I was watching my favourite cooking program, River Cottage, when an episode came on about making your own bread. I will be totally honest, I have not really ever thought about it, I didn't see allot wrong with the store bought bread and thought it just a hassle to make it yourself. Then Hugh asked the viewers to do something, go to your cupboard and count how many ingredients are in the last loaf you bought. I did this and there was 13. I was almost shocked at the number, 13 ingredients in a loaf of plain white bread?! Hugh knocked up (making it allot easier than I was sure it was) a simple white loaf with just 5 ingredients; flour, yeast, sugar, salt and water and didn't it look fantastic when it came out of the oven!
I decided that I was going to head to the shops the next day and have a go at making my own loaf, I picked up the ingredients and headed home. I followed his basic recipe (posted at the bottom) and away I went. I decided to use the mixer with a dough hook as I didn't really know much about kneading.
I made up the dough, let it rest, knocked it back, let it rest and then put it in the oven. Within 5 minutes the house smelled of fresh bread, there is no better smell in the world to me. I patiently waited about 30 minutes then out she came, it looked lopsided, uneven and a bit dark, perfect!
It tasted amazing, i don't think I knew what 'real' bread tasted like until that moment, the whole loaf was gone in about 2 hours and I was definitely hooked!
I am hoping a few of you will share this journey with me, I have developed a passion for baking (I have baked 3 loaves today already) and share your success and inevitable failures with us. I have made about 13 loaves in the past month, I have only had 1 that wasn't really edible, its an incredibly easy thing to do and there is no better feeling, or smell, then pulling out a loaf of bread from the oven. I have started to experiment into different loaves, white, wholemeal, soda bread and about to try a pizza base for tea, the possibilities are endless and so is the joy.
The below is a basic white loaf recipe, the one I first used using the bread hook, as we go along we will move deeper into the kneading process, proving, different types of bread and flours and much more, best of luck to all and remember, if it doesn't come out looking anything like a uniform loaf from the shop, its probably perfect!
Ingredients
7g sachet dried yeast
300ml lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
450g plain white flour
1.5 tsp Salt
Method
1 Place the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl.
2 Using the dough hook on minimum speed, gradually mix in the water to form a soft dough.
3 Knead for 1 minute on minimum and 4 minutes on speed 1, until smooth and elastic. Remove the
bowl, cover with lightly oiled clear film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4 Using the dough hook on minimum speed for 30-60 seconds gently knead the dough to knock
back. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Cover with oiled clear film and leave to rise for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.
5 Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
So there is a basic white loaf recipe, please give it a try and let us know how it turns out, if you are anything like me this will be the first in a very long line of loaves!
Ant
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