by W. Diane Van Zwol

Created on: June 08, 2008   Last Updated: June 09, 2008

Baking Really Good Bread Is An Art!

The tantalizing aroma of freshly baked bread immediately says "Home!" when a person walks through your doorway. Making really good bread is an art that needs to be cultivated worldwide. Here are some basic bread making tips.

1. Pick a day when the sky is clear, rather than a cloudy day, to make your bread. When the humidity is relatively low, your bread will tend to rise better. If your bread dough rises properly, you will have much lighter bread.

2. Find a time of day when you are in the mood to make bread, because it is a lot of work and not really much fun, when you are too tired to enjoy making it. You will love baking bread, when you see that you can actually succeed in making really good bread.

3. Make certain that you have all of your necessary ingredients on hand before you start. Measure these out ahead of time. You really do not want to have to make a trip to the store, right in the middle of your baking project. It can be really frustrating to start making bread and find out that there are some basic ingredients missing. You actually only need flour, yeast, salt, water and cooking oil to make bread.

4. Choose a time of day when your kitchen is already warm, or at least a time when you want your kitchen to become warm, because it most certainly will be when you are baking bread. You may not have time to cool your kitchen down later on, if you are planning on having company.

5. Before you start any baking, make a practice of washing your hands well. When you are making bread you will be using your hands, unless you have a bread maker that kneads the dough for you. Even then, it is still a good idea. It is also wise to wear an apron, as making bread can be a messy business. If you have long hair, tie that back too, so that it does not get in your face, or into your bread.

6. Plan to start your yeast early in the day, because the dough may take a while to rise. The amount of time required will depend upon the kind of yeast that you use. There are a number of different kinds of yeast that you can purchase, so make certain that the one you choose is the kind that has been recommended in the recipe of your choice.

7. The cost of different kinds of yeast may vary. Be aware that while you can substitute one kind of yeast for another, doing so may render different results. Fast acting yeast will rise much faster than slow acting yeast, but it will also create more air bubbles in the dough. You may have to knead it more, in order

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