I’ve always wanted to be a good baker. I’ve always liked the idea of fresh-baked bread, from baguettes to croissants to sourdough for sandwiches. Then there’s the reality. I make bread, and it never turns out quite right. But for my Sustainable Kitchen Project, I’m determined to get to the point where we can just use bread I bake instead of store-bought. Is it realistic? Who knows.

I read this article on Baking vs. Cooking by a Foodie Mama writer, and realized something. I’m bad at baking for the same reason I’m bad at gardening (which, incidentally, is going pretty well with my organic vegetable garden!). It requires patience, and precision. Not really my thing. But I am trying to improve.

This weekend, I made two loaves of bread from scratch. Both turned out less than perfect, but they did still taste good. I will keep practicing, and I think I may have even figured out what I did wrong.

The nice thing about baking your own bread is it doesn’t require expensive equipment or even expensive ingredients. I first made a banana bread with chocolate chips. The reason? I discovered three forgotten (and very overripe) bananas on top of the refrigerator. I hated to just toss them in the trash.

On Mother’s Day, my daughter and I made it into a pretty amazing bread. I will declare it a success, but I think I used too much banana. The recipe called for 2-3 bananas. I used 3, but they were very large. The bread was a bit overmoist, and fell apart very easily. Still, it tasted amazing.

Cocky on my first semi-success in baking, I decided to take the next step that evening. I decided to make real white bread. With yeast. This is typically where things go wrong. My bread always ends up really dense. This time, though, I think I’ve figured out why.

My bread cookbook encouraged me to use fresh yeast or, as a second choice, instant yeast. I had active dry yeast, and I’m guessing it doesn’t rise as well. I also read for the first time ever that salt kills yeast. Hello? Isn’t that noteworthy? I have never read that in a bread recipe before. And it still wasn’t clear to me why I was still adding salt, or how to do it properly.

Anyway, I waited until last to add the salt, but I could even see the change in the dough immediately around the salt granules. So how do you add salt to bread dough? I don’t get it.

In the end, the bread tasted good but it is definitely too heavy and dense. I want light and fluffy. Are any of you skilled bread bakers? What did I do wrong? Tips? I will not let a simple loaf of bread beat me.

Here are some pictures of the two breads being created, and the end results: