Recently I've had a lot of people tell me how amazing it is that I bake my own bread and how they'd love to, if they had the skill/time/energy/insert an excuse of your choice here lol Now I am no expert nor do I have tonnes of spare time or energy but it really isn't as hard as people think and once you've done it a few times its so so easy and quick to make loaves like this.
Here is my recipe, adapted to be hassle free, easy to remember and hard to mess up! If you've ever wanted to start baking your own bread, give it a try, you'll not be disappointed I promise :)
I use 'fast action yeast' because it means you don't have to leave it to rise twice, thats right, just mix, knead, rise and bake!
Put 500g strong white bread flour in a bowl add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons oil. 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of yeast. Add about half a warm pint of water and mix, add about another half and keep mixing.
If its too wet add flour, too dry add water. Get your hands in and rough it up a bit! Knead for at least 5 minutes after its all mixed in, 10 minutes if you have time or your not confident with your kneading skills... You'll need to keep sprinkling with flour while kneading or it'll be a sticky mess!
Optional extra - 2 small handfuls of seeds or nuts or oats etc
No you don't even need a bread tin! Just oil it up and put it in any good size cake tin or roasting pan then leave to rise in a warm spot covered with a tea towel. When its doubled in size, should look something like this...
Put the oven on at 180 and bake until browned on top, turn once during baking, normally takes about 35 minutes, leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
Please excuse my nearly week-long absence, this week has been so busy for me, exciting too though. We've been working away on organising and de-cluttering one room at a time and our home is starting to show more of our personalities, I like it :) We moved the raised bed I made last year from our old house round to our new place finally! Now we have even more growing space woo hoo! - post on that to come soon. Also I've been baking lots and trying out new dinner recipes so I haven't had time to blog much but I have enjoyed reading your posts over cups of tea when I've had a second! There's always time to read blogs isn't there?!
