Easy Bread Baking

Crash! "Oh! Now I know why they said not to use a glass pan!", I exclaimed, after I jumped back to avoid flying glass.

After my husband lost his job, we looked for ways to save money. Eating out was one of our big money wasters, so one solution to our new financial status was to spend more time at home, and less time out spending money.

I've never successfully baked bread. I was always intimidated by kneading dough. I never understood the proper way to knead or how to know when the dough was "elastic" or any other descriptive terms people used to indicate when dough was sufficiently kneaded. But let's face it; flour is cheap. I can buy a 50-pound bag of flour for around $12 at Costco, and can get a large bag of yeast for around $5. I haven't calculated how much a single loaf of bread costs, but it is definitely mere pennies per loaf.

The best part about it is that my entire family loves bread. There is nothing like the smell of baking bread, and a piping hot loaf of bread, served with even a simple bowl of soup, makes a satisfying meal.

In spite of my rocky start with bread baking that caused a pan to explode, I've become a proficient bread baker and now bake at least two or three loaves of bread each week, with minimal time and effort.

If you're a reluctant baker like I was and you're not sure you can handle baking bread from scratch, read on to learn easy bread baking secrets.