Bread Baking

It's hard to top the smell and taste of homemade bread, baked fresh from the oven.  Most bakers associate the visual of freshly baked bread with carefully taking it out of the oven, spreading butter and enjoy its’ delicious flavor.  Would you like to have homemade bread whenever you get the craving?  Baking bread is not difficult. Anyone can make their own bread right at in the kitchen, and fill the house with the sweet aroma of freshly baked bread in the oven.

Before we dive head first into baking bread, let's make sure that we have all the fresh ingredients needed to make great bread. A French bread recipe is one of the easiest to start out with, and is also a delicious choice.  First you have to measure the liquid called for in the recipe and  make sure it is the right temperature called for, you can use a kitchen thermometer to be sure, then sprinkle the allotted amount of yeast over the liquid and let it set for a while, until the yeast bubbles to the top.  After adding only a portion of flour into your mixing bowl, add the other ingredients and mix.   Next, push into the middle of this mixture slightly to form a bowl shaped crevice, then pour in the remaining liquids, along with the dissolved yeast and mix.  Now add the rest of your flour, slowly, while stirring the mixture until it becomes stiff and dough like.

After the mixing process has completed, the next step to baking bread is to place the dough on a floured surface and start kneading.  It also helps if you put a little flour on your hands, this helps to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers.  Then   push into the dough with the palms of your hands, and fold the dough into quarters, keep doing this until the dough is no longer sticky, and there are no cracks, the same as you would for cookie dough, you want a nice smooth surface.

After the dough has been kneaded to a smooth, glossy surface without too many visible air bubbles, it's time to set it down and let it rise.  Rising the bread dough can be done by placing it in a bowl that has been lightly greased; making sure all areas of the dough is rolled around in the bowl and has come in contact with the shortening or oil.  Next place dough in a warm area, cover with a clean dish towel and leave it to rise, until the ball of dough is twice its size.  Then remove it and punch the dough lightly with your fists and place back on floured service.

Finally, perhaps the most notable process in bread baking- to carefully place the dough into the loaf pans and bake as directed by your favorite bread making recipe.  There are many good bread making recipes available with simple and easy to follow directions, for great tasting homemade bread the whole family will love.  If you wish to make more than one loaf at a time, you may freeze the unbaked loaves in a heavy duty air-tight bag and you can freeze it for up to one month.  One of the more popular baking trends have been made that freezing it right after the first rising gives you better results.