2014 Cooking Club Week 41: Easy Everyday Bread

I was a bread-making disaster for years. I've thrown out more unrisen dough and inedible loaves than I care to remember and I could not figure out where I was going wrong. Then a couple of weeks ago I took a cooking class that had a bread-making element. I learned this recipe and it was like a light switch had been turned on - suddenly I can make the most amazing bread and it's really, really easy! SO! Here is my offering for this week's Cooking Club - easy, everyday bread that's an absolute doddle to make up and tastes better than anything you can buy in the shops. And the taste is even better because you get the satisfaction of having made it with your own hands!

I know a lot of people are put off making their own bread because it seems like such a time-consuming thing, and granted this recipe does take a few hours from start to finish. But about 90% of that time is spent waiting for the dough to rise, or rise again, or cook, so it's not actually strenuous. If you're going to be in the house anyway - (and apparently we're due a month's worth of rain this weekend alone, so being stuck indoors seems likely) - give it a bash!

Ingredients (for 2 1lb loaves)

700g strong flour (I use this one)
20g yeast
2tsps salt
15g granulated sugar
25g butter
Water

Method:

Step 1: Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

Step 2: Pour 150ml of boiling water into a jug. Add in the sugar and butter. Stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Then add 150ml cold water to the jug.

Step 3: Pour 150ml lukewarm water into a different jug. Add the yeast and stir until it has dissolved / turned into a kinda pasty texture.

Step 4: Add the contents of the yeast jug to the butter/sugar jug and stir to mix. Pour this liquid into the flour.

Step 5: Mix with your hands to form a ball of dough. Turn out on to a very well floured surface.

Step 6: Wash your hands! You'll need to get off the doughy gunk from mixing or you'll never get the kneading done property. Flour your now-clean hands.

Step 7: Kneading begins. Push the dough away from you with the heels of your hands, then fold it back in on itself. If you hit a sticky bit of dough, flour it. If you get sticky dough on your hands, flour them. Flour the surface constantly. It takes a long time (about 8 or 10 minutes of kneading by my count) before the dough properly becomes springy and elastic, so stick with it, even if your arms are burning!

Step 8: Shape the dough into a ball and pop it into a large floured bowl (biggest you have, it's going to rise a lot). Cover the bowl tightly with three or four layers of clingfilm - you want it to be airtight. Pop the bowl in a warm place for an hour to let the dough double in size. While you're waiting, line two 1lb loaf tins with grease-proof paper.

After an hour, your dough will have gone from this:



To this:




Step 9: Roll the dough out on to a floured surface. Give it a quick knead to knock it back, then divide the dough in half (kitchen scales comes in handy here). To divide it, cut it cleanly with a sharp knife. Pop one half back in the bowl while you work on the first loaf.

Step 10: Now we're gonna make it into a pretty loaf shape! Divide the piece of dough into three equal parts. Roll each of these pieces into a smooth ball and line them up in one loaf tin. Repeat with the other half-ball of dough and tin. It should look like this:



Step 11: Preheat the oven to 230C. Cover the loaf tins loosely with a damp cloth and return to your warm place until the dough has risen up nicely. (About 30-40 minutes or so). It should now look like this:



Step 12: Remove the cloth and put the loaf tins straight into the oven. After about 35 minutes you will have beautiful loaves of bread! To check they're done, remove the loaf from the tin and give it a tap on the base - if it makes a hollow sound, it's done.



Step 13: Cool the loaves on a wire rack. Then slice, smother in butter and strawberry jam, and pat yourself on the back!

Some notes:
If you want to make a wholemeal version of these, I find a ratio of 450g strong flour to 250g coarse stoneground wholemeal flour works well.

If you don't have loaf tins, line two flat trays with greaseproof and just shape the two half balls of dough into rounds.