Want to bake bread but you’re nervous? These easy recipes are perfect for beginners

If you’ve ever watched a season of “The Great British Baking Show” and thought it’d be great to make a homemade loaf of sourdough bread, but the idea of making bread from scratch sounded daunting, then this article is for you.

There’s no doubt that making homemade bread is a process, and if you mess up, it’s not easy to salvage, but there are some beginner baking recipes that don’t require a whole lot of work, as long as your read the directions carefully and stay organized.

Once you execute one of these simple recipes, we guarantee you’ll be hooked on making your own bread. Sure, it takes a lot of time, but most of that time goes to letting the dough rise, so you really only need a spare half hour or so to do the actual work.

Here are our suggestions:

No-knead focaccia from Bon Appétit

You will be shocked at how simple this recipe is. It’s a perfect bread to make for the first time if you’ve never done it, and the best part is that you don’t have to knead the dough, which can be one of the most difficult things about making homemade bread. Plus, who doesn’t love a good focaccia? It’s the most delicious and crunchy bread.

Basic homemade bread from Taste of Home

Once you make this bread, you’ll wonder why you ever brought the pre-sliced kind from a grocery store. This recipe does require you to knead the bread, but eventually you’re going to have to do it, so this is a great, simple recipe to introduce you to the task. The other great thing about this recipe is that it’s only six ingredients, and most of them you probably have in your pantry right now.

Easy no-knead bread from the New York Times

This recipe is very similar to the focaccia recipe from above, and requires no kneading, which is always a plus. It does take almost a day for the bread to rise, but you’ll end up with a decently sized loaf that has a great, crunchy crust on the outside. Perfect!

Once you bake your way through these three recipes, we have a feeling you’ll be able to conquer any future bread recipe you want to try. Now go and bake your little heart out!

This article was initially published in 2020. It has since been updated.