Whenever I teach a Bake & Pray workshop, I start by telling the group an important truth about bread: bread is, at the same time, incredibly simple and infinitely complex.

It’s made of just four simple ingredients—flour, water, salt, and yeast. But the temperature and humidity of your kitchen, the length of fermentation, and the microbial strains that leaven your dough all impact the final flavor and texture.

While you could keep learning about bread and improving your technique for the rest of your life, you don’t need to become a master baker in order to make good homemade bread. 

There is one thing that will improve your loaves more than anything else, though: slowing the whole process down.

A high-hydration, long-fermented lean dough can produce bread with a crisp, deeply caramelized crust, an airy crumb, and incredible flavor. It requires a little more patience and a different approach than a typical sandwich loaf, but the results are worth it.

Here are five tips to help you bake better bread—and enjoy the process along the way.

1. Increase the Hydration for a More Open Crumb

Hydration refers to the amount of water in your dough compared with the amount of flour. A high-hydration dough typically contains 70% or more water relative to the flour.

More water creates a dough that can be sticky and challenging to handle, especially when you're accustomed to firmer doughs. Don't be discouraged. That wet texture is part of what helps create a lighter, more open crumb.

Start with a manageable hydration level, such as 70–75%, and gradually increase it as your skills improve. Use wet hands to shape instead of continually adding flour when handling the dough. Extra flour can make the finished loaf heavier and work against the open texture you're trying to achieve.

2. Let Time Develop the Flavor

One of the biggest secrets to flavorful artisan bread is long fermentation.

Instead of rushing your dough from mixing bowl to oven, let time to do its work. A slow, extended fermentation allows yeast and enzymes to develop complexity in the dough, resulting in a loaf with more depth and character.

Try a bulk fermentation at room temperature followed by an overnight rise in the refrigerator. The cool environment slows fermentation while allowing flavor to continue developing.

The goal isn't simply to follow the clock. Learn to recognize your dough. Look for increased volume, bubbles along the surface, and a dough that feels lighter and alive. Over time, you'll become better at knowing when your dough is ready to shape and bake.

3. Handle the Dough Gently

High-hydration dough doesn't need aggressive kneading. While you won’t necessarily hurt the dough, you’ll be working more than is necessary. In my liturgies for bread baking in my book Bake & Pray, I end the mixing portion with the line, “The work is not yet done—but it’s not all yours to do.” How often do we exhaust ourselves doing work that isn’t really necessary? In this case, water and time can do the work on our behalf.

Instead of kneading, use stretch-and-fold techniques during the early stages of fermentation. Every 20–30 minutes or so, gently stretch one side of the dough and fold it over itself. Rotate the bowl and repeat.

These folds gradually strengthen the gluten network without requiring intensive kneading. As fermentation continues, the dough should become smoother, stronger, and easier to handle.

When shaping your loaf, remember that you're not trying to force it into submission. Handle it gently and preserve as much of the gas created during fermentation as possible.

4. Create Steam and Bake Hot

A beautiful artisan loaf needs a hot oven and plenty of steam during the first part of baking.

Preheat your Dutch oven or baking vessel thoroughly before adding the dough. The intense heat encourages oven spring—the dramatic expansion that happens during the first few minutes of baking.

A covered Dutch oven works especially well because the dough releases moisture as it bakes, creating a naturally steamy environment. After the initial covered portion of the bake, remove the lid so the crust can brown and become beautifully crisp.

Don't be afraid of deep color. A richly browned crust isn't a sign that your bread has gone too far; it's often where some of the most delicious flavor develops.

5. Let the Kitchen Become a Place to Slow Down and Pray

Perhaps the most transformative bread-baking tip has nothing to do with flour or fermentation.

Bread takes patience. There are moments when you have to wait for the dough to rise, wait for the oven to heat, and wait for the finished loaf to cool before you can slice it. Instead of fighting those pauses, embrace them.

Use your time in the kitchen as an opportunity to slow down and pray.

One of my favorite ways is to incorporate breath prayer throughout the process—a process of repeating a line of Scripture or poetry with every inhale and exhale. If you’re new to the practice of breath prayer, you can read more about it (and find a few of my favorites) right here.

I am humbled by the importance of rest in the practice of baking bread. We cannot hurry fermentation. We cannot rush the oven. And we certainly can't cut into a hot loaf without consequences. Instead, we have to step back and trust that as both the bread and the baker rest, the transformation we need will take place.

Our Liturgy for Bread Baking prayer and recipe card is a great tool to help you slow down and pray as you bake.

Find Rest and Joy

High-hydration, long-fermented lean dough rewards patience. With the right hydration, careful fermentation, gentle handling, and a hot, steamy bake, a handful of simple ingredients can become something extraordinary.

But perhaps the greatest transformation isn't always in the bread.

The process can teach us to slow down, pay attention, practice patience, and make room for gratitude. In a busy world, baking bread is more than make needed sustenance. It’s a small, daily reminder that taking time to rest can bring us great joy.

So mix the dough. Let it rest. Fold it gently. Give it time.

And while you're waiting, take a breath, slow down, and pray.

Sometimes the loaf you're baking isn't the only thing being transformed.