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    Home » Cooking Tips

    Recipes for Beginner Bread Makers

    Published by Rebecca Eisenberg ⁠— August 1, 2019 (updated September 3, 2021) — 2 Comments

    212 shares

    Dear The Practical Kitchen,

    I'm a beginner baker and have been wanting to learn how to make bread for a while now, but I'm just not sure where to start. There's so many different kinds of flours, tools, recipes, strong opinions as to whether you should use yeast and sourdough, what seems to be lots of math and percentages, and my head is spinning. What are your favorite recipes for a beginner baker?

    — Where Do I Begin?


    Dear WDIB,

    Before I give you some of my favorite recipes and some basic tools, let me give you the same speech I give anyone who tells me they're just too intimidated to try making bread: People have been successfully making bread without fancy equipment and special flours for literally thousands of years. Okay, sure, there was that one time the Jews fled Egypt and their bread failed spectacularly, but even they found a way to style it out into matzah.

    What I'm trying to say is: YOU GOT THIS.

    Those people you see obsessing over dough temperature and percentages and fancy flours are trying to achieve very specific, very precise results. You? You just want to make a nice first loaf of bread. You're a beginner baker. So don't start by chasing perfection — half the fun is honing your skills as you go.

    You don't need a lot of fancy equipment, but there are some tools that will make your beginner baker journey a lot easier if you have them at the start:

    • Kitchen Scale: When you're just starting out, using volumetric measurements (cups, teaspoons, etc) will yield acceptable results. However, the reason most bakers use kitchen scales is because a one cup scoop of flour can contain as little as 120 grams of loosely packed flour or as much as 220 grams of flour if you pack it in tightly. When you measure ingredients by weight, you remove any room for error. If you don't want to invest in a scale just yet, the best advice I can give you is just not to pack your flour into the measuring cup. You will end up with dense, dry bread.
    • Dutch Oven: While not strictly necessary for all of the recipes below, baking bread in a pre-heated dutch oven helps contain the steam released from the dough as it bakes and results in a crunchier crust. Dutch ovens are also great for making soups, stews, and deep frying — so you know, justify the cost to yourself that way.
    • Parchment Paper: You can use this to line a baking sheet or to pick up your shaped loaf and easily drop it into a hot Dutch Oven without burning your hands. If you don't have parchment paper, you can always just use some PAM or sprinkle some cornmeal on the bottom of a sheet tray before putting your dough down.
    • Bowl Scraper: A plastic bowl scraper is great for helping mix and combine your dough, as well as scraping it out of the bowl once it's risen. You could use a spatula for this, but spatulas aren't quite as sturdy for scooping a whole batch of dough at once the way bowl scrapers are.
    • Instant or Active Dry Yeast: It turns out they're the same thing! I know! The difference between them is that active dry yeast has a little protective shell around each granule and benefits from being proofed (mixed) with a bit of warm water before you use it. If you accidentally skip this step, the active dry yeast will still work, your dough will just take longer to rise because that little shell has to dissolve before the yeast can really get to work. I prefer instant yeast because you don't need to go through the extra step of proofing your yeast in water before using it. Just mix it right in with your dry ingredients (away from any salt) and proceed as usual. Store it in the freezer and it will stay good for a year or more.

    What about Sourdough? I never recommend starting your bread making journey with sourdough. Sourdough requires cultivating and feeding a sourdough starter — a mixture of fermented flour and water that produces its own natural yeast — and even the most basic loaf takes three days to make. Start with yeast doughs, and once you build up your confidence working with dough and are ready to invest a bigger time commitment in your bread making, ask a friend to give you some of their starter. But don't start there.

    So, now that you have your equipment and know a bit about why you should measure by weight and why yeast is not as complicated to work with as you thought, and why you should definitely not start with sourdough, here's some recipes to get you started:

    1. Crusty No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread (Overnight Rise)

    a large no knead bread with a dramatic ear in a mustard colored dutch oven with parchment paper.
    Crusty No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread (Overnight Rise)
    How easy is this to make? It says it in the name: NO-KNEAD. When you're a beginner baker, sometimes the best recipe for you is one that tells you to leave it tf alone for a while. And that's exactly what this recipe is. You will need a dutch oven for baking, but it's so simple and requires absolutely no kneading.
    The gluten strength and flavor develops over the 18 hours in which the dough rises before you loosely shape it into a ball (and I do mean loosely — this is a very wet and sticky dough, so just plop it on some lightly floured parchment paper and prod the dough into a round shape before baking).
    Pro-tip: Use wet hands when shaping this dough. I know you always see bakers flouring their hands for kneading, but when it comes to handling wet and sticky doughs, water is actually better for keeping it from sticking to you than flour.
    Get the Recipe

    2. No-Knead Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread (Overnight Rise)

    a loaf of whole wheat bread cut in half, the halves are stacked on top of each other with the crumb facing out.
    No-Knead Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Bread (Overnight Rise)
    This beginner-friendly no-knead whole wheat bread is a riff on my overnight no-knead white bread (a favorite of The Practical Kitchen readers!) and bakes into a rustic loaf with a golden-brown, crackling crust. Inside, you'll find a dense yet tender crumb with a nutty-yet-mild whole wheat flavor. Baked in a Dutch oven, it delivers a warm, inviting aroma and hearty slices perfect for making sandwiches or slathering with homemade butter.
    Get the Recipe

    3. Homemade Plain Bagels in Less Than 3 Hours

    plain homemade bagels on a cooling rack.
    Homemade Plain Bagels in Less Than 3 Hours
    Once you know how to make your own homemade plain bagels, you’ll make them over and over again because while you’ll know how secretly easy they are to make, your friends won’t — and getting to bask those impressed reactions? Priceless.
    Get the Recipe

    4. Small Batch Mini Focaccia in a Loaf Pan (Made with 1 CUP of Flour)

    cross section of a mini focaccia
    Small Batch Mini Focaccia in a Loaf Pan (Made with 1 CUP of Flour)
    This scaled down recipe uses just one cup of flour to make a mini focaccia that bakes up golden brown and fluffy on top with a crispy bottom in a standard loaf pan. Volume measurements are included in the blog post.
    Get the Recipe

    5. 2 Hour Ligurian Focaccia - Thin & Crispy!

    thin strips of ligurian focaccia on a sheet pan and on a white rectangular plate.
    2 Hour Ligurian Focaccia - Thin & Crispy!
    A crispy, easy to make focaccia bread that is excellent plain or loaded with toppings. Don’t skip the brine or skimp on the olive oil. It might seem like too much olive oil, but don’t worry — there’s no such thing — it’ll all absorb into the dough as it bakes.
    Get the Recipe

    6. Small Batch Baguette Bread Recipe (Made with 1 CUP of Flour)

    a mini loaf of baguette bread sliced in half lengthwise with the top half offset slightly, showing the crumb inside.
    Small Batch Baguette Bread Recipe (Made with 1 CUP of Flour)
    This mini baguette bread uses one cup of flour and bakes up beautifully browned with a thick, crunchy crust, an airy yet soft interior, and is perfect for sandwiches and snacking!
    Get the Recipe

    7. 3-Hour Soft-Baked Ciabatta Bread

    soft and fluffy ciabatta rolls.
    3-Hour Soft-Baked Ciabatta Bread
    This soft-baked ciabatta bread has a beautiful open crumb and an airy, tender texture. Clocking in at just three hours start to finish (most of it hands-off resting time), this easy ciabatta recipe is a perfect option for a lazy weekend or evening baking project!
    Get the Recipe

    8. Easy Soft Sandwich Bread in a Loaf Pan (For Beginners)

    a cross-section of a loaf of white sandwich bread
    Easy Soft Sandwich Bread in a Loaf Pan (For Beginners)
    This foolproof recipe for a single loaf of homemade soft sandwich bread uses just six easy-to-find ingredients. It's a classic white sandwich bread baked in a loaf pan, reminiscent of childhood lunches and cozy mornings; made with love at home in your kitchen. The finished loaf is wonderfully soft inside with a thin, light golden brown crust, perfect for slicing and sandwiches.
    Get the Recipe

    Good luck, and happy baking!


    Got a question for The Practical Kitchen? Leave a comment below!

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    1. Bev McCauley

      October 03, 2022 at 1:55 pm

      I LOVE your mini recipes!!
      Are working on more?

      Reply
      • Rebecca Eisenberg

        October 03, 2022 at 1:57 pm

        I don't currently have more in the works, but I am thinking about more to come!

        Reply

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