I gave a cooking lesson to a young client last week. She wanted to learn how to make bread, so I found a great first-loaf recipe for basic white bread.

We bloomed the yeast, scalded some milk, added some flour and she got to work stirring. We did it the old-fashioned way, with a wooden spoon. She’s a small one, so I’m sure she had a little arm soreness the next day, because mixing bread dough with a wooden spoon is a really great upper-body workout. And kneading was fun for all who gave it a try. We had to wait patiently for the bread to rise. We had to wait patiently for it to rise again after a punch down. We had to wait patiently for the bread to bake, smelling the smell and not ripping open the oven door and devouring it like rabid wolves. And we had to wait patiently while the bread cooled, because if you try to and cut hot bread, it turns into quite a mess. But all of the patient waiting paid off! There is almost nothing in this world better than freshly made, warm-from-the-oven bread, especially if you made it yourself. Success!