Basic Bread Baking (repost)

Bread’s my greatest weakness. There are worse ones, I know, though most of them don’t show up on your hips the way bread can.

There’s something so elemental about a good bread. It’s satisfying! It makes you feel well fed. And if it’s a bread you’ve made yourself, you also feel a lovely sense of gratification. In addition, you can make breads you’ll never find in any store or bakery — and, of course, you can brag to your friends.
Here you’ll find basic breads — white, whole wheat, and so on — and also some variations and specialty breads. Almost all are made with yeast; most are basic breads of one sort or another. Two (Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Monkey Bread) would come under the heading of sweet breads.
For those who aren’t fond of kneading, there are some “batter breads,” yeast breads that do not require any muscle-building exercise. (Some cherish the kneading process as a way to get rid of anxieties or frustrations, or at the very least to build their biceps. Others — and these are the ones who buy breadmakers and food processors — are fond of any way of making things easier.) And finally, there’s Kaleidoscope Bread, an amazing concoction that proves that not all great breads are leavened.
But first you’ll find a description of the key ingredients used in breadmaking and a section on bread-making techniques.
At the very end, you’ll find a few sources for grains, flours, mills, and all sort of other things that’ll come in handy for the breadmaking cook.