Read some of the book...
But just do it!!
Warm water and a bit of sugar....yeast....then add flour until you can knead it...Oh yes and salt....taste the dough...
Put into a bowl and let it sit....when it grows you will know you have done it!!
Then just maul it into a shape...let it puff up again and put it into the oven at maybe 350....and bake until nicely browned.
Taste....slather on some butter!
you did it! Not pretty, but bread!
Now forget any aniexity and work on the fine tuning.
Linda C

lindac - Thanks for your vote of confidence! Just began thumbing through the book....looks a little daunting.

I think you're right about taking the plunge. For whatever reason, there just seems to be something mysterious about bread baking that has kept me from trying.

I inherited a yellow-ware bread bowl that my grandmother used for letting her bread rise. Maybe using it will bring me luck.

Absolutely, amck, just jump right in. Even if it isn't perfect, it's just bread and you're not out a lot. Bread is much simpler than most people think it is.

I fiddle with bread recipes all the time, I halve them and double them and triple them, willy nilly and as I wish. Like I said, it's just bread. If it doesn't come out well, I don't do that again, LOL. The only problem with cutting a recipe in half is that if you use those little packets, you'll have half a packet you'll have to try to store without spilling. It's easier to make the entire recipe and then just freeze the bread. I've even shaped the dough, frozen it, then thawed and baked it later. For some reason I can't manage to keep frozen dough any longer than 3 months or it won't rise well, but a few weeks is just fine.

You chose a good book for bread bakers. I also like Bernard Clayton's book that Readinglady sent to me and Beard on Bread by James Beard.

OK, so whole grain breads? Here are a couple of my favorites to get you started if you like. This maple oatmeal is my absolute favorite and no, it doesn't taste at all like coffee.

MAPLE OATMEAL BREAD

3 3 ¼ cups flour
1 pkg dry yeast
¾ cup prepared coffee
1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats
½ (scant) cup maple syrup
2 tbls butter
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Combine a cup of flour and the yeast. Heat coffee, oats, syrup, butter and salt until just warm and butter is almost melted. Add to flour mixture along with egg. Beat with electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes kneading). Shape dough into a ball, place in lightly greased bowl, and turn over once to grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about an hour.

Punch down dough, cover and let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile lightly grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Shape dough into a loaf and place into prepared pan, cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30 to 45 minutes). Bake at 350 F about 30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped. Remove from pan immediately and cool on wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf (14 slices)

Each slice contains 149 calories, 3 grams total fat, 2 grams sat. fat, 1 gr fiber, 26 gr. Carbs, 196 mg sodium, 4 gr protein. (Contains 8% of daily requirement of iron)

I think this recipe came from Terri:

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

3-1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour
2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 pkg. active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbsp. oil
1 egg

In large bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, the yeast, and salt and mix well.
In saucepan, heat milk, water, honey, and oil until a thermometer reads 120-130 degrees F (warm)
Add liquid mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine. Beat this batter for 3 minutes. Then, gradually stir in rest of whole wheat flour and enough remaining all-purpose four to form a firm dough.
Sprinkle work surface with flour and knead dough, adding more flour if necessary, for 5-8 minutes until smooth and satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning the dough in the bowl to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, until double in bulk.
Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces. On lightly floured surface, roll or press each piece of dough to a 14x7" rectangle. Starting with shorter side, roll up tightly, pressing dough into roll with each turn. Pinch edges and ends to seal and place dough, seam-side down, into greased 9x5" bread pans, making sure short ends of bread are snugly fitted against the sides of the pans. Cover and let rise in warm place until the dough fills the corners of the pans and is double in bulk, 30-40 minutes.
Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, until bread is golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. I like to brush the bread with butter when it's still hot from the oven for a softer crust.

I make all my bread in the bread machine, even those recipes that aren't meant for bread machines. I use the machine to do the work of kneading by using the dough cycle, then I shape, rise and bake in the conventional manner.

Now get out there and bake bread. Oh, and be sure to give us pictures!

Annie

Any bread you can't finish while fresh will make wonderful croutons.

I'm positively certain that Peter Reinhart's book contains the very best information that is available in this modern age!!! Am looking forward to buying the book myself.

Yesterday, while roaming around in the net, came across The Reluctant Gourmet on the topic.

There is nothing as satisfying as making your own bread, in your own kitchen! I enjoy doing every phase of bread-making, especially the kneading! Gives a bit of physical exercise too, good for keeping the arms in shape.

I own a bread machine, but that is just for a dire emergency!!!

You will be fine! I learned to make bread using the recipe and instructions in my Kitchenaid mixer manual. I started with just basic white bread and went from there. Personally, I like letting the mixer do all the work :) Breadmaking will suck you in and you won't want to settle for anything from the store again :) Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

I just made my first couple of loaves, and yes, it was easier than I thought it would be! I don't have any tips, being a newbie myself, but I'm sure you'll do fine. Good luck!

