Homemade bread is easy to make. The quality of the flour matters. Recipe follows.
Homemade bread is fresh, it's much better than any random bread from the store and can be as good as the best. It's also cheaper than the cheapest there. Organic bread flour costs $.80/lb, give or take few cents, and the loaf takes 1/2 to 3/4 lb flour.
I started making my own bread three years ago, and at that point I thought making bread to be a challenging alchemy. It turned out not that complicated, while not exactly predictable. I never used bread machine and, after several attempts, don't even use my heavy-duty Kitchen Aid stand mixer for kneading. Worse, I don't knead!
I used several books and tried several recipes. Now I make two types of bread: "everyday" and challah. Everyday bread consists only (or mainly) of the wheat flour, water, yeast and salt. The quality of the flour is crucial for the result. Bread flour is no superstition: it has higher gluten content (up to 14%, while all-purpose or pastry flour has 7-10%), and gluten is what makes wheat dough capture yeast-produced gas and rise. I try to use organic flour because I believe it tastes better; also, it seems a good idea to use stone-milled and not steel-cut flour, because in steel-cutting process flour gets hot and part of the gluten denatures. Tap water is good enough to drink and works for bread, too. Any commercial dry yeast will do. The bigger the container, the cheaper they are, some places sell yeast in bulk. Yeast stay alive in a closed glass jar in a refrigerator for at least a year.
The general directions for bread: use the same 4 quart or bigger glass or stainless-steel bowl, scrub it down, but don't wash every time. Once a year for Passover is enough if I don't mess it up. If the bread turned bad or you forgot your starter for several days, clean it.
Dissolve 1 teaspoon (no need to be precise) of yeast in 1 cup of cool tap water, add 1 cup of flour and mix thoroughly for a minute with a wooden spoon. Wooden spoon is no superstition as well: stainless steel spoon will bend on the next step. Cover the bowl with a towel, cling wrap or plastic bag and leave it alone overnight at room temperature. (6-16 hours, the longer the better).
Add 1 cup of water, mix it in; add another 0.5-2 teaspoons of yeast, the less the better, the more the faster, mix in. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Gradually add 2.5 to 3.5 cups of flour mixing thoroughly and keep mixing for several minutes. The dough now is loose and sticky, but it rather clings to the spoon than sticks to the bowl. Cover with a plastic bag and leave at room temperature for 4-6 hours.
Deflate the dough, turning and kneading it with the spoon for half a minute. It's more elastic and manageable now. Turn it over on the well-floured cooking board and shape into round or oval loaf briefly by turning in the flour and let it rest on the cookie sheet covered with baking paper. Set the oven on 450 F and turn it on. The time needed to heat the oven is enough for proofing the loaf. Put the loaf and all in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Turn it upside-down and tap the lower crust: it should sound hollow then the bread is ready. Let it cool on the rack (on top of the burner on the stove is OK). Yields one loaf that lasts for a day for my family of five.
Better yet, after 4-6 hours of rising deflate the dough and put the covered bowl in the refrigerator for 2-12 hours, and when bake as described.
Oil or butter, seeds or other types of flour, milk, yogurt, beer, cheese, onion, garlic and spices are optional. One egg, three tablespoons of sugar and/or two tablespoons of oil save any flour; diluted molasses makes sweet brown crust; whole wheat flour, oatmeal or oat bran interfere with rising (but egg helps). If you add fats (eggs included), bake at 425 F.
See also: kitchen, challah, bread flour, stand mixer.