Bread Dough
Bread dough is the mixture of flour, water, yeast, and salt (plus, in some recipes, eggs, milk, or fats) that is kneaded, left to rise, and baked into bread.
Making bread dough involves combining the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt), then adding the wet ingredients and kneading to develop the gluten structure. The dough rises, or "proofs," as the yeast ferments and produces carbon dioxide; it is then punched down, shaped, and often left to rise again before baking.
The same basic dough can be adapted, by adjusting hydration, gluten development, and fermentation time, into loaves, rolls, bagels, pizza crusts, and enriched pastries. Regional bread traditions, from French baguettes to Indian naan, all start from variations on this same dough.