One of the main reasons making bread has always intimidated me is the fact that you need to pay close attention to details like timing and temperature: As the girl who once forgot to put flour in her pumpkin bread, this seemed like a lot of responsibility. But with advice from our food editor and more FaceTime calls to my mom than I am willing to admit, I made my own bread from scratch (yeast and all!) and I’m proud to announce it was a success. I decided to make the Better Homes & Gardens Easy Everyday Bread recipe, because it was straightforward and I could find all of the ingredients. It’s a light bread that would pair well with a cozy soup recipe or served alongside a tasty pasta dish. And the best part? It was actually easy to make! The hardest part about making the yeast bread was finding the yeast. I decided to try making bread several weeks ago, but I had to wait until the yeast packets came back in stock before I could get started. Since so many people are on the bread-making train right now, there is actually a nation-wide shortage of yeast. I was eventually able to score a couple from Target, but if you’re having trouble finding it there are still options available from Etsy, of all places. Once I had the yeast in my hands, I read through the recipe and did a little research before mixing up the dough. As I was watching Chrissy Teigen make pizza dough on Instagram stories a few days ago, I learned that the dry stuff inside my yeast packets is actually alive. Who knew? Heeding Chrissy’s advice, I made sure to stir gently and use water that wasn’t too warm. You’re actually supposed to use a thermometer to check the temperature, but I don’t have one so I erred on the side of too cool rather than too warm. Once I got the dough mixed up, I let it refrigerate overnight. I’m not sure what I expected, but I was a little disappointed to find it didn’t look much different the next morning. But once I formed it into a loaf shape and let it rise on the kitchen counter for a while, it started to grow. After waiting the required one hour (it felt like much longer), it was time to put my dough in the oven. I set the timer for 25 minutes, but took the bread out after 24 because I just couldn’t wait any longer while the heavenly freshly-baked-bread smell filled my kitchen. After letting the bread cool, I sliced it up and took a bite. I won’t lie: I didn’t have high hopes that I could pull this off, but I was pretty impressed with the end result. I have two yeast packets left, so I’m eyeing our Best-Ever Cinnamon Roll recipe and considering trying the Everyday Artisan Bread next.
