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 one. I remember my first try at it. 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/if 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 it 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. It's 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, it's time to bake.

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