How to bake your own bread
One of my greatest discoveries of the last few months has been learning how to bake my own bread. It’s not necessarily cheaper than buying it (although it is, slightly) but it’s infinitely more satisfying and there’s the potential to make all kinds of great different variations on this ancient theme.
Inspired by Justin Ouellette’s “How To Develop Your Own Film”, I offer this as something of a basic tutorial for anyone who might be interested in baking the odd loaf for themselves.
I’m sure there are hundreds upon hundreds of other, perhaps better and more detailed tutorials online outlining how to go about this, and I’m not saying that this is the best way, but it’s my way and I’ve definitely managed to make some tasty bread using it.
The entire process takes about two hours or so, including all of the various rises and the baking itself. In terms of time you’ll actually spending actively baking, it’s more like twenty minutes to half an hour of actual work, with the rest of the time spent waiting around in-between processes.
What you’ll need for one loaf
- 500g Flour — Have a look in the supermarket baking aisle and you’ll find special breadmaking flour. I’m not certain how much different this is to plain flour, but you can usually find organic flour very cheaply. In this case, you’ll need about half a 1kg bag which amounts to around five cups.
- Five cups of water
- A small sachet of yeast — this is where the magic happens.
- 2 teaspoons of Salt — a vital ingredient and one that’s easy to forget. A loaf of bread without salt is a disgusting waste of time and not fit for anything but the bin.
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- A dash of olive oil
- One big mixing bowl
- A baking tray
Activate the yeast
Pour the yeast sachet into a bowl with five cups of lukewarm water and two teaspoons of sugar. The sugar activates the yeast (which has been dried out and put into hibernation, essentially) by giving it something to feed on. Give it a good stir and try to thoroughly mix it into the water.
You’ll need to leave this for about ten minutes, until you see that the yeast has risen to the top of the water in a foamy consistency.
Making dough
Add the flour into the yeast mixture. My measurements are not incredibly precise so I’d recommend stirring it after the first three or four cups and then sounding out exactly how much extra flour you’ll need after that; better to have the dough too dry rather than too wet at this stage, I think.
Work the dough with your hands until it’s an elastic, soft consistency. Roll it up into a small ball and put back in the bowl. Drizzle olive oil around the edges of the bowl; I think some people will add olive oil earlier on in the process, but this is how I was taught and it certainly works for me.
The first rise
Cover the bowl with a tea-towl and put somewhere a little bit warm, like on a window-sill or in your boiler cupboard. You’ll need to leave it there for about half an hour in which time the yeast will work its magic and the dough should expand considerably in size and have absorbed the oil and taken on a lighter and fluffier consistency.
Making a loaf
Take the dough and kneed in into whatever shape you’d like your loaf to take. This is a fun part where you can experiment with different shapes and sizes; in this case I’ve tried to make a normal, hand formed loaf, but you could plait it together or even separate the dough into small rolls or add cheese and herbs or caraway seeds or whatever else you can think of.
I’ve just scored this one with a knife for that rustic flavour (!) Sprinkle some flour on your baking tray (this will stop the bread from sticking) and put the formed, doughey loaf on top of it.
The second rise
As before, cover your loaf with a tea towel and leave it somewhere warm for half an hour. Your loaf will expand a lot in this time and, in my experience, actually won’t get too much bigger once it gets in the oven.
Shortly before your loaf is finished the second rise, turn on the oven. I usually put mine on about 180-200 degrees.
Put the baking tray on the middle shelf and leave for around 20 minutes to half an hour. While more organised recipes will undoubtledy give you hard and fast baking times, I find that this is somethin you can really experiment with.
In order to know that the bread is cooked (which it should be at about the thirty minute mark, simply take the loaf out of the oven and give it a tap on the bottom. If sounds hollow, the bread is cooked. Depending on what kind of crust you’d like on your loaf, you can either take it out at this point or leave it longer to develop a thicker, harder crust.
I think cooking time is something you probably get better at after baking a few loaves; with my first couple, I was inclined to take them about a bit too early.
I cooked this loaf for just over half an hour… and it’s done!
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