Making the Dough

• The first step in baking bread is gathering the ingredients. Start all the ingredients out at room temperature. This maintains a constant temperature throughout the baking process, which is critical to yeast breads. Yeast is a live culture and can be sensitive to temperature differentials. Whether you are making a white bread or egg bread, let the ingredients stand for about an hour to reach room temperature.
  
  To keep the bread from becoming heavy, spoon the flour into the measuring cup instead of dipping the cup into the flour bag. The dipping action compresses the flour, causing the addition of more flour than is needed.
  
  Use warm, not hot, water or milk, so the yeast remains active. Temperature is the key to successful yeast activity. Too cold and the yeast does nothing. Too hot and the yeast dies. A temperature of about 110 degrees allows the yeast to bloom.
  
  Kneading plays an important role in baking bread. This step helps release the gluten in the bread, making a light and airy loaf. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes and then give it a gluten window test. Break off a small piece of dough and stretch it like bubble gum. What should develop is a film of dough with a "membrane" in it. This "window" will not break if the dough is ready for the next step.
  
  

Let it Rise

• A good bread dough must rise at least an hour for all the yeast enzymes to do their work. To test whether the dough has sufficiently risen, gently push two fingers into the side of the dough. If the indentation remains when you remove your fingers, the dough is ready. If it bounces back, let the dough continue to rise another 15 minutes.
  
  Punching the dough down releases any air pockets formed. Punch it down and let it rise again for an even lighter bread loaf. The second punch down is when the dough is formed into a ball to rest before shaping.
  
  You do not want to just drop the dough ball into a baking pan because there will be air pockets or uneven parts of the dough mangled together to create a mixture of light and heavy sections of a bread loaf. To avoid this, roll the dough out into a rectangle at least 1 inch longer than the baking pan. Fold the long ends together and then fold in thirds from the short end. Gently roll the dough back and forth until it is tube shaped. Place the bread loaf into a pan and allow it to rise again until it has doubled.
  
  

Baking and Serving

• Oven temperatures vary so start an early check, like 10 minutes, to keep hotter ovens from burning the bread loaf. Once the bread sounds hollow when it is tapped on the top remove it from the oven. For a softer crust, brush the top with a little melted butter or margarine. Remove the bread loaf from the baking pan immediately to keep the loaf from drawing moisture from the hot pan.
  
  The interior of the loaf will remain soggy if the bread it cut too soon. Although it is tempting to cut off a piece and bite into the delicious homemade bread, it is best to let it cool completely before cutting.