Plain White Loaf

With a determination not to spend any money on food until I go home for Easter I found myself breadless. A sorry state of affairs for someone who often has bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Luckily in my store of random baking ingredients I had some bread flour and yeast! Going to look smug with my swanky home-made sandwiches on the train home tomorrow…(with nothing in them.)

Making bread from scratch is so ridiculously easy and hardly uses any ingredients. It’s also therapeutic if you imagine an annoying person’s face as you knead the dough.

Ingredients (Makes 1 large loaf of 2 medium ones)

675g strong white bread flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 x 7g sachet of easy-blend yeast

425ml lukewarm water

I don’t have any loaf tins so baked them straight onto a buttered baking tray but if you want the loaves to look a bit more professional instead of like oddly looking boulders then use 2 x 450g tins.

Mix the flour, salt and yeast into a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the middle and pour in the lukewarm water.

Using your hands gently mix the dough together by taking flour from the edges and hooking them into the centre. You can add a little more water/flour if the dough is too dry/sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead thoroughly for ten minutes.

Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a damp tea-towel. Leave it to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Punch the dough to deflate it and turn out onto your lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces (not my strong suit, clearly) and shape each into a rectangle. Roll up the dough from one end like a Swiss roll tucking the ends under. Place the loaf seam side down on the buttered tray. Put a bag over the tray, slightly inflated so the plastic doesn’t touch the dough, and leave the rise for another hour.

Near the end of the rising time preheat the oven to 230⁰C/ Gas Mark 8. Sprinkle some flour onto the dough and use a sharp knife to cut a deep slash along the loaves. Bake for 15 minutes then lower to temperature of the oven to 200⁰C/Gas Mark 6 and bake for another 15-20 minutes. The bread is done when it’s golden brown on top and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap underneath.

Cool on a wire rack and then eat with some butter or cheese if you have it!