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How to Make Bread

Freshly baked bread is one of life's greatest simple pleasures, and one that's much easier than you might think. You can make your own crusty French bread, soft sandwich loaves, and deliciously sweet quick breads as a great way of saving money and filling your home with the wonderful smell of fresh baked goods. Anyone can make bread with a few simple ingredients and a little know-how.

Making Basic French Bread

1 - Assemble your ingredients. For this basic French bread, all you'll need is:
6 cups of all-purpose white flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cups of warm water
3 tsp. or 1 package active dry yeast

2 - Activate the yeast. In a cup or a small bowl, mix your yeast with about a 1/4 cup of warm warm (100-110˚F) water. The temperature of the water needs to be warm to the touch, but not hot. If the water is too warm, the yeast will be killed, while if it's too cool, it won't activate enough to make the bread rise properly. It should be warm enough you could keep your finger in it without becoming uncomfortable.
After a minute or two, the mixture should start to take on a thicker, frothy texture, and should smell a lot like a beer. If it's bubbly and thick, the yeast is activated properly and ready to go.
If you use "Rapid Rise" or self-activated yeast, you don't have to activate the yeast before adding it to the flour. Skip this step and go to the next.



3 - Mix the flour and salt together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. The bowl needs to be big enough to hold all your flour and water together at once and mix it comfortably, preferably with a sturdy wooden spoon. When you've mixed the dry ingredients, you can also add the yeast, whether you're using quick yeast or the bubbly activated wet mixture. Stir it into the flour.
Alternatively, you can mix the dough in an electric mixer or KitchenAid, provided you've got a dough hook attachment. Mixing the dough, however, is only a short part of making a loaf of French bread, so it's usually easier to just mix it up by hand. It's not necessary to use a mixer, especially because you'll need to get your hands dirty anyway!

4 - Add the water, mixing thoroughly. Slowly add water to the bowl with one hand, while you stir the flour with the wooden spoon in your other hand. You're looking to form the initial dough and get all the ingredients to come together into a workable mass, so it's important to keep your spoon moving. It can be helpful to have someone add the water while you stir, or vice versa.
The amount of water you'll need to make the dough can be quite variable (less in humid climates) but you'll get it with some practice. Add slowly and stir, watching the dough come together. As soon as the bread starts coming together in the bowl, you should stop adding water.
Reach into the bowl with your hands (get some flour on them first) and pull the dough together. Push all the stray bits of wet dough into the ball and start to form the basic dough in the bowl before turning it out.

5 - Turn the dough out on a well-floured kneading surface. Let the dough rest for at least five minutes. At this stage, the gluten strands are starting to form, giving the bread its wonderfully chewy texture. The strands are forming whether you're kneading or not, so it'll be easier to knead if you let the gluten do its work for a few minutes, making your job easier by bringing the bread together.
In the meantime, you can clean the mixing bowl out thoroughly, before using it to rise the dough.

6 - Knead the dough. The initial kneading is the most important step in preparing the dough. You want to firmly knead constantly for at least 5-10 minutes, or until the dough feels smooth. The surface of the dough should be soft and look mostly uniform, not tacky or lumpy. If it looks like the craggy surface of the moon, keep kneading, adding flour as necessary.
It takes some practice to get the motion right, but it's a lot like Mr. Miyagi's advice from Karate Kid: wax on, wax off. You want to push hard into the dough, rolling it away from you, and folding it over. Don't be afraid to push hard, as if you were trying to push through the dough and touch the table, pushing it forward and rolling it over.
Make sure your hands are well-floured, and that the dough isn't sticking to the surface by keeping a light dusting of flour on both. If the dough seems wet, add more flour to the surface of the dough by sprinkling it on and continue moving it.

7 - Let the dough rise for about 3 hours. Put the dough back into the bowl after cleaning it out thoroughly (or at least rinsing it) and cover with plastic wrap, or a towel. Keep the dough in a warm, but not hot, place. The ideal temperature is about 70-75 degrees F for dough to rise.
If it's cold in your house, or you're baking in the middle of winter, a good place to rise your dough is on or in the stove while it's off, letting the warm pilot light control the rise.



8 - Punch the dough down, turn it out, and reform it. You don't need to knead the dough for nearly as long as you did before the first rising. Roll it over a few times on a floured surface and return it to the bowl for the second rise. Here, you're looking to simply reform the dough into the basic shape you started with. It won't take long and the dough should be much more easy to work with, smooth and soft.[1]


9 - Let the dough rise again for about 90 minutes. Opinions vary on the necessity of a second rising: some bakers skip the second rise and go straight to forming loaves and proofing the dough before baking, while some bakers prefer three risings for the best consistency. Good crusty French bread is distinctive for the airy inner crumb, which you'll only get from lots of little bubbles created by the yeast in the rising. If you want to make "real" French bread and you've got the time, rise it twice, or three times. If you want that hot delicious bread smell filling your kitchen like ten minutes ago, go ahead and skip it. It'll still be great.

10 - Form the dough into whatever shape you choose. Remove the dough from the bowl and cut it into however many distinct loaves, batards, or baguettes you want to bake, then start rolling it out.
To form boules cut the dough in half and reform into two simple rounded lumps like you've been forming. Place them onto a sheet sprinkled with a small amount of cornmeal and cover.
To form baguettes cut the dough into 4 equal portions and roll them out on a floured surface, long and skinny. It'll take several rollings to get them worked out long enough, so keep moving from the center of the loaf outward, rolling them as evenly as possible.
To form batards, cut the dough into 4 or 6 portions and roll shorter, squatter baguettes. There's no perfect way to roll them, and they'll taste good no matter what.

11 - Let the dough proof for at least 45 minutes. After placing your rolled-out loaves onto the baking sheets you intend to use in the baking, cover them for at least 45 minutes and let them plump back up before putting them in the oven.
It's customary to cut the top of the loaf, with an X or your own patented pattern before putting it in the oven. Make small cuts, about half an inch into the dough, spaced about an inch away from other cuts to let the dough plump up evenly as it bakes.

12 -
Bake at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. The bread will be ready to come out when there's a good golden crust on it and the bottom of the bread is firm, making a hollow-ish knocking sound when you tap on it or flick it with your finger.

13 - Crust the bread up with steam. The secret to the perfect crust? Steam. Use a spray bottle to periodically squirt the bread, or squirt the inside of the oven with a small amount of water a few times during the baking to create a steamy mist on the inside of the oven that'll yield a crunchy exterior, perfect for French bread.
Alternatively, it's common to put a pan of water in the oven on a rack under the bread, so allow steam to gradually form throughout the baking process. Experiment some with your oven to see what works best for you.

AFTER THIS YOU JUST NEED TO BLACK AND WHITE POP EYES AND YOU WILL HAVE THE ALMIGHT HIMSELF IN YOUR OWN HOUSE