How to Make Homemade Bread

by Jared Garrett

The Western world loves bread. It's hard to find something better than the sliced version. But have you ever considered making your own bread? Doing this at home, let's say without a breadmaker but with a bread mixer, can be a deeply satisfying experience. Just imagine: It's a cold winter day and you're sitting down to a cup of hot chocolate with a slice of warm, fresh, homemade bread. Lovely, no?

In order to make bread at home, you will need the following equipment:

*An oven
*Bread loaf pans. Try 8x4x4
*Bread mixer (or a strong mixing spoon!)
*Measuring cups and spoons
*Unbleached white or whole wheat flour
*Dry yeast
*Canola oil or butter
*Honey or sugar
*Salt

With these tools and ingredients alone, you can make a very basic loaf of bread. We'll show you two recipes that take about 30 minutes of actual labor and a couple of hours of total prep time. The procedures outlined are for those with a bread mixer. If you don't have one of these, you will spend about twice as much time mixing and kneading, and you'll get more exercise, but you will still have a great experience!