It's not easy to make good bread. Even though I have a ton of cooking doodads in the kitchen, it took me a while to make an edible loaf. I remember my first try. It smelled like bread, but it looked and tasted like a brick. Only a crocodile could have chewed it.

There are many factors involved in the process, but the ingredients are few and simple: flour, water, yeast and salt, although patience is the most important. There's no way to make tasty bread unless you don't respect the time it takes. You have to wait for the dough to rise twice, and the first rising is crucial. The second rising is called proofing and you can't skip this either. Well, you can, but I don't recommend you do. This is where timing and room temperature determine whether you can go watch Netflix in the meantime, or whether you'd better wait to see what happens.

The kneading is just as important as anything else. This is not just about pounding the dough as if it were a punching bag, rather it's about folding it skillfully. And if you're lucky enough to make it through the previous steps, now it's time to bake.

The oven needs to be hot as... hell? Once the loaf is in the oven, don't open it. Watching it rise will fill you with pride and satisfaction. Then carefully remove it from the oven and enjoy, but wait for it to cool first— it will taste better and you won't burn yourself.