I have been making our bread for a few years now and will not buy bread from the store! We are also empty nesters and most of my recipes make three loaves. I just freeze the other two. I also, cool and slice one loaf and then keep it in the freezer. That way I can just take out the slices I need and it stays very fresh. We could eat a loaf a day.....but don't so the freezer works well for us.

I like having all the mess at one time. I actually look forward to "bread making day".

Good luck! Once you start, you will never look back.

Oh, you are all so encouraging, I wish I could start today! Unfortunately, the slate is full. Tomorrow we'll be at my parents' helping them winterize their home, but hopefully, I can carve time out Sunday.

DH and I did the South Beach Diet a couple years ago, and I have determined that life is too short to live without good bread. All things in balance.....

Thank you so much for your responses and for the recipes!

Question for Annie about the Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe. I am in the middle of making it and realize that it calls for one egg, but then the egg isn't mentioned again. I assume you add it to the dough before kneading it? That's what I'm going to do in a few minutes, so I hope my assumption is correct, lol. Thanks in advance.

Yes, I just dump the egg in the bottom of the bread machine with the rest of the "wet" ingredients. You know, I already knew that problem and didn't manage to fix it on the recipe yet! Sorry....

Annie

There is a good tutorial in the FAQ part of this board. (If you haven't noticed the FAQ before, the link is in the text under the heading Cooking at the top of the Cooking Forum page.)

Look for Tricia's Bread Baking 101. That should get you going on your first loaf or two.

I don't ever remember my mother making bread....but my father did. Not often and when he did it was with much flourishing and lots of praise from all present.
My paternal grandmother baked bread fairly often in my mempry...and her mother in law ( my grandfather's mother) baked bread almost daily I recall. She ran a boarding house, so likely my recollection is accurate.
My father taught me the basic kneading motion...once you learn, you never forget.
I made bread often when I was pregnant for the first child. In those days you had to quit work at 3 months. amd we only had one car and my husband needed that, and it was winter....so I baked. I only had 2 cookbooks, so I pretty well baked my way thought Fanny Farmer.
I remember going down to the shore when my daughter was 18 months, and I had to stay home while she napped and everyone else went to the beach, so I made bread...
I had found some yeast in the cupboard and I had flour salt and milk....and no cook book....so I winged it....and it was wonderful! I had no bread pan, not even a cookie sheet, so I baked the bread on an upside down 9 by 12 cake pan!
That made me realize that in home made bread, perfection is nothing when compared with the smell of bread fresh from the oven.
I have made under baked bread, over baked bread, forgotten the salt ( just add extra butter when youe at it!) and forgotten to add the yeast until I realized that it didn't rise.....so I mixed the dry yeast into the dough, added a little more water to make it easy to knead and a bit more flour....so it wouldn't be sticky....and you would never know.
It's really really hard to ruin bread.
I repeat, just do it....you might waste $10 worth of ingredients and 4 or 5 hours of your time if you have about 4 to 6 failures in a row....but if you had gone to some cooking class, you would have spent more $$ and spent more time and learned 1/2 as much.
Just do it!
Linda C

Letting you all know I plunged in and baked my first loaf Sunday. I used the recipe on the back of King Arthur's Traditional 100% Whole Wheat Flour.

The aroma, taste and texture were great. I served it at dinner with homemade fish chowder and a tossed salad to rave reviews.

The only thing was that the loaf was more flat than rounded - it didn't have much of a crown, even though I let it rise for 90 minutes - 30 minutes longer than the suggested 60. Maybe I didn't knead it long enough?? Or is that just to be expected with a recipe that uses all whole wheat?

If you have any thoughts to what might help with that, please let me know.

I loved the process and am inspired to keep on practicing and trying different recipes. Thanks, all, for giving me a little push!

a loaf of 100% whole wheat flour will be flattish...less gluten in WW flour...
But it tasted good didn't it?
Next I suggest you try a challah....you don't have to be bothered braiding it....it makes a wonderful loaf....and the leftovers are great as French toast!
There are lots and lots of ways to make bread! Enjoy!
Linda c

I agree, whole wheat flour has less gluten, you can usually get a slightly better rise if you add vital wheat gluten but I don't bother. I like lots of crust and so a flat loaf gives me lots of crust, LOL.

Oh yeah, the challah! I made an apple challah that didn't require braiding, just roll the dough out, add the apple misture, fold half the dough over, top with the rest of the apple mixture, pull the rest of the dough over, cut into chunks and put it in a 9 inch round springform pan. Quick, easy, yummy, the recipe is from King Arthur Flour and there are pictures.....

Annie