This is a recipe for a simple white loaf that anyone can make.  Good for nervous or newbie bakers. Also a guide to ‘must have’ and  ‘really useful’ equipment.

What equipment do you really need to ‘bake’?  There are things you must have,  things that are really helpful and things that are luxuries (not really that useful).   I’m fond of gadgets and gizmos (the Amazon delivery guy is a practically part of the family) but when you get down to it – baking a simple white loaf does not require fancy equipment.

You want to make a simple white loaf of bread, here’s what you need.

Recipe

Ingredients:  plain (NOT self raising) white flour, instant yeast, salt and water. Don’t sweat the flour, any old plain white flour will do.  Spend your mental energy on yeast.  You want ‘instant’ yeast, not quick yeast or yeast cakes.   Here’s a good reference if you’re bemused by the various names and descriptions of yeast.

500 grams of flour

4 grams instant dry yeast

1 tsp salt

350 mls (plus some extra) room temperature water

A bit of sunflower oil for your ‘low knead’ process.

Equipment (must have):  an oven,  a spoon, two mixing bowls, a loaf pan and a kitchen scale.   And time.   This recipe needs a small loaf pan,  often marked ‘500 grams’ or in old money ‘1 lb’ and it’s about 15 cm by 9 cms.  If all you’ve got is a big one, double the recipe.  Or Amazon……

Instructions:

Prep your loaf pan; either line with parchment or grease with butter or lard.  Don’t use oil, use a ‘hard fat’ (gets hard when refrigerated).

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.   Put in about 340 mls of water.  If it looks shaggy and dry, add a bit more water.  We’re going to do ‘low knead’, so a little bit wet is okay.   Gather the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with cling film or the other mixing bowl (or a shower cap see below) wait ten minutes.  Now comes the ‘low knead’.

Put a bit of oil on your worktop protector, put a little on your hands, and scoop the dough out of the bowl.  Squish it flat then fold the dough in by half towards you, press it down with the heel of your hand, lift and rotate a quarter turn.  Repeat 7 or 8 times quickly.  Put a bit of oil in your clean bowl and put the dough in the bowl. Turn it over.  Cover wait ten minutes and repeat.  Do this two more times.  (That makes four times in total).

If you struggle to keep track of how many times you’ve stretched and folded the dough; first time poke one hole with your finger, second time two holes, etc.   You’ve stretched and folded 4 times –  Now you’re ready to shape the loaf.

Press the dough into a flat rectangle about 10 cm by 15 cms.  Fold in one side 5 cms, then the other side, flip it upside down and tuck the ends into the shape of a rugby ball.  Put it in your prepared loaf pan.  Cover with cling film or a shower cap and wait for at least an hour.  Don’t rush this final stage.  Let it double in size in the pan.   Towards the end of this stage, preheat your oven.   When it’s ready, take the cover off the loaf and dust with a little bit more flour or slash the