I make a basic Italian bread recipe that I tweak a bit. For my large metal loaf pan I start with 1.25 cups of water, and for my very slightly smaller glass loaf pan I start with 1 cup of water.
Measure the water in a glass measuring cup, add less than a teaspoon of honey or sugar or other real sweetener. Heat this in the microwave for 40 seconds, or until it is close to body temperature. Add a tablespoon of yeast and stir, set aside for 5 minutes until thoroughly dissolved and at least some foam is visible on top of the liquid, this ensures that the yeast is alive.
In a mixing bowl add a glug of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/4 cup of ground flax seed (optional), & 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour (also optional).
Once water/yeast mixture is ready, add that to mixing bowl. Stir and add flour 1/2 cup at a time until it is too hard to stir. Keep gradually adding flour while kneading until the dough is very firm and stops sticking to your hands. (This part can all be accomplished with less work in a kitchen aid mixer on the lowest setting with the dough hook, but even so I still do it by hand fairly often cause it's not that hard.)
Grease up your loaf pan. Stretch out dough so that it fills the length of the pan. Spray with olive oil and allow to raise until the bread has risen well above the top of the loaf pan.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes if a metal pan, 30 minutes if a glass pan.
When done remove from the pan right away and allow to cool on a towel or a cooling rack.
I seriously eat this stuff all the time, it's awesome. One general warning about homemade bread, try to eat it within 4 days cause it can get moldy pretty quick. I often freeze part of my loaf just to be on the safe side, I hate wasting good bread!