Other Ingredients
Once you've got the hang of making plain bread using just flour, water, salt and yeast, you might like to experiment with other ingredients. Here are some suggestions to start you off.
Oil and Fat
Some bread recipes include a little oil or fat, usually no more than about 3% of the flour weight. As well as adding flavour (in the case of olive oil or butter), fat tenderises bread by weakening the gluten structure. It also slightly slows the staling process.
Milk
Milk contains a sugar called lactose which baker's yeast does not ferment. When the bread is baked, this sugar caramelises, helping to make a brown crust. Milk also weakens the gluten making a more tender crumb, as well as enriching the flavour. If you are using a significant proportion of milk in your dough, you should scald it by heating to 92°C/200°F (if you don't have a thermometer, this is the temperature when a surface skin starts to form on the milk) to prevent too much gluten damage. Be sure to allow the milk to cool before mixing, or it will either kill the yeast or make the dough ferment too quickly.
Flavouring Ingredients
Once you are confident with making some basic types of bread, you may want to experiment with other ingredients. Bear in mind that if you are adding something salty like blue cheese or olives, you should reduce the salt in the dough a little. Your new recipes may not come out exactly the way you want first time, so be prepared to analyse and adapt - this is part of the joy of baking!
Here are just a few of the ingredients that bakers have added to different types of bread: Nuts and seeds such as walnuts, roasted pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, pine kernels; fruit/vegetables including sun dried tomatoes, olives, mashed potato, onion, garlic, pumpkin, raisins; grated or diced cheese such as parmesan, blue cheese, cheddar; Herbs and spices - chilli, oregano, basil/pesto, mustard, cinnamon/cloves/allspice; Other liquids - buttermilk, beer, wine ...
Of course, you can combine different ingredients to make delicious combinations such as blue cheese and walnut bread, or sun dried tomato and pesto bread.