There is nothing like the smell of fresh home-baked bread straight out of the oven.
I have been (trying to) bake bread for most of my adult life and with our recent home confinement under Covid, I have found the time to experiment once more with bread recipes.
I know classic bread making requires a fair bit of physical effort with hand kneading but this recipe uses a food mixer with a dough hook, in my case a Kenwood Chef stand mixer.
For us ‘silver bakers’ whose hands may not be quite as strong or flexible as they once were, the mixer is a Godsend.
You can still achieve great results by hand kneading but for consistency, the mixer wins hands down.
Great Tips:
- For consistent results every time, weigh all the ingredients carefully, including the liquids. Remember 1ml = 1g.
- Put a shallow tray in the bottom of the oven and when the loaf goes in, pour in a little boiling water to create steam.
- A good quality metal loaf tin gives the best results.
You can find more great tips at theperfectloaf.com.
Other Recipes You Maybe Interested in …..
Easy White Loaf
Easy to make home baked white bread
Equipment
- Food mixer with dough hook
- Digital scales
- Tea towel
- 2lb loaf tin
Ingredients
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 10 g salt fine
- 30 g Olive oil or 30ml
- 7 g yeast dried, fast action
- 325 ml water luke warm
Conversions
Instructions
- Into the mixer bowl add the 325g of just warm water.
- Add the salt and the oil to the water followed by the bread flour.
- Sprinkle the yeast over the flour.
- Using the dough hook, mix on the lowest speed until a dough is formed then turn up the speed to no.1 and let the mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes.
- Tip the dough out and shape into a ball. Lightly oil the mixer bowl and putthe dough back, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm draught free place to rise for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
- Take the loaf tin you will be using and lightly butter the inside and then coat with flour, turning the tin upside down and tap to remove the excess.
- When the dough has risen, turn it out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead gently to knock it back, this will give the finished bread a lovely texture.
- Shape the dough, place intothe tin, cover with the damptea towel and leave to rise again for about an hour to an hour and a half until doubled in size.
- Dust the risen loaf with a little flour.
- Preheat the oven to 240°C/Fan 220°C/Gas 9.
- When ready pour some boiling water into the lower tray and bake your bread just below the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the tin once cooked and cool on a wire rack.
You may also like one of my other favourite recipes …
1
2
Festive filled brioche with baked camembert
A festive bread with individually filled buns and a melting cheese middle
Check out this recipe