How To Make Yeast Bread

The first step of making yeast bread is to make sure that the yeast is alive .

This is called proofing the yeast .

This is one of the most crucial steps because if the yeast is dead , it can't live in the bread to proof the yeast .

Measure out the amount of milk or other liquid that's specified in the recipe and heat the milk to a temperature of 100 to 110 degrees .

You can heat the milk in the microwave .

If you wish , add the warm milk to a large bowl and stir in the sugar and the yeast let this mixture stand for about five minutes .

Live yeast will begin to swell and foam or bubble a few minutes after it stirred into the warm liquid to make the bread dough , add most of the flour to the liquid ingredients all at once and stir just until the mixture is combined .

Save some of the flower for needing after the mixture is combined , dump the dough onto a floured surface and you're ready to need add enough of the remaining flour to get the dough to the desired consistency for needing .

It's ok if you don't use all of the remaining flour need the dough with authority .

Push it out with the heels of your hands , fold it over , give it a quarter turn and repeat .

Add more flour when necessary need for 8 to 10 minutes or until the dough feels smooth and elastic but still a little tacky for the first rising place the dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray because the dough will double in size cover the bowl with a slightly damp lightweight dish towel and place it in a warm place approximately 85 degrees free from drafts for one hour when the dough appears to have doubled in size , gently press two fingers into the dough .

If the indentation remains , the dough has risen enough punch the dough down in the center to deflate it .

After you've punched the dough down to deflate it , turn the dough out onto a flowered surface for rolling .

For this recipe .

We want to roll the dough into a rectangle , lift the rolling pin up slightly as you near each end of the rectangular shape .

For the second rising of the dough , roll up the dough and place it seam side down in a greased loaf pan or one that's been lightly coated with cooking spray cover and let it rise one hour or until the loaf has doubled in size .

Watch the loaf carefully .

If it rises too much and starts to fall , the bread will be dense .

Once the loaf has doubled in size .

The dough is ready to bake .