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So, you finally decided to satisfy that baker's urge?
Wanna take the plunge and make some bread without even buying a $400 Kitchen Aide mixer and a $200 "Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme" bread machine. Well you've come to the right place.

It all started a long, long, time ago. People made bread. They used their hands to mix it and beautiful brick and clay pizza ovens to bake it in. And as you might imagine it tasted way better than any lame store bought sandwich bread. Hungry yet?

Well lets get started. You will need:

Water
Flour (white or wheat)
Sugar
Baking Powder
Yeast (I use Red Star.)
Eggs
Butter/Oil
A Measure Cup
A wooden spoon
A Glass Bowl
A Cookie Sheet
About 3hrs of total time.

Okay, to get started, put about 1 cup of water in to your glass bowl, and add 1 Table Spoon of yeast and 1 Table Spoon of sugar. Stir until completely dissolved into a nice tan color.

Next add 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of melted butter, 2cups of flour and 1 Table Spoon of baking powder. Then stir with your wooden spoon. You could use almost any implement to stir with, but a wooden spoon is sturdy enough to keep going once the dough thickens up, and it isn't too bad to clean off when your done.

Keep adding flour about 1/2cup at a time until the dough stops being sticky, now switch to kneading the dough with your hands. This is accomplished by picking up the dough on one side and folding it over itself and pushing it down in the middle. Then repeating with a different side. Continue to knead the dough for about 10 minutes, it should be spongy feeling.

Now sprinkle your baking sheet with a little bit of flour and place your dough on it for a moment, so you can wash out your mixing bowl. Okay, the bowl is all clean now right? Good. Now grab a sandwich baggie and turn it inside out over your hand. (poof you just made an instant glove!) Now dab your "gloved" hand into your butter and use it to grease the mixing bowl. Then discard the sandwich bag and viola' your hands are still clean. :)

Okay, now grab the dough from the baking sheet and form it into a ball. Place it into the greased mixing bowl and roll it all around to coat the outside skin of the dough. Your dough and you should both be ready for a break at this point. So, grab a clean towel and drape it over your mixing bowl.

Go do something for at least an hour. This is the part where you let the dough rise. So you have up to 2hrs to go do other things, like clean up the kitchen a little, take a nap, watch a show, check your emails. You get the idea. I myself don't like to let the dough sit much longer than 1hr.

Alright it has been an hour, time to get back at it. Pull the cover off of the mixing bowl and poke the dough. It should stay poked with a big dent from your finger, if it dosn't stay poked then it needs to sit longer. Assuming the dough passed the poke test, you now need to punch it to deflate it and slap it back down into a ball. If you want at this piont you can divide it into 2 parts and make 2 loaves.

Here is the crucial moment when a dough becomes a yummy bread, or pizza crust. At this point you can decide to fold into the dough any combination of ingredients to give it a particular flavor, like garlic powder, oregano, and parmesan cheese. Or chunks of cheddar and sliced jalapeños. Or maybe you just want a nice plain bread. Anyway once you decide and finish kneading and folding in your "special" ingredients you will want to form the dough into a shape, you can leave it round, or pull it out into a nice baguette. Again the shape is up to you, it won't affect the taste so have at it. :)

Now that you have shaped the dough. Set it onto the baking tray and cover it up with the towel again for another 30 minutes.

Next pop yourself back into the kitchen and turn the oven to 350 degrees. Let the oven preheat for 15 minutes. While you are waiting now would be a good time for the final prep. Uncover your loaf (no not your lazy spouse) and notice that it has risen a second time. Nice! If you like, now would be a good time to sprinkle the top with some cheese, and olive oil.

Place in the oven and set your timer for 25-30 minutes. That's it, once the crust has browned and hardened enough to make a hollow sound when you thump it, it's done!

As you can imagine, there are many ways to make a good bread. This is just one of them. Get creative and try different things, or look up a different recipe.

Ciao

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