So I recently rediscovered bread making!
It was one of my favourite things our dad did with me and my sisters when we were little. I loved making the plaits or shaping blobby little buns, waiting for the dough to rise like magic, and the smell that filled the kitchen while it baked.
I am so excited for baking days with Oscar when he is a little older, but he’s not quite there yet. Any baking I do right has to be fast, and preferably keep my hands clean so I can grab a roving baby at any moment. So for now I have been using my bread machine - not quite as satisfying, but with this recipe the results are just as good!
When I’ve made bread in the past it has sometimes turned out a little heavy, but I’ve tried and tested this recipe multiple times now and every time it is light, fluffy and yummy. If you don’t have a bread maker, I have also tested making it by hand and it still worked really well!
Ingredients:
1 cup and 3 tbsps water
2 tbsp oil (vegetable or sunflower)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
3 1/4 cups strong white bread flour
1 packet dried yeast
Method:
1. Put all the ingredients apart from the yeast into a bread maker in the order listed above
2. Make a small hollow in the top of the flour to put the yeast into - make sure it does not touch the water
3. Put the yeast into the hollow
4. set the bread maker to go for 3hrs and 20 mins
5. Take out and leave to cool
Done!
To make without a bread maker, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and knead together for about 15 - 20 mins. Then leave to rise in a warm place for two hours before baking for one hour in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees.
(Below is the version I made without the bread maker! I made the plait shape after the dough had risen, just before putting in the oven)
