A homemade bread lesson

I have recently got into making homemade bread and have since made about 10 successful loaves. I'm not sure if this qualifies me to teach others how to become master bakers but if you haven't made bread before I would strongly encourage you to give it a go. Its therapeutic, you can get great results without much practice, it's much healthier than eating bought bread (especially if you experiment with different types of flour) and its not at all expensive.


This basic recipe can be used with a variety of types of flour. This loaf was made with half strong white flour and half country grain flour but I will describe variations later.

Ingredients

450g flour
300ml water
7g salt
5g yeast

The length of the ingredients list is testament to how simple making a loaf of bread is. It also highlights the difference from shop bought loaves which will have all manner of chemicals added!

You can use any normal table salt for this recipe.

Method

• If you are using normal dried active yeast (not easy bake yeast) you will need to reactivate it first. Do this by mixing 5g in a mug or small bowl with 50g tepid water (one third boiling to 2 thirds cold) and half a teaspoon of sugar. When measuring water weigh it don't use a measuring jug as this is more accurate. Leave the yeast for 10 mins while you weigh the other ingredients.
• Weigh the ingredients into a bowl, it is easiest to do this with electric scales. Remember that as you have used 50g water to reactivate the yeast only add 250g tepid water to the mixing bowl. Mix the salt in. 
• When the yeast is frothy on top, add it to the other ingredients and mix in the bowl.
• Turn the dough (which will be a bit sticky at this stage) onto a clean surface

Kneading

One method of kneading is shown in my video below:

This is a traditional method which uses the hell of your palm to stretch the dough. This method is fine for most dough but can get a bit  messy if your dough is sticky.

An alternative method is shown in my video below:

This is useful for stickier doughs or at the end of your kneading when you want to get the dough into a good shape.

Using your preferred method (or a mixture), knead the dough for 10 minutes. Scrape out or clean your mixing bowl (it doesn't have to be pristine) and coat the bowl with  a little olive oil to stop the dough drying out. Then fold the dough into a ball and put it in your mixing bowl and cover in cling film.

Leave the dough to rise until it has doubled in size (this depends on the temperature of the room but will probably be between 1 and 2.5 hours). To speed it up put the heating on!

Knocking back  

When the dough has doubled in size, turn it gently onto your work surface and pull, push and knock it into a flat oval shape. Then take the 'corners' of the dough and fold it into the center from several points, prodding the corners down. Then turn your ball over and shape it as shown in my video below:

Proving

Place your ball onto some oiled greaseproof paper and place your mixing bowl upside down on top to keep it moist. If your mixing bowl isn't very big the dough might tough the sides as it rises so you might want to cover it in oiled cling film instead.

Once again leave the dough until it has regained it's original size (about one hour). It is better to under prove than over prove at this stage so if you're not sure leave it for less time. 

Baking

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees and have a baking tray in the hot oven. Put a dish of water in the bottom tray (the moisture helps get a good bake). When your dough is ready transfer it (this is where the baking paper helps!) onto the tray. After 10 mins turn the oven down to 200 degrees. Bake for another 30 minutes.

The timings will vary slightly depending on your oven. This worked in mine which is not fan assisted so you might want to take the time down a little. 

Once the bread has come out of the oven leave it to cool on a wire rack and don't eat straight from the oven as it will give you tummy pains!

Try eating with cheese and the plum chutney from April's post. I did and the chutney has had a couple of months to mature now and was delicious.

Variations

There are endless variations to making bread as you know! Another version I have tried is 50% rye flour, 25% white flour and 25% wholemeal flour which is great with smoked salmon and very filling. If you find the rye to dense then you can reduce the quantity and replace it with white flour. Rye flour can be a little harder to find and is a bit more expensive but I found the dough easier to work with. 50% wholemeal and 50% white loaves are also good. Adding walnuts and raisins is also yummy if you want to add a bit more to you bread. I'll include some other varieties when I have tried them!

Cost

As there are very few ingredient in these loaves they work out very cheap to make. You can get flour for as little as 80p for 1.5kg and yeast is very cheap (especially if you buy a tin instead of sachets which I do as  don't like throwing any away). More specialist flours are a bit more expensive but the loaves you make with still cost you under a pound which compared to the prices charged at artisan bakeries etc is very good.

A nice loaf like this with some homemade chutney (see previous post) and some good cheese would make a great offering to take to a dinner party.