Yesterday I made Hot Cross Buns and now I’m in the mood I want to bake something else!
I love to make bread, I find it very relaxing, maybe because on a day when I have time to make bread it means I’m not rushing around like mad. My favourite bread to make is Fougasse, a recipe I learnt from Dough
I have fond memories of my old flat mate in London and great friend Emmanuelle who used to pop to Marks & Spencer to do a shop before heading back to Paris to see her family to stock up on English food such as “Toast”, which is what she called our plain white bagged loaf. I can understand why, I do much prefer the Fougasse, Olive breads, Focaccia and Sour Dough but sometimes you do need a good plain white loaf of bread. I have struggled to find a good recipe to make a “Toast” loaf, but I think this is the closest I have come.
Another issue I have found with baking loafs of bread is the tins, most shops only sell small tins (2lb tin: 23cm x 13cm), but last summer at a car boot sale in Suffolk I picked up an Extra Large Loaf Tin
When a recipe suggest you leave the yeast or dough to rise in a warm place be mindful that most modern kitchens are adequately warm enough. Do not try and squeeze the mixing bowl in to the airing cupboard it will be just too warm and the bread will either over rise or become too yeasty in taste. Just make sure the bowl/tin is covered and kept away from drafts.
I also learnt recently that it is possible to over knead dough. I have often blamed my baking failures on not enough effort being put into the kneading process, but if you over knead the dough it can over develop the gluten and become stiff.
*This recipe of for a large loaf tin, but you can separate the dough at the second rising stage and place in two smaller loafs tins if you wish.
Ingredients
400ml Milk
20g Dried yeast
15g Sugar
900g Bread flour
10g Salt
100g Butter, melted
2 Eggs, beaten
Method
Heat the milk in a pan to lukewarm and then dissolve the sugar and sprinkle over the yeast, stir until all the yeast has been dissolved. Set aside for 10 minutes until frothy.
Put 150g of the flour into a bowl and stir in the yeast mixture. Set aside for 20 minutes until frothy.
Sift the remaining flour and salt into a mixing bowl, add the butter, eggs and yeast mixture then bring together to form a soft dough.
Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.
*Grease the loaf tin and then turn out the risen dough and shape to fit. Place the dough in the tin and set aside again covered, leave to rise until the dough should fill the tin.
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 (190c/375f). Brush the top of the loaf with milk and bake for 50 minutes or until the crust is golden and the dough has come free from the side of the tin.
Remove from the oven and when tin is cool enough to handle empty out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
