Recipe 1: Basic White Bread

Here we are! Recipe 1: Basic White Bread.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?

So, the experience of making a normal loaf of bread has me realise I had muscles in my arms that I didn't even know about, patience is key and wow it is harder than it looks!!

To start with, all ingredients get mixed together, minding that the yeast and the salt are not put together as they don't get along! And then scrunch it all together with my hands (which was kinda fun!), it was so sticky to begin with and I kept putting in water so all of the flour got picked up, which in the end it did, it was a really rough looking piece of dough, I didn't think it would be like that!

Then it was time to knead, something which I have never done before! Your suppose to do it for 5-10 minutes but I tell you, after 2 minutes my arms were hurting, is it over yet?! Nope! That's sounds terrible, but I never use my arm muscles, maybe all this bread making will build them up! But once you get going, you can really start to tell the difference in the dough and it becomes a lot better to handle. 

Once this part is over it's time to put it in a bowl and cover, giving it time to rise, I think I gave it just little over a hour and it had doubled in size, as promised! Then I needed to beat all of the air our of the dough which seems disappointing as it sort of deflates! But it does feel so much smoother!

Before & After Picture!


Once shaped, it needed to be put into the bread tin (I won't give the secret of greasing it, you're have to read the book but it worked wonders!) and left to 'prove'. This let's the bread rise back up again in the tin, again I left this for just over an hour and then popped it in the oven!

It takes around 30 minutes for this loaf of bread to cook, though I left mine in a lot longer, I think around the 50 minute mark as when I took it out at the 30 minute mark and tapped it, I wasn't convinced it sounded hallow, so kept it in! 

So review from my testers (my family, haha)? They liked it, a little heavy but hey, it's my first time! My Grandad also agreed when I took a few slices round that it was heavy but of course he only admitted this after I told him I thought that!