This white loaf style bread with dried yeast is for those days where you want fresh hot bread for your dippie eggs but do not have the time, effort or a combination of both.
The essentials for 2 largish loaves!
Pizza stone/baking tray/ anything that you can preheat in the oven then place your bread on
An oven with fitted gas, electricity or wood power
1kg of the flour of your choice (i normally use 70% strong white flour 30% demeter organic plain flour, ground fresh in dungog by the lovely Fosterton Farm Bakery (the people who supply that scrumptious bread at subo! (i could just eat a loaf of that with subo's tasty butter))
14g of Dried yeast (if you plan on making bread this way often or making your own pizza bases i recommend buying the 100g (i think) tins at the supermarket then store in fridge as it will save you heaps)
600ml of tepid water + extra for your hand (especially in summer, make sure the water just has it's chill taken away (not warm)
20g of salt 4 teapsoons is not accurately 20g of salt but if you dont have a scale than it should suffice.
some good quality baking paper (not homebrand, this makes your life so much easier)
Process:
Mixing!
Place all the flour into a bowl, then in another bowl add your yeast to the water. Mix the yeast untill it is fully combined and let it sit for a few mins.
Slosh in the yeastwater to the flour bowl (not need for a well or anything YOU HAVE A BOWL!) then mix with a spoon or the like untill roughly combined (it should be wet but not a sludge) i personaly like a wet loaf as it tends to rise better so my technique at this stage is to wet my hand (once the flour and water is combined a wet hand will prevent any dough from sticking to your hand) repeatedly while kneading the dough for around 2 mins i normally add in an extra 50ml by using this hand technique.
Now add the salt to the bowl and continue to knead untill the windowpane effect (break a small bit off then stretch it. If you can stretch it infront of a light source and the dough is so thin it is translucent without tearing) achieved. See below.
This can take about 10 mins but normally 5 or so. Next put the dough in an airtight container (i just put a plastic bag over the bowl i was using) out of drafts and let it sit untill it has doubled in size (in summer 1- hours, in winter 2- hours)
congratulations the hardest part is done! now a little more work before you can reap your rewards!
Once the dough has rested you need to release some of the air (without breaking the air bubbles, delicate handling benefits your end product). Take your dough out of the bowl, by turning the bowl upside down and using a spatcular to slowly edge it out onto a lightly floured surface.
Next up, half the dough and wrap the dough back in on itself and smooth to make a ball this is explained in the video at http://vimeo.com/9457983.
From here you can leave it but if you want a batard shape loaf (more rectangular) you need to gently grab each side of the ball and like your shaking a sheet and gently stretch the ball outwards to create a rectangular like shape then gently press the dough into a rectangle on the bench. From here you start to roll the dough from the furthest edge towards you. About half way through use your palms to apply more pressure and at the end even more to seal the crease. This just takes practice, i am still a horrid shaper. Once shaped place on floured baking paper sheet and preheat the oven to 220 (make sure the tray/baking stone is in there!).
The next step is to leave the dough untill doubled in size about 45mins (you can press the dough lightly with your finger, if the dough springs back very slowly it is ready, if it doesn't spring back at all it needs to go in the oven asap.)
Before placing in the oven lightly flour the top of the dough then score the top by diagonally slashing 1-2cms into the dough evenly spaced (make sure the knife is very sharp, i use an old fashioned razor blade) slide the baking paper with the dough onto the pizza stone/baking tray but before you close the door spray some water into the oven (10-15 sprays) this will slow the crust from forming so the dough has time to rise. As soon as the oven door shuts drop the temp to 200.
Bake for 30mins without opening the door once (i know this is hard) unless you can see it is burning, The flour and spraying of water should keep the crust from burning before the inside is cooked. Tap the bottom of the bread at 30 mins and every 10 mins from there on. If it sounds hollow it is ready! (45 mins give or take)
leave the bread to rest out of the oven for 5 mins if you can.
On cutting the bread take some time to look smell and touch the bread. Study the loaf. If there is a dense line at the bottom of the loaf, just above the crust it was not quite cooked.
To improve your bread making, following a recipe to a tee wont help you as much as learning by trusting your senses. Learning how the dough changes to become elastic, how much water the flour needs or how the weather will affect the proving times.
Here is an amazing video of a top class bakery in San Fran- "Tartine Bread" http://vimeo.com/14354661
Some other great videos!
http://vimeo.com/18060783
http://vimeo.com/21348306
I haven't made much yeasted bread lately but here are some recent sourdough loaves including a barberry and sultana loaf.
Forgive me for the gramatical mistakes- James
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