Start with a tangzhong milk loaf - the Hokkaido-style sandwich bread. It's the everyday loaf we point beginners at, for reasons that map exactly onto your question:
It's FORGIVING - the tangzhong (a cooked flour-milk paste) locks moisture into the crumb, so even when a beginner's timing wobbles, the bread comes out soft instead of punishing. The proofing cues are clear and visual - doubled in the bowl, risen near the tin's rim - which trains your dough-reading instincts on easy mode. And it teaches every fundamental in one recipe: kneading to windowpane, fat added late, shaping, proofing checks, doneness at 83°C.
Then bake it TEN times, same recipe, before wandering. Repetition on one bread teaches more than novelty across ten - by loaf six you'll feel the dough tell you things, and THAT skill transfers everywhere. The 47-step croissant will still be there when your hands are ready for it 🙂
