Home Made Crusty Bread

Making bread is dead easy. Whether it is for a pizza base, foccacia style flat bread or dinner rolls, this recipe works and is really easy and quick.

At the end of the recipe I have listed the changes to the method depending on what sort of bread you are making and some ideas on variations to the basic idea.

Ingredients
1 kg flour [preferably strong bread making flour. It is often labelled as pizza or bread flour, or sometimes as strong of high protein four]
Table spoon Salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
~600ml of luke warm water
3 x 7g sachets of dried yeast [you purchase these in packs of 10 x 7g sachets]

Method
The easiest way to make the dough is using a dough hook in your mixer. My Kenwood chef does an amazing job of this. You just put all the ingredients in the bowl and turn on to lowest speed and let it go for 10-15 minutes until it is smooth and not sticky. If you don't have a mixer put the indredients in a bowl and mix. Then tip out onto a floured bench and knead with your hands for about 10-15 minutes.

Place the dough in a very large bowl and cover with cling film and a tea towel and leave in a warm, draught free spot until it has doubled in size [about 1- 1 1/2 hours]

Uncover and knock down and knead for a minute and then return to the covered bowl and allow to rise again for 30 minutes.

Following this form into whatever shape you like. Small dinner rolls, large loaves, flat foccacia etc etc... I normally slash the top with a sharp knife. This adds a little more texture to the final result as it rises.

Cook in a preheated oven at 220˚C on a hot baking tray for about 15 minutes depending on the size of your loaf or rolls. Check by knocking/tapping the bottom and when done they should make a hollow sound.






















Variations
For pizza dough only on rise is required and if pressed for time even 10 minutes rise will be OK.
Another option is rolling the dough flat and lay something like parma ham, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil, close the parcel of bread over the filling and bake. Let it cool a little once cooked and slice up for a great snack or entree.
Another option is to add some unprocessed bran to the original mix for a more country style loaf, and brush the loaf with oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper or herbs.

Comments

  1. A good course in Bread Making is really the key here!

    ReplyDelete

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