There are few aromas more delightful than the smell of home baked bread. It is an activity that has diminished in the hectic pace of modern life, but it is not nearly as difficult as people believe, and it is a very satisfying and rewarding experience.

The major division of baked breads is between yeast dough breads and quick breads. Quick breads are so named because they rely on baking soda or baking powder for leavening. As you would guess from their name, they are very quickly made because no kneading or rising is required. Popular quick breads include nut and fruit loaves, corn bread, muffins, biscuits, waffles, pancakes, and many coffee cakes.

Yeast breads rely on yeast for rising and include the kneaded breads, batter breads, rolls, many of the sweet holiday breads, sweet rolls, French and Italian breads, and yeast coffee cakes.

The yeast dough recipes may require a bit of experience or practice. You should give yourself a few tries to obtain the necessary experience to determine the proper amount of flour to knead into yeast dough. The reason recipes give a range of flour, say 5 to 6 cups, is the moisture content of flour varies.

The idea is to knead in only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking. If you knead in too much flour your bread will be tough. So how do you know when you have kneaded in enough dough?

Follow the rule of only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking. You will, as you continue to knead yeast bread dough, develop the ability to determine the proper amount by the feel of the dough. Professional bakers will pinch a bit of the dough in their mixers to determine if they have added enough flour.

Resolve to learn how to do it yourself and you will have many pleasurable baking experience. There is a great deal of satisfaction in taking flour, water, salt, perhaps some shortening, and living yeast and turning it into bread. Just the process of turning the ingredients into smooth elastic bread dough is satisfying.

As you knead dough, the glutenin in the wheat flour breaks down. The dough becomes increasingly smooth, elastic, and soft. Knead the bread by pushing it away from you on a lightly floured board with the heels of your hands. Turn it a quarter turn and knead again. It should take about 8 to 10 minutes of kneading to produce smooth elastic shiny dough.

When a recipe for yeast dough says, "allow the dough to rest for ten minutes', it means you should cover the dough with a clean dish towel and leave it alone for ten minutes.

Quick breads are very easy to make. The only thing you must guard against is excessive mixing. The recipe will frequently say, "stir only until dry ingredients are moistened". It means exactly that. The dough will look lumpy to you, but that is how it should be. This is particularly true with muffins.