread recipe that started it all for me. The most basic of all breads, and my husband's all-time favorite.

1. Ingredients. Most bread recipes are shockingly simple. Water, yeast, flour, and salt are your basic building blocks. For the water, the important thing is temperature. If it calls for warm water, you should poke a finger into the water and have a just barely "toasty" sensation- but not hot. If the water is hot, it will kill the yeast. If it calls for room temp water, when you test it, you really shouldn't be able to tell a difference when your finger is in or out of the water. For yeast, I always buy active dry yeast- either in little packets (which contain 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast) or in a jar that you store in your fridge. For flour, keep in mind that the recipe will yield the best outcome if you use the kind of flour directed, but there is always room for adaptations. If I don't have bread flour, I've found that all-purpose works great too. Remember that whole wheat flours can be substituted in for white flours, as well.
2. "Proofing." If you see anything about "proofing" the yeast in your recipe, it's just another way to say you are going to activate the yeast by adding a liquid. Most of the time, this will just mean combining the yeast with some water. After a few minutes, you might notice that your yeast has gotten bubbly or foamy, or as some people like to say: it has "bloomed."
3. Mixing and Kneading. Don't have a fancy stand mixer or a food processor? We don't need it! Now, admittedly, a mixer equipped with a dough hook is my favorite method for mixing and kneading, as it is quick, easy, and clean. But that's definitely not the only way or necessarily the best way. Try this hands-on approach: do all your mixing in a bowl with a wooden spoon and dump it out onto a floured surface to do the kneading. Speaking of kneading, have no fear that you lack the technique to do it. As long as you are pushing out, folding, and turning the dough, everything is okay! When you have a nice cohesive lump, in which the inside and outside parts seem to have come together as a whole, you're ready to move on. If using a dough hook for the kneading step, you know you're done when the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl and formed a ball around the hook.

4. Wetter is Better. In both kneading methods (hands-on or by dough hook), a sprinkle of extra flour can help an overly-sticky dough become workable, but beware of adding too much. Extra flour can yield a tough loaf of bread, so always air on the side of "wetter is better." A wet dough that is still manageable will result in a softer loaf.
5. "Doubling" and "Punching Down." Once you have placed your dough in an oiled bowl (I usually swirl a teaspoon of olive oil around with a paper towel) and covered it with a lightweight towel (or saran wrap), you wait. You are supposed to wait until it "doubles" in size. How in the world should you measure this?! When it comes to rising, I tend to follow a standard of 1 hour for the first rise and about 45 minutes for the second rise. Obviously, these will differ based on individual recipes, but generally, these times have yielded good results for me. To test your dough to see if it has risen enough, press a finger down into it. If the hollow from your finger stays and does not spring back, you're good to go. As for the punching down part, I usually just press my hands flat down onto the dough to make it "collapse" before I shape it into a loaf.
6. The Baking. A good way to tell if your bread is done baking is if the loaf gives a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Or, a really accurate way is to use a thermometer. Generally 200° to 220° is considered "done." After discovering how a recipe works in your oven, you will have a much better idea of how long your loaf needs. After baking, I like to brush the tops of my breads with butter for a soft crust.