Seven months later, and it seems that it has been used about twice (by K) and twice a week (by me).
I haven't bought bread from the store in months, and this is why:
| Basics | You Need |
| Mix flour, Improver, sugar Mix yeast and water Mix Watermix into Flourmix and add oil Mix it a bit then add salt Mix it more Pull out the dough and oil the sides of the bowl, Put it back in, cover and sit in warm water for 40 mins Punch down the dough, shape, put in tin for 40 mins Bake for 40 mins let it sit for aaaageess Slather in butter and jam, serve with hot tea. | 500g Strong (protein rich) Flour 2 tsp Bread Improver 2 tsp Sugar 2 tsp Yeast 350ml Warm water 2 tsp Salt some olive oil some plain flour Glad wrap a measuring jug a baking tin an oven insane upper body endurance OR a grotesquely expensive Kitchenaid Marital device. |
Flour comes in 1kg packets. I used to make 2 loaves at a time (usually the second loaf was olive bread) but this bread will go stale pretty quickly.So pinch the packet halfway down and invert over the mixing bowl. when the pressure between your fingers eases, you've probably emptied half the packet in, therefore 500g.
I use Lighthouse Strong Bakers Flour (for Pizza and bread) because they sell it at the supermarket near me. Normal flour apparently has less protein/gluten which means that the bread wont be as stretchy and thick. I once tried with 00 flour, and I found that my bread had a very very fine grain and was very very dense and I didn't use it again.
I am blessed with a nearby grocer who sells fresh yeast, but I'm usually on the supermarket stuff.
Keep it in the fridge. If you do use fresh yeast, bear in mind that you'll need less water.
I add the yeast to the measuring jug before I pour the water in to compensate for this.
To measure out fresh yeast, raid your bar supplies for a shot measure. 1 shot packed full of fresh yeast will do (the big end of course.. what kind of shot do you pour?)
My supermarket also sells the Wallaby bread improver. As far as I can tell, my bread tastes a little softer and maybe keep a little longer. I usually add suger, but I cant really determine the effect this has.
I always add oil (except once and I found my bread cardboardy). Oil and butter softens the bread. The more you add the softer it gets. I bake bread to have for breakfast, and so there is a limit to how soft I want it.
PROCESS:
Put the flour, bread improver and sugar into the mixing bowl. You probably should use the mixing attachment to stir it all up, but thats extra washing so just put the dough hook on and start it up.
Don't set the speed too high or you'll be wearing it.
Put the yeast in the bottom of your measuring jug, run the tap til its hot (if you burn your hand, its too hot, so change hands and try again) and fill up to 350ml.
Keep the mixer running and pour your warm water/yeast mix in. try for the side of the bowl. Pour in a couple of glugs of oil too. At this stage you will have an intense urge to keep pouring random liquids into your mixing bowl. exercise restraint. a too-dry mix is easy to fix by adding gentle sprinklings of water, but a too-wet mix is painful and tedious, and seems to take a whole extra box of flour to fix.
When the dough starts to take shape around the dough hook, you will be able to tell if you have a too-dry/too-wet/goldilocks mix. add the salt and kep mixing for another 10 minutes.
Too dry - Your mix will have a little pool of flour at the bottom of the mixer. he dough itself will shred and shed flour everywhere.
Too wet - This may take longer to recognise, but rather than crawl its way up the dough hook into a nice dough (with just a little spindle connecting to a thin patch at the bottom) the too-wet mix will stubbornly ignore the pull of the hook and flab around at the bottom of the bowl, hating you and insulting your cat. It will mess the sides of the bowl and laugh at your efforts to dry it out with more flour.
Goldilocks - The just right mix should form a nice ball at the top of your dough hook, which will then form a couple of funny cigar shapes and then fold back into itself over and over. it will take about 6-8 minutes for the sides of the bowl to be cleaned by your lovely silky little dough ball, but clean they will be as this happy little friend makes less work for you.
During the making of this post (or rather the making of the bread in this post) I got sidetracked, playing with the camera and I probably mixed it for almost 20 minutes. Mixing too long will apparently break down the gluten chains that the kneading process is supposed to create. In the same way that over-beating egg white will eventually liquify them again. I expected that I had ruined the mix, but It seems to be fine. In fact its bloody good, so if you over-mix it, dont sweat it, keep going anyway, just dont make a habit of it.
PARTE THE SECONDE
All your "hard" work is now done.
Fill your sink with warm water, pull out your dough, oil the sides of the bowl (tricky to do one-handed) and then rest your little dough ball in its oily womb. Now that your dough ball is resting inside the mixing bowl, cover the bowl with glad wrap and put the mixing bowl into the warm water bath to rest.
Yeast loves to be warm. the bath is basically only to keep the temperature up. If you live in Burkina Faso, you may not need to do this.
If you refer to the photos at this point you may notice that the sides of my bowl are all messy. This was another frustratingly wet mix. I just couldn't help myself. It was just a few ml's per gram too many.
Set the timer on your oven for 40 minutes. The idea is that your dough ball will double in size. Keep it warm and secure until this happens. If it takes longer, it takes longer. I usually preheat my oven at his point and go off to do something else.
When the dough ball doubles in size, cast flour across your benchtop (this is what the plain flour is for) and take the mixing bowl out of the bath. Gently pull out your dough, lovingly rest it on the bench and then brutalise it with your knuckles. Sort of a hard massaging motion to push all the bubbles out and stretch the dough.
You may need to throw some more flour around to stop the dough sticking to the benchtop.
Roll your dough up on itself and try to shape it into a loaf that will fit your baking tin. try to make it pretty. If it was a Goldilocks mix, this will happen automatically. It may even kneed itself.
Put it in the bread tin (maybe oil the sides first i dunno)
Cover your newly shaped dough in glad wrap, put it in a warm place (maybe run a fresh bath again if your house is cold) and set the oven timer for 40 minutes. Again, we want it to double in size.
You have another 40 minutes to yourself go play.
When the dough has doubled in size again, take off the glad wrap and make any final cosmetic arrangements.
for whatever reason I was struck by the idea that I would sprinkle a mix of flour, sugar and salt over the dough, and then score the top with a knife, so as the bread bloomed it would look cool.
I dont know why.
Put it in the oven (fan forced, probably supposed to be 180 degrees, but my oven says 220) and set the timer for 40 minutes. maybe spray the sides and bottom of the oven with water so the steam will create a nice crust on your bread. Maybe do this again at the 20 minute mark.
I ended up baking this one for almost an hour. When you pull it out of the oven, take it out of its tin and tap the bottom. if it sounds hollow, its good.
In the final photo, you'll see a dark ring around the edge of my bread. this is the excess "sprinkle" that I put on before baking. This tells me that I should have brushed the top with water or egg or milk or something so the sprinkle would stay in place. Nevermind.
Let your bread rest for a while, maybe 20 minutes before eating.
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