My apologies for the stupidly long gap between posts - I hope to post a lot more in the next couple of weeks - I'm still getting used to writing/remembering to take photos for these blogs...
Anyway - BREAD!
The basic recipe:
500g of bread flour - 1/2 and 1/2 of normal and extra strong
Pinch of salt
7g packet of yeast - you can use fresh stuff - it doesn't make a blind bit of difference in my opinion
350ml of warm water - I use 100ml of boiling water topped up with 250 ml of cold
Change the types of flour round if you want a wholemeal loaf, add 2tbsp of olive oil to get a bread that tastes like focaccia, when your put your glaze on (later on!) sprinkle poppy seeds/spices/salt/oats for lots of different flavours of bread.
If your using a bread maker just chuck all these ingredients in and press the buttons that say "slow bake" or "rustic" and "french style". You will get lovely bread without any fuss. If however you don't own/want to use a breadmaker heres the slightly more complicated but equally as satisfying way to make bread.
Step 1 - Ingredients & Mixing
The ingredients as listed above - dont let your salt and yeast mix until you start mixing them together with your water otherwise the salt attacks the yeast and you don't get as good a rise!
350ml is the basic amount of water to start out with - if your mix is to wet gradually add a little flour, if its to dry and doesn't bind together slowly add a little water.
I use a powered mixer to combine my ingredients (dry & wet) but a wooden spoon and a little hard work also does the trick. After a few minutes of mixing your ingredients should start to look like this.
At this stage you can start to knead your dough - don't worry if it looks sticky - you can sprinkle flour on your work surface or for the brave people amongst you just keep kneading (pushing away from you/ folding back on itself etc) it and by the magic of baking it will stop being sticky and become more manageable dough.
Once your dough has been throughly mixed and kneaded and can be poked and spring back into shape its ready for rising.
Always put your dough in a clean bowl for rising - not the one you mixed in - otherwise unmixed ingredients can be combined and your dough wont be as nice. I always measure my dry ingredients into the bowl I'm going to rise my dough. None of the dry ingredients stay in the bowl except a tiny amount of flour which is used as a non stick device for when you come to get your risen dough out of the bowl.
The rise
When I leave my bread to rise I always place it above a half filled pan of boiling water in a plastic mixing bowl with a lid till its doubled in size (40 minutes to an hour). You can control the temperature so the dough doesn't expand to quickly and it doesn't take up space in a cupboard (where it can be forgotten). If its a sunny day outside just leave the dough in the mixing bowl (with lid!) in a sunny spot for an hour and it will have doubled in size.
Dough doubled in size!
When your dough has risen remove it from the mixing bowl and knead it again on a lightly floured surface and then shape it however you want. Their are hundreds of tips on how to shape bread, probably vast quantities of the internet dedicated to the very subjects - feel free to read it all if you want. The basic shape is easy - choose a shape you want - bloomer, round or whatever and gently shape your dough that way - remember your dough will expand whilst your oven warms up and again whilst its cooking - so don't do anything to fancy.
After the dough has been shaped put it on a baking tray that has been rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with a little flour (this stops it sticking and being impossible to remove from the tray without committing bread murder) and leave it to rise again over the same pan boiling water or sunny spot - this time with just a tea towel over the top.
When you have done this pre heat your oven to gas mark 7 and let it warm up for 1/2 an hour. Also make sure the middle of your oven it free of oven shelves so that your bread has room to grow during its cooking.
After another 1/2 hour your bread should have doubled in size again - if it hasn't add some more boiling water to the pan it is rising over and leave it for 15 minutes and it will have doubled in size.
Decoration
No need for fancy stuff here. Score your bread with a sharp knife in whatever pattern you want.
For the glaze plain old cold water gently rubbed over all your dough will make it come out perfectly golden brown.
Finally place it in the middle of your oven and cook it for around 35 minutes - to check its done pick your bread up and tap the bottom - if theirs a hollow sound your done, if not leave it in for a bit longer so the middle can cook right through!
Please feel free to ask questions!
This method is based on the way I make a basic loaf and if some steps seem a little confusing its probably because I've not explained a step that I do without thinking about it!
Thanks
Jon
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