Jan's Library

Making Bread...it's easier than you think!

By: Jan K., The Proofer

This article on making bread provides a three-part illustrated tutorial on making bread. The links to those tutorials are provided at the end of this article.

You don't have to be a schooled culinary chef or a master baker in order to make wonderful homemade bread. You don't need a bread-making machine, and you don't need any fancy (or expensive) kitchen appliances or utensils. You can make bread just like your grandmother used to make it...with your two hands.

For me, baking bread is a delightful stress reliever. It doesn't take a long time to actually make the bread dough (about 20 minutes), and I have lots of time while the bread dough is rising to work, do household chores, or even run a few errands. You can even work out a few frustrations while you knead the dough! The pay-off is that amazing aroma of fresh-baked bread and the delighted smiles on the faces of your family when they bite down into a warm slice of bread, slathered with butter...

I would have never learned how to bake bread if it hadn't been for a friend, whom I first met in the late 1980s. She was new to the area and as part of "making friends" she shared a cup of her sourdough starter with me. I was too embarrassed to tell her I'd never made bread---and was scared stiff of any recipe that called for yeast. So I accepted the cup of starter...and then decided to make a point of learning to bake bread.

I enlisted the help of another friend, who loved to bake and was willing to hold my hand through the process. Under her tutelage, not only did I make the most wonderful sourdough bread, but also I realized how easy it is to make bread! All I needed was to learn a couple of basic bread-baking tips.

I'm delighted to share those tips, and the recipes for Sourdough Starter and Sourdough Bread with you! To make it even easier for you, and to insure that your first loaf of bread is as wondrously delicious as was mine, I have created fully illustrated, step-by-step tutorials! I'll take you through making the bread dough, kneading the bread, and then shaping the bread loaves...right on up to treating yourself to the first slice of fresh bread, still warm from the oven.

To access the free illustrated tutorials, go to:

• Making Bread...it's easier than you think! (http://www.jansdough.com/Sourdough_Bread/makebread.htm)
• How To Knead Bread Dough (http://www.jansdough.com/Sourdough_Bread/kneadbreaddough.htm)

• Shaping Bread Loaves(http://www.jansdough.com/Sourdough_Bread/shapebread.htm)

Each tutorial provides links back to this article as well as to the other illustrated parts.

The recipe featured here is Jan's Dough Sourdough Bread. For the FREE recipes for Sourdough Starter and Sourdough Bread, please visit Jan's Dough (http://www.jansdough.com).

Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit http://www.jansportal.com for more information about Jan's free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s business services. Be sure to visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.