I’ve tried to make bread no end of times, and every time it always seemed to come out too heavy, or too doughy. I even had a bread maker once, which worked perfectly for a couple of times and then seemed to give me heavy bread or undercooked bread, so I gave up. With everything going on with the pandemic, I went shopping a week before we went in to full lockdown, and decided I’d grab some bread flour and yeast just incase we couldn’t get out or couldn’t get any bread.
I searched high and low for recipes which all seemed to say you needed to leave it to rise for hours on end or bake for hours, on the back of the yeast packet I’d bought from Sainsburys, was a simple recipe and Boom! gorgeous tasty bread, I’ve tried this out several times now and it works perfectly every time.
NB – you can find this recipe on the back of Sainsbury’s fast action dried yeast packets.
Ingredients
500g strong white bread flour
25g butter (I use flora non dairy)
1tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp fast action dried yeast
320ml warm water.
Method
1. Put the flour in to a large bowl, add the butter and rub in until mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar, salt and yeast.
3. Gradually add the warm water in to make a soft dough.
4. Knead well on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
5. Place back into the bowl, and cover with cling film that’s been lightly sprayed with oil.
6. Leave the dough in a warm place for about half an hour to rise.
7. When the dough has doubled, tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead well.
8. Place into a 1 1/2lb loaf tin (I think mine’s a 2lb tin) cover loosely again with the cling film.
9. Leave to rise in a warm place for about half an hour.
10. Pre heat the oven to 200C / gas mark 6.
11. Remove the cling film, sprinkle with flour and place into the oven, bake for about 30 minutes until golden on top.
12. Leave to cool on a rack before slicing and enjoy!
Bread doesn’t last long here, we get through most of a loaf in one sitting, and this tastes amazing, I love to have a couple of slices slathered with non dairy butter.
I usually bake other things whilst I’m waiting for the dough to rise, and pop the dough on top of the cooker as it’s warm place to rise, because frankly there’s too many towels and bedding sets in the airing cupboard!
Nicci xx
