COOK like a PRO
There’s something special about creating delicious loaves and rolls at home
PART NINE: how to make homemade bread
Freshly baked bread is one of life’s greatest simple pleasures, and one that’s actually much easier to make than you might think. Without the help of any special appliances, you can achieve delicious results, even on your very first try. With a little time and effort, you can transform a bowl of loose powders and liquids into a mouth-watering loaf of fluffy fresh bread.
The most basic bread is made with flour, water, salt and yeast. Strong flour gives structure and texture to the loaf, water binds and develops the gluten in the flour, salt flavours the dough and controls the action of the yeast, and yeast leavens the bread.
HOT TIP
To ensure you get the best possible results from your homemade loaf you should use flour with a high protein content, such as strong bread flour. Protein adds strength to dough and enables loaves of bread to rise high.
BASIC WHITE LOAF RECIPE
• 500g (4 cups) strong white bread flour*, plus extra for dusting
• 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 300ml (11/4 cups) tepid water
*If you’d prefer you can substitute the white bread flour for wholemeal
1 Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the olive oil and gradually stir in the tepid water, adding only enough to make soft dough. Knead with a dough hook in a table top mixer for about 7 minutes, or using your hands on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes, until the dough feels bouncy and looks silky rather than dimpled. Place in a bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.