Wednesday 23 March 2011

Bread, bread

Stir 1 tsp sugar into about 100ml hand warm water then stir in about half a level tsp of dried yeast (about a third of a sachet). Leave to froth - about 15minutes.



Have ready a 'knob' of butter and 450ml hand warm water (1 minute from cold in the microwave).


Turn on the oven to 60 degrees C. Weigh out 1000g bread flour. I used 500g Tesco bread flour and 500g Lydl. Sometimes I use half granary or half wholemeal. Add 1tsp salt, 1tsp sugar and the 'knob' of butter (melted in the microwave).


Mix in the water. I stir most of the water and then put the bowl on the mixer using a dough hook. Either mix with the mixer for 4 minutes or knead by hand for 10 minutes.


Turn off the oven.


Cover the dough with a cloth and put in the warm oven. (The oven should be off.)


Leave for a long time.


I left it from this time ....


... to this time.


Then it looked like this. Turn the oven back on to 60 degrees. Knock it back now. (That's a baker's term!) Take it out of the bowl, bash it about a bit, divide it into 2 and form into loaves.


Turn the oven off and put the tins back in the oven.


Leave to rise a second time then take them out of the oven. Turn the oven on to 200 degrees and bake the loaves for 15 - 20 minutes. There you are - bread, bread.


You don't need to warm the oven to make the bread rise. It just speeds up the process.


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