Basic Bread Part One

Judging from the amount of interest in a press release that I posted the other day about a bread festival in London I have decided to do a few bread recipes. The trouble is I have rather a lot of them and when you actually get down to it bread is just four basic ingredients flour, yeast and water. It is that basic mix and the inclusion of fats salt and other bits and bobs makes it so different. But the real trouble with bread is that you have to make it a certain way to get the right result. This recipe works for either brown or white bread all you have to do is decide what kind of bread you want.

Ingredients

750g/1½lb strong white or strong brown bread flour
500ml/16floz water or milk
15g/1tsp salt
12.5g/2½tsp dry yeast or 15g/½oz fresh yeast.
250ml/8floz lukewarm water
125g/4oz strong white or strong brown bread flour
A pinch of sugar (Optional)

Start by taking the yeast small amount of lukewarm water and small amount of flour and mix this in a bowl. Just crumbed in the yeast add it to the flour and add the water and let it do its thing. I believe that in baking terms this is called making a sponge but I am not sure. What this does do is give the yeast a good head start so it gets to work before you add it to the rest of the ingredients. Now if you do this often add just a pinch of sugar to help get the yeast really working. The only trouble with adding the sugar it can get the yeast working to well and it just gets over worked and the bread is flat.

Once the yeast mix id all lovely and frothy you can start to make the bread. Take the large amount of flour and add that to a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast mix . then add the rest of the water or milk and finally the salt.

Start to work everything together to form a dough once you have formed your  dough you can turn it out of the bowl and start to knead the dough.  Now if you have a very good mixer with a dough hook you can just make this all in one bowl. But if you are like me you do not so you can work out any stress that you might have kneading the dough. Now to knead the dough you need both hands. Push the dough out in one direction with the heel of your hand, then fold it back on itself. Turn the dough by 90 degrees and repeat. Do this for about 4 or 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Work quickly so that the mixture doesn’t stick to your hands,  if it does get too sticky you can add a little flour to your hands.

Now Clean and lightly oil your mixing bowl and put the dough back into it. Cover with a damp tea towel or lightly oiled cling film and set it aside to prove. Now as the yeast gets to work in th whole mix the dough should double in size. Now this  should take about an hour, but will depend on the temperature of your room. You do not want to put it in to hot a place or the yeast will work too quickly.

Once the dough has doubled in size scrape it out of the bowl to shape it, turning it out onto a lightly floured surface. Now what you must do is knock it back the dough. This means you knead the dough to ‘knock’ out the air out of it. The best way is to use your hands to push the dough flat, sort of fold if back up, turn 45 degrees and repeat it again. Do this several times gently turning and smooth the dough into a round loaf shape.

Now place the loaf onto the lined baking tray, cover with a tea towel or lightly oiled cling film and leave to prove until it’s doubled in size. Once more this takes about an hour, once more depending on how warm your kitchen is.

Now if you are making bread you need to preheat the oven to 220c/425f. Then in the bottom of your oven place an empty roasting.  This may sound mad but it will make sense latter. Now your loaf should have proved, so what you have to do is decide what to do with it. You can do nothing or sprinkle some flour on top, or use a sharp knife to make shallow cuts across the top. One or two or from a crisscross pattern. Just cut it about 1cm/½in deep and it will open up when it is baked. Or just glaze it with some egg yolk and water, about a 50x50 mix.

Now place your loaf in the middle of the oven, and pour some cold water in the roasting tray in the bottom of the oven.  This helps create steam in the oven to help in making the crust. Evan better if you have some ice cubes throw them in as it gives you instant steam.

You will need to bake it for about 30 to 40 minutes. It is ready when the loaf is risen and golden, take it out of the oven and tap it gently underneath, if it sound hollow it is ready.

 Turn onto a wire rack to cool. Or just let it cool a little then cut it open and have with some butter, perfect.