Bread

The perfect Sunday treat is a fresh loaf of bread that is still oven warm smothered in butter. If you don’t believe me then you need to make this recipe. Yes, good bread does take time but it’s cheap and you know what’s in it. And yes real bread stales faster than shop bought but you can breadcrumb it by throwing it in a low oven and once dried out blitz it in a blender / food processor. Here I have used a mixer with a dough hook attachment but you can do it by hand just as easily. This is a good link to someone kneading by hand – http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/kneading (just ignore the pseudoscience in the text below the video); its only recently I have been using a mixer to knead the dough.

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  What you need:
  
  

  • 500 g of bread flour / high protein flour
  • 15 g flour of fresh yeast / 5 g dried
  • 10 g of sea salt
  • 350 ml of warm water

  
  How to make it:
  
  

  1. Weigh out the flour, salt and yeast into the mixing bowl. 
  2. Pour the water into the bowl – note that you may not need to add all of the water depending on the moisture levels of the flour you’re using, so add it in gradually, mixing slowly until the dough comes together into a smooth ball. Then mix on a higher speed for 6 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. A great way to test that the dough is ready is to take a small piece and stretch it out into a thin ‘window pane’ (as shown in image IX), showing that the gluten has sufficiently developed. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and rest at room temp for 1 hour.
  3. When the dough has doubled in size scrape it out of the bowl onto a very lightly floured work surface. Gently knock some of the air out of the dough by flattening it with your hand. Grab the top of the dough and pull it into the centre. Repeat this process, working your way around the dough until you’ve formed a ball. Turn the dough over so that it is seam side down. Place your hands at either side of the dough with your palms facing inwards. Now rock the dough from hand to hand in a circular motion. This will create tension on the surface of the dough enabling it to hold its round shape when it is proofing and then baked, rather than flattening out. The best way to test that the dough is ready is by pressing it – if the dough springs back then it is ready, if not continue shaping until it does spring back. Place the dough onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper or dusted with ground semolina, cover with oiled cling film and leave to double in size (roughly 45 mins – 1 hour). 
  4. Turn the oven on to 220 °C about half an hour before the dough is ready. Put a deep sided baking tray in the bottom of the oven.
  5. When the dough has doubled in size, remove the cling film and use a serrated knife to cut three slashes into the surface. This will allow the dough to expand in a controlled way when exposed to the high oven temperature, rather than any unseemly cracks appearing at the sides. Place in the centre of the oven and pour a cup of water into the baking tray in the bottom of the oven, closing the door quickly. This will help stop a crust forming too quickly on the dough, allowing it to expand fully resulting in a less dense bread. Bake for 40 minutes until a deep golden brown crust has formed. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Wait until the bread is fully cool before slicing and smothering in butter and jam. 

  
  

  Thanks for the help @RuthDiskin