Bread is a staple food of Europe, the Middle East and India that is prepared by baking, steaming or frying dough. The primary ingredients are flour and water. Salt, fat and a leavening agent such as yeast are usually used too. There are many types of breads which may contain other ingredients: milk, egg, sugar, spice, fruit (such as raisins), vegetables (such as onion), nuts (such as walnuts) or seeds (such as poppy seeds). Nice to eat!Fresh bread is prized for its taste and texture, and retaining its freshness is important to keep it appetizing. Bread that has stiffened or dried past its prime is said to be stale. Modern bread is often wrapped in paper or plastic film, or stored in an airtight container such as a breadbox to keep it fresh longer. Bread that is kept in warm, moist environments is prone to the growth of mold. It becomes stale more quickly in the low temperature of a refrigerator, although by keeping it cool, mold is less likely to grow.The inner, soft part of bread is referred to as the crumb, which is not to be confused with small bits of bread that often fall off, called crumbs. The latter term is in common use, while crumb is an esoteric word used mainly by culinary professionals. The outer hard portion of bread is referred to as the crust.

Nothing can compete with the aroma and flavor of homemade bread. It's a simple thing, just liquid, yeast, flour, sugar and salt. Those ingredients combine to make the staff of life. It takes a little time, but it's easy to do.Once you've started making your own bread, you won't want to eat store bread again!

This recipe makes a deliciously spicy yeast-risen pumpkin bread. You can either use canned pumpkin puree or for an even better flavor you can cook your own pumpkin puree very easily. The spices give the loaf a warming flavor, without being too overpowering.

Kneading dough is essential to making bread. Kneading stretches the dough and develops the gluten, the springy stuff that gives bread its texture. It also helps to uniformly distribute the gases that are the byproduct of the yeast's metabolism.

Pancakes are a type of flatbread prepared from a sweet batter that is cooked on a hot griddle or in a frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads, although some are also made using a yeast-raised or fermented batter...

Yeast, the tiny plantlike microbe that's been used in making bread and alcoholic beverages for thousands of years, may soon help tame the scourge of malaria, a disease first described in the Fourth Century BCE by Hippocrates.