White Bread

I am still really bad at baking, still very hit and miss, but I enjoy it so I keep trying. My hands are too warm for pastry so unless it’s the middle of the winter and my kitchen back door is open, freezing me and the house, I just stick with store bought, it’s a cop out and I feel defeated, but the lengths I have to go to, to even make a half way decent pastry are insane. I also have an uncanny ability to beat batter to death, maybe I should think of bunnies? I don’t want to batter bunnies. I can make bread though, in fact I am quite good at making bread, I was having issues in the beginning getting it to rise twice, but with a little practice and experimentation I got there in the end. I tend to stick it onto radiators now which works, and despite the fact that I buy the kind of yeast you can sieve straight in with the flour (instant yeast) I still ‘activate’ it in a little warm water and sugar first. I find I’m much more likely to get good

 results that way. There is nothing like the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven, or any baking for that matter. Having a slice of  bread before it’s cooled, slathered in butter, now that is my little slice of heaven.

White Bread

700g strong white bread flour

1tbsp salt

1 sachet of easy blend yeast (7g)

1tsp golden caster sugar

425ml hot water (you should be able to touch it, hand hot)

1.       It’s best to start by warming the flour in your oven for about 10 minutes first, you don’t have to but I have found this recipe to be the most effective. You won’t need the oven straight away afterwards so you can turn it off.

 

2.       Using a little of the hot water and the caster sugar mix it with the yeast, to activate it. Sift your flour and salt into a bowl, then make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast and the water, mix into a dough, use a wooden spoon first and then use your hands, if you have a few dry bits you can add a little extra hot water.

3.       Turn out your dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead, you need to compress and stretch the dough, over and over again, so start with your dough, flatten the dough away from you in a pushing stretch motion, it should look oblongish, then fold it back, that it is in half and sort of looking like a cube, flip it over and repeat the motion, you need to do this repeatedly for at least 3 minutes, you can’t over knead bread dough and the longer you can knead the better it is for the dough, I read somewhere that about 20minutes is a good amount of time to knead, but it can be hard work, so at least 3 and then just do it until it’s not fun anymore. It will have a sheen and look blistered underneath the surface.

4.        Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with lightly oiled cling film, place it in a warm draft free room and let it rise this will take about two hours, until it has doubled in size.

5.       Once the dough has risen, punch it down in the centre to knock the air out and knead it again for a few minutes, next divide the dough into two, if you are making two loaves, pat each piece of dough into an oblong shape, fold one end into the middle and then the other end over top. Place the dough into two well, buttered baking loaf tins, put the tins into lightly oiled plastic bags leaving the dough to rise again until it is above the top of the tin.

6.       Preheat the oven to 230˚C/450˚F and bake your loaves for 30-40 minutes on the middle shelf (one big loaf will require 35-45 minutes) You’ll know when they are done, if you tap the bottoms and they sound hollow. Gently turn them out of their tins and place upside down in the oven, to crisp up the bottom of the loaves, this will only take about 10 minutes, remove them from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.