There’s not much that smells or tastes better than a loaf of homemade bread fresh out of the oven, especially on a cold winter day. “Whoa,” you say, “I don’t have time to make homemade bread. All that measuring, mixing and kneading? It’s a lot of work for just one loaf of bread.”

Ahhh, but there are two ways to make bread.

The fancy way: buy bread flour and the other stuff you need, measure out the flour, butter, salt, sugar, etc, mix it in a big bowl, dissolve the yeast in a different bowl with more water, then mix the yeast into the dry mixture and knead, knead, knead. Add water if the dough is too stiff, add flour if it’s too sticky. Now, coat another bowl with butter, roll the dough in it and let rise until doubled, then punch it, knead it some more and let it rise again. Punch it again, knead it again, form it into a loaf in a pan and let it rise again. Slash the top of the dough, make an egg wash, brush it on the loaf, and bake. When it’s done, your whole house will smell wonderful and your homemade bread will look fabulous and taste great. If I had lots of spare time, I would always make bread this way, because it’s great fun and the loaves are always incredible.

The unfancy way: Well, yes, you do need to have the ingredients and you still have to measure the stuff, but dig out that bread machine you haven’t used since the week after you got it, and dump all the stuff in there. Plug it in and press the “Dough” button. In about an hour and a half, the machine will beep (or ding, or something…) and you will have mixed, kneaded, risen, homemade bread dough. Shape it into the kind of loaf you want, let it rise once more, and bake it. Or you can refrigerate for tomorrow, even freeze it for a couple weeks.

Yes, there are some other things you need to know about the easy way.

• The recipe needs to call for about 3 cups of flour. If your recipe calls for 6 cups of flour, just use half as much of everything.
• The kind of flour does make a difference, but all-purpose white tastes great, too. When you get the hang of the easy way, buy some rye flour. You’ll never buy a loaf of rye bread in the store again.
• You can just pat the dough into a rough loaf shape (like I do), or follow the recipe instructions for forming the loaf.
• Bake according to the recipe instructions, but check and adjust timing half way through so it doesn't get too dark.  
• Experiment! My favorite whole-wheat and oatmeal loaf recipe also makes great baguettes, breadsticks, dinner rolls and even pizza crust.

Bread made the easy way will have a slightly coarser texture and won’t be shiny on top unless you make an egg wash, which I rarely do, but it will smell and taste great the way homemade bread always does.

Heck, with some experience, you can have fresh, home made bread with dinner, even on work nights...like this potato bread I made tonight!