Of all the things created in the kitchen, the most beautiful is bread. At least, in my kitchen. When I can take flour, water, yeast and salt and turn it into a loaf of bread that provides a compliment to any meal, it feels powerful to me. It feels holy.

I know many of you have seen my adventures in bread making on Instagram stories and many of you have shared that you just don’t think you would be as successful at it. As usual, I want to encourage you to try. After several loaves of bread, a freshly baked loaf sat on my counter and I said “everyone should experience this just once.”

If you’re new to making bread, bread takes several hours. It’s not several hours of work, though, at least, not on your end. But the dough, well, it’s very busy during that time.

I want to share a particular recipe with you that I feel is a good first loaf to try. It wasn’t my first loaf, it wasn’t even in my first ten loaves but I found it to be the most forgiving loaf. So, I think it’s a good first loaf. I don’t think it’s the best bread I have ever made but it’s great bread and my family loves it. We have sliced it for toast, used it for grilled cheese, cut it in half for garlic bread and used it for french toast. It’s extremely versatile.

A few things to note: pay close attention to the consistency of the dough as it’s kneading. If it’s not sticking to the sides, stop adding flour. (even if you’re supposed to add more, according to the recipe.) Most bread recipes have you weighing your flour, this recipe does not but I wish that it did. So, if this is your first loaf, it’s important to know that in the future, you should be weighing your flour. (well, weighing everything from salt to water to yeast to flour.) For now, just enjoy the process but pay special attention to what it feels like to pull that bread out and see what you created.

Hopefully, it’s the first of many loaves to come.

As always, I’m sharing the site where I found this recipe. You can find the recipe here. (this recipe makes two loaves of french bread.)