The first time I made bread, it turned out like a rock. I asked my mom what had happened. You killed the yeast, she told me. If you want to make bread, know this before anything: don’t add boiling water to the yeast. If the recipe says warm water, then that does not mean boil water and let it cool for a few minutes before using it. My sister does that, but I’m wary. I turn the hot water faucet on as hot as it will go.
There are basically two kinds of breads: quick breads and yeast breads. Quick breads include things like banana bread. Yeast breads take much longer to bake, roughly two hours give or take for the whole process, and include your typical sandwich breads. You can make an enormous variety of breads. I used to make bread every Sunday morning last year when I lived in a townhouse. I started with basic wheat bread: water, yeast, butter, a little brown sugar, wheat and white flour. Then I branched off into other wheat bread recipes. Then oatmeal and rye. Finnish pulla.
After you realize that warm water does not mean boiling water, making bread is pretty simple, especially if you choose a standard recipe like the one outlined above. Things get more complicated if you branch off, but if you can buy ingredients and read a recipe, you’ll be fine. For example, rye flour and the caraway seeds make rye bread rye. Trying out new bread recipes might mean buying other kinds of flour, adding molasses, eggs, or even cocoa powder to your dough, or shaping the dough into braids or circles.
Baking bread usually occurs in this sequence: mix ingredients, knead dough for eight minutes, let dough rise in bowl for an hour, punch risen dough and form into loaves, let dough rise for half an hour, bake for thirty minutes. And the result? A slice of bread way heartier and tastier than the flimsy pieces you usually find in the grocery store. Kneading bread can also be therapeutic. Don’t have time to make bread? Try walking down to the co-op and buying some of theirs. Yum, I mean YUM.
Lastly I would advise future bread makers not to be afraid of failing. Even a semi-experienced bread maker like me still has the occasional rock loaf that didn’t rise. Just feed it to the birds and try again!