For most of my life, I assumed that baking bread was exclusively for professionals—or at least, home cooks with exceptional talent. From what I knew, the process was long and complicated and easy to mess up, especially if you had as little bread baking knowledge as I did.

What I found out over the past week, when I decided to try my hand at baking bread for the first time, is that it's way simpler than I'd been led to believe. The truth is, you only need a few ingredients, a handful of tools that you probably already have, and a little know-how to make your whole kitchen smell like a boulangerie in no time.

While you definitely don't need to be a pro to bake bread, I also wouldn't suggest jumping into it without doing any research at all. So to help you uncover your own bread-baking skills, I created this guide—with advice from professional bakers—that will give you all the knowledge you need before you begin. Here's everything they told me to keep in mind, plus what I learned firsthand from my very first bread baking experience.