Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

It's like asking me to choose between my children - but harder.

Perhaps it's just that we recently celebrated Canada Day an Quebec just celebrated its birthday, but there's nothing like a good poutine. Some fresh cheese curds (squeaky if possible) and some thick gravy. Then you've got yourself a heart attack worth having.

Okay, on my way down to the bottom here, I misread the first sentence of the first comment, so that the last word in that sentence was "prison." Sigh. I don't think I had enough coffee today.

Anyway, as you will see, there are as many bread recipes as there are breadmakers. Times about fifty.

Baking stones and pizza stones are nice, if you can get them at a good price, and they're thick enough. Best one I bought was at a garage sale for a quarter. A lot of people like quarry tiles, but I like the idea that I can take the stone out when I want to, in one piece. It mostly stays in the oven, but for some things, it doesn't belong in there.

It's kind of hard to make a bad loaf of bread compared to what you buy in the store. A bad loaf is better than that. And while you may not get what you hoped for (crunchy crust, big holes, small holes, etc.) the experiments along the way will probably be tasty. And unless you're buying some freaky artisan flour and imported yeast, a bad loaf of bread doesn't cost much.

Generally, I make a loaf of bread at a time, while most recipes will be for two loaves. I'd rather bake twice as often, make different breads each time, and have it as fresh as possible. If your recipe is for 2 loaves and you want to make one, but don't want to cut the recipe in half, you can put half the dough in the fridge and bake it a few days later.

My basic bread dough used 1 cup of water or other moist ingredient, 1 yeastspoon of yeast (I buy by the pound. The spoon is the same measurement as a package of yeast) 2 1/2 to 3 cups of bread flour, or bread flour mixed with whatever other flours I'm in the mood for, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Most of the time, I adjust the water or flour amounts, depending on what sort of bread I want, and what sort of flours and liquids I'm using. Whole wheat flour drinks a lot more water than white four does, for example.

You can use honey in place of the sugar, but some honeys will kill the yeast. If you have one that you know will work, then it will be fine. Saltless bread tastes really bland. And salt also regulates the yeast. You can cut back a smidgeon, but don't leave it out.

To me, the keys to making a good loaf of bread are kneading it enough so that it's soft and gluteny and shiny. You'll see the difference when you get there. When you let it rise the first time, ignore the clock, and just let it rise until it has doubled in size. Use the recipe as a guideline as to when you should check on it, but so many things will affect the rise time that you just have to watch the dough.

If you're having trouble visualizing what it will be like doubled, you can put a small hunk in a cylindrical glass, measure what twice the height is, and mark it there with a rubber band or some tape, and when your small sample has risen enough, the large one should, too, if they're in the same environment.

For the second rise, you want to rise enough, but not too much. You can check it by poking the bread and if the indent stays (do this where it won't be noticed) then it's ready to bake. If it bounces back, it still needs to rise more. Or, you can put a small ball of dough into a glass of water, and when it rises to the top, your loaf should be ready to bake.

Nothing really needs to be exact, unless you're making bread in a production line where all the loaves have to be the same every day. Making the bread different each time is part of the fun. And if you don't tell anyone that you hoped for a crunchy crust instead of a soft one, no one will know the difference. Just smile and pass the butter and say that this loaf was exactly what you hoped for.

I make bread almost every weekend and I don't use a recipe. I found a blurp on a blog somewhere along the way that gave simple instructions with no real measurements and the bread always turns out good.

Take some yeast (I use a tsp) and add it to a cup of slightly warm water in a bowl. Add some sugar or honey. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

Add some flour. Keep adding flour until you get a firm, doughy consistency. Add more water if you need to. Knead the dough for a few minutes until it gets soft and smooth. Put it back in a floured bowl and cover with a towel.

Let it rest for 2 hours. Knead the dough again and let it rise for another 10 minutes.

Heat your oven to 425*F.

I either bake it in a loaf pan or on a cooking stone. Cook until perfectly brown and sounds hollow when you tap on it.

You can make different variations of this. Add cheese or herbs. Add some oil and roll it out for pizza dough. Make it into foccacia.

It's very forgiving and once you start playing with it, you won't want to stop.

My bread is never the same twice. I'm always changing the recipe or the shape or something. Today's loaf was started last night, and instead of water I used the whey drained from some yogurt I made a few days ago. Added semolina flour, because that's the mood I was in.

Once you get the hang of it, you'll find out that bread is very forgiving, if you learn what it's supposed to look and feel like at different stages. Sometimes it rises faster, sometimes you stick it in the fridge overnight because that fits your schedule better.

And you can add all sorts of interesting things to it.

But first, learn a basic bread and make it a few times until you're comfortable with it. Maybe make a few different recipes. Then, pretty soon, you'll be looking at some leftover sundried tomatoes and olives and thinking that they'd probably be good mixed in with your dough.

it might be said that making bread by hand cannot be taught, only known.
and in any event, i really don't think i could do the craft justice in the space provided here.
one excellent book to check out, if you're interested in hand-made bread making, though, is "The Bread Bible," by Rose Levy Berambaum; it quite literally taught me everything i know about breadmaking(which is a fairly substantial body of knowledge, btw).
another great place to look is a book titled the "Complete Guide to Baking," published by Taste of Home; in addition to breadmaking, it also goes way detailed on tons of other baking projects, so it's well worth the money.

I started with a recipe, and worked from there. It is definitely a hands on type experience. Elasticity is key when kneading, and to recreate an artisan, European type bread, I have found that a stone works best. I have NEVER used a loaf pan ( any generic pizza stone will do). The stone heats nicely, and holds the heat, and free forming loaves are beautiful. They actually look home made. Depending on the bread, I have used egg wash, egg white wash, olive oil, flour, water (as steam), milk.