Well Scklackie, I can make bread with just my two hands and a big bowl. But it's messy and time consuming.
Or
I can use my Kitchenaide Mixer for the first mixing steps. When the bread dough crawls up the dough hook it's ready to come out and be kneaded for ten minutes or so, allowed to rise, punched down, kneaded again, formed into a loaf and plopped into the bread pan to rise the second time.

By far the easiest, method is to use a bread machine for the mixing, kneading, first rise, punching down, and second kneading. With my machine that takes exactly one hour.

Then I spray a little oil on the dough, remove it from the bread machine pan and put it into a loaf pan. Spray the top with oil again and press it down into the loaf pan, cover it with plastic wrap, let it rise a half hour and bake it at 350F for 30 minutes.

There is a book Available called
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day
Many find that this method suits their lifestyles best.
It's too fussy for me though.

Here's my recipe, you don't need scales:

Basic White Bread

1 cup warm water(not hot, temp over 140F will kill the yeast)
3 Tbsp Sugar(or less)
3 Tbsp Olive oil
2 1/4 Tsp (1 scant Tbsp) or 1 envelope of active dry or instant yeast

Mix the above ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside. This is called proofing the yeast it will become bubbly and gross looking an about 5 minutes.


Then sift together
3 cups BREAD FLOUR
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

Measure before you sift, use a dry measuring cup fill the cup heaping full and srape the excess off with the back of a knife.
Sift the flour into a very large bowl, you need room to work so the bigger the better.
Make a well in the sifted dry ingredients.
Pour about half the liquid into the well and stir is small circles with a blending fork. spreading the flour outward and incorporating the liquid into the flour, add the rest of the liquid before all of the first in used up.

Now, get in there with your hands and start mashing it together until it forms into a ball. Depending on the weather you may need to add a tablespoon or so of water or a tablespoon or so of flour. Transfer the ball of dough to a clean,floured work surface. Press it down and away from yourself, fold it over, press it down and away from yourself, dredge it with flour if it's sticky, form it back up and press it down and away, form, press, form, press over and over, you may have guessed that this is kneading the dough.
After a few minutes it will become silky smooth and a little bit shiny.

If the big bowl is a mess, wash it and dry it.
At this point there are two schools of thought.
If the bowl came out pretty clean just dredge it with flour, put the ball of dough back in it. dredge the dough with flour, and cover the bowl with a damp towel.

OR
Spray the bowl with oil, plop the dough into it and spray the dough with oil. Cover with a damp towel and ...

Put it in a warm draft-free place to rise for about an hour.
This is called Proofing the Dough
Clean up your messy kitchen. Use a Bench Knife to scrape up the excess flour and bits and bobs of dough that are stuck on your counter top. Don't clean the work area too well though because you have to knead it a little bit more later.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

When you see that the dough is pushing up on the towel and has pretty much Doubled in Size uncover it, punch it down with your fist(you don't have to hit it hard) this is maybe the funnest part of bread making. pffffffffft.

Flour your work surface again and turn the bread dough out onto it, dredge it with flour and begin kneading again, down and away, form it up, down and away, form it up, knead, reform, knead, reform. Until it is smooth and shiny again.
Place it in a well oiled loaf pan, spray the top with oil and mash it down with your knuckles til it's fairly even. If you have two sizes of loaf pans use the bigger one, the little ones are for quick breads like Banana Bread. Cover the loaf with plastic wrap, spray the top of the plastic wrap generously with oil and turn it over so the oily plastic sits loosely on top of the pan. Put it on top of the stove to rise for a half hour to 45 minutes until it rises a little bit higher than the pan. Remove the plastic and pop it into the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Ovens vary but you want the bread nicely browned on top so 5 or 10 more minute might be needed.

When it looks like it's done remove it from the oven and turn it out of the pan IMMEDIATELY onto a cooling rack.. Or it will steam itself to mush. The bottom and sides of the loaf should be golden, a little bit toasty and should ring hollow when you thump it.
Let it cool almost completely before cutting it

You might also try Irish Soda Bread






Good coffee, good weed, and time on my hands...