@abasket, I assume you can add the flour and water directly to the jar or crock. I’m sure that’s what I did when I made this. Maybe the “return to the bowl or jar” is in there in case the baker removes the mixture to a flat surface to knead in the flour and water.
I used to make all of our bread–many varieties–but I stopped when I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes because I really shouldn’t eat it. Since S is currently staying with us, and he loves real French bread and sourdoughs, I just showed him how to make the no-knead Dutch oven bread. We made one plain loaf, and the next day I made an experimental loaf with shallots and garlic which turned out well. I sliced the shallots and garlic, sauteed them in a little olive oil, let them cool, then added to the dough with the liquid. IIRC 2 or 3 large shallots and 2 cloves of garlic for one loaf.
I don’t bake bread often enough these days to keep a starter going.
I have a super easy recipe that I use frequently. You can start it in a stand mixer and knead by hand, start and knead in the mixer, or do the whole thing by hand. The key to good yeast bread is to make sure the yeast is actually alive. Often, the grocery store stuff isn’t. I order it by the pound from King Arthur flour and keep it in the fridge.
In a mixing bowl, put one cup of warm milk or water, 1 tbsp honey, and 1 tbsp or a packet of good yeast. Stir by hand and let sit. If it doesn’t start to bubble within 10 minutes, get new yeast and start over. Otherwise, stir in 3 cups or so of flour, 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp softened butter (or oil). Mix until shaggy, then knead by hand 10 minutes, or in the mixer for 5. Add more liquid if dough is dry (and you’ll learn to tell very quickly) or flour if it’s too tacky after 5 minutes of kneading. Let rise in clean, oiled bowl until double in bulk. Punch down, shape, put on pan and let rise again. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, depending on size of loaf. Use a thermometer if necessary (should be about 170 degrees).
I’m learning a lot! I never would have thought that grocery store yeast could be unproductive!
Why do I always want to read the title of the thread as “Breaking Bad” instead of “Baking Bread”? ?
I make rolls from scratch several times a year. White flour and everyone loves them. Especially right from oven. I prefer a heartier flour, but everyone else likes the white. I sometimes mix cheese in the dough. OMG. I am in calorie heaven. I make pizza dough all the time. 3 cups flour, 1 cup warm water with 1 pack of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar. After mixing together I add a tablespoon of olive oil. Give it an hour and ready to roll out and bake. OMG so good. and easy.
The cinnamon roll recipe linked above makes really, really good cinnamon rolls. I didn’t bother frosting them, because I generally like less sweet, and they were just right.
@BunsenBurner, I would call my first foray into yeast bread, “Baking Bad Bread.” Somewhat uncharacteristically, I didn’t give up; I found a more detailed recipe, invested in a thermometer (I think I might have killed the yeast with dreaded too-warm water), and haven’t looked back, except to chuckle about that first loaf.
Maybe I should have titled the thread “Breaking Bread”. 
No-Knead is in the oven at the moment. I’m going to make the egg bites from the Instant Pot thread for breakfast this morning. Thank you for breakfast, CC!
I started trying to bake baguettes before the holidays— they didn’t rise properly and the resulting loaves were striking anatomically correct. Maybe it’s time to try again!
@CIEE83 My son gave me an Emile Henry Baguette Baker for my birthday (I would never have spent that much!) and it has made all the difference in the world. Easy-peasy recipe. The only problem is it makes three loaves, and if you don’t eat it right away, it doesn’t keep for long.
Has anyone had any success baking yeast doughnuts? Apparently, making the poor life choice of cinnamon rolls was not sufficient. Google gives me plenty of recipes, and it looks like there’s no difference in the base recipe for a baked vs fried version. I’m not trying to be healthy; I just don’t like dealing with a big pot of hot oil.
I have been baking substantially all of our bread and bagels for almost a decade now. Generally I do half a dozen bagels and a couple of loaves of bread on Sunday morning. I do keep commercial yeast in the refrigerator, but mostly I do sourdough.
I actually have two sourdough starters going, one that I inherited from a nephew in 2008 and one I cultured myself from the incredibly good but super-expensive Florapan dry sourdough starter from Montreal that King Arthur sells. My cultured version has been slowly losing its special quality, and I may have to re-up. But King Arthur has (I believe) an exclusive right to sell it to consumers in North America, and it charges $10 plus $5 shipping for a tiny 5 gram package that fits in a standard envelope and does not require more than a basic stamp. It’s enough to make 10+ loaves, but that still comes to an extra $1.50 per loaf, and that seems crazy. It’s really sloooooooow; you need at least 7-8 hours to get a sponge going.
After lots of experimentation, I mostly use King Arthur bread flour and King Arthur whole wheat flour (with some added diastatic barley malt). They have jacked up the price so high on the bread flour, however, that I am about to try some other brands again. (At my supermarket this week, the King Arthur was $1.15/lb, and Gold Medal bread flour was $.425/lb, neither on sale.)
Apart from the bagels, I usually make some version of a country sourdough batard. Sometimes all white, sometimes a mix of white and whole wheat. Sometimes with herbs for flavoring (rosemary, sage); sometimes not. Sometimes with wheat berries added; sometimes not. I will also occasionally make challah (for events where challah is needed), pizza dough, focaccia. Also non-yeast cornbread, for which I use the old Silver Palette recipe, but skip the bacon.
Cinnamon rolls: My favorite, although it’s by no means easy, is the recipe for schnecken in the old Joy of Cooking. (My nana used to buy schnecken for Sunday brunch almost every week.) They are basically cinnamon roll buns with pecans and raisins, made with a buttery multi-layer dough as for strudel or danish, and glazed with honey and butter. Cardamom and citrus peel are also involved. It’s a great recipe. Sometimes I make it as cookies, too – slicing the roll much more thinly and baking them to a somewhat crispier state on a cookie sheet, and without extra stuff on top except for the glaze. Slightly different recipes appear in later editions of TJOC; I’ve never actually tried them because the old one is so satisfactory.
I asked upthread but no responses so I will try again. For those of you that make homemade sandwich bread how do you slice it?
I’m low tech generally, so I don’t have a special device for slicing; I just use a serrated knife.
I’ve always used a serrated bread knife. You get good at what you practice so if you feel you’re not very good at it, just wait a few loaves and you’ll be good enough.
My cinnamon buns came out goood. But I feel guilty for not cleaning.
A friend uses this kind of slicing guide:
I’m inspirited to try to make bread again. My first attempt was a dismal failure. Probably killed the yeast because the dough never rose properly. Haven’t tried again for ages.