Baking Bread Tips
Use a baking stone for a great crust and oven spring. They are heavy and take a long time to heat up but baking stones help create a brick oven atmosphere for the bread. The crust does not crack on the bottom and the bread can bake through without over browning.
Compare prices on baking stones. 
Calibrate your oven. Especially if your loaves are coming out too dark or too wet or taking longer to bake than the recipe says they should. Also, breads may need lower temperatures when your baking stone is properly preheated.
If you don't have an oven thermometer and want to fix an overly dark loaf today, turn your oven down by 25°F. And I have the best results when I turn my oven to 450°F, not 500°F as they say in some books.
Preheat the oven. With or without a baking stone, I have found that heating the oven for 1/2 an hour with no stone or 1 hour with a stone is essential for professional-looking and tasting results. I used to put breads into cold ovens to economize but have found that turning the oven on for this length of time costs only 15 - 30 cents extra. You may want to have several loaves to bake in a day, which lowers the cost per loaf, as well.
Know which crust you want.
- Artisan, chewy style crust needs steam for the first few minutes, then dry heat.
- Dusting with flour gives a rustic look to the loaf.
- Egg wash turns the bread golden and gives a softer crust.
- Milk washes in the last few minutes is good for a sandwich style loaf and gives a glossy brown, soft crust.
- Brush loaves or rolls with oil or water and roll in seeds or grains to coat before baking.
- Oil softens the crust, water keeps it crisper.
- Slash top of loaves 1/4 inch deep 15 -20 minutes before baking, if not longer, to give the ultimate slash and rise look to the bread.
Let the bread cool before slicing. The bread should reach an internal temperature of at least 180°F before you take it out of the oven. At this point, the bread is still baking and drying out. Let it cool two hours before slicing. If you cut into it before that it will look underdone or soggy.
This is not as true for small, white flour loaves and rolls. Some of them are designed to be eaten hot-out-of-the-oven.
Keep bread for one to two days in a paper or cloth bag at room temperature. Sourdough breads and rolls can keep two days longer.
Don't forget to freeze the extras, but do not refrigerate your bread, or it will dry out too quickly. Wrap in plastic wrap and then in a freezer bag and keep for up to three months in the freezer. Thaw at room temperature and crisp up for several minutes in the oven, preferably on the oven rack, directly.
There is nothing better than homemade bread and soup on a Thursday night after a parent-teacher conference. The bread is in the freezer and the soup can be made in a half an hour.
