When I think of fresh bread, I think of a row house at Stanford. Each of the undergrads that lived in this house had a housekeeping job that rotated every so often. The best job ever? Baking the bread. I spent a number of years working with students at Stanford and one evening, I found myself there during bread baking hour. All the house residents knew the magical hour when the bread would come out of the oven, and the kitchen would slowly fill as students would trickle in through the doors. I was there amongst the small crowd and was lucky enough to get a piece of the bread, warm from the oven. It was amazing. So warm and comforting and so simple at the same time. Fresh bread, I realized that night, is on a whole other level than the pre-sliced loaves I ate for so long. There are some things that you can make yourself that don’t make that much of a different from store bought, but fresh bread? It will always be better.

At some point during newly married life, I tried my hand at bread baking a few times, and it was always an utter failure. The dough would never rise anywhere near the double volume the recipe called for. I’d still bake it anyway but it was always dense and highly disappointing. I ended up with a Costco sized yeast package that went to waste. Yeast had conquered me.

Fast forward a number of years later. I treated myself to an artisan bread making class at our local Sur la Table and I learned how to make a country loaf and brioche. I was hooked once again, but this time with more knowledge. Immediately after the class, I had food coma from all that bread, but managed to get myself on amazon to order a food thermometer. In my last post, I shared the two most important tips to bread making that I’ve learned. Getting the temperature of the liquid you’re starting the yeast in just right, and adjusting the rise time depending on the temperature of where you’re placing your dough. In the last few months, yes while super pregnant and with a newborn, I’ve been in a bread making craze. I can’t get enough of it. For those of you out there who are also interested in making your own bread, I thought I’d put together a list with notes on what to try in order of difficultly.

Banana Bread

This is one of two, non-yeast bread recipes. Banana bread is delicious and without the yeast, it’s a good place to start. Try this Simply Recipes banana bread recipe.

Drop Biscuits 

This also doesn’t use yeast, and is a lot easier than other biscuit recipes where you have to form the dough and cut it. These are super buttery and a great side to a roast chicken meal. This is the recipe I use from Serious Eats.

Rustic No-Knead Bread

Ready to give yeast a try? No-knead bread doesn’t have a lot of hands-on time at all, but delivers a tasty loaf. Check out my recipe here. You can also make it with all, all-purpose flour, like I did when I started with this recipe.

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

I think I actually made this before the no-knead loaf. I was craving cinnamon raisin bread after seeing a trader joe’s loaf of it at my in-law’s and I thought to myself, I can totally make that. And I did. This recipe does involve kneading and if you have a standing mixer, just pop on the dough hook and let the machine do all the work. Pat just pulled a loaf out the oven, it smells amazing in here. Want to come over?

This is the recipe I use.