My first attempt at bread making

RG and I usually have bread for breakfast. Over here, we noticed that most breads have got very high corn syrup and salt content. And one loaf of bread which is of a better quality (low sugar/salt) will cost about USD4 (incl taxes) which we would usually finish in 2-3 days. So, we'd have to spend at least USD12 per week just on bread (this translates to approx SGD17). So I figured it might be worthwhile for me to bake my own breads for a healthier and cheaper option.

I've never baked a loaf of bread before and hence I wanted to start with something real easy. I found a simple enough recipe with the least number of ingredients online. However, the recipe yields at least 3 loaves of bread which is a little too much for us...so I modified the recipe a little to yield just one small loaf (in case my first attempt flop big time and I end up with 3 horrible loaves of inedible bread!).

The recipe just calls for 5 ingredients - I'm only short of 2 which were bread flour and active dry yeast and a quick trip to the supermarket fixed that.

Ingredients
1 cup of warm water (~110F)
1/3 cup white sugar (you can reduce it like I do if you don't want too much sugar in your diet)
3/4 tablespoon of active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon of salt (I've omitted salt but you can add if you'd like some savory taste)
1/8 cup of vegetable oil
3 cups of bread flour

Method
Dissolve the sugar in the warm water in a large mixing bowl.
Then stir in yeast and allow to proof till the mixture is slightly creamy.
Add salt and oil into the mixture.
Then add in flour one cup at a time to mix (add a tiny bit of water at a time if the dough appears too dry)
Lightly flour a clean kitchen top surface and knead the dough until smooth.
Lightly grease (I use an oil spray) a bowl and put the dough into it and flip it so that the dough is coated with a little grease.
Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it rise for about an hour (dough should roughly double its size).
Punch dough down a couple of times and then knead it for a couple of minutes.
Shape the dough into a loaf and place it into a small loaf pan that has been greased.
Allow the dough to rise for another 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F and bake the loaf for 30 minutes.

Well...the bread turned out quite good I must say, considering this is my first attempt. The texture is soft and fluffy while the crust is nicely browned. The taste is quite good too. I'm very encouraged by the successful outcome and will definitely be looking forward to baking more of my own breads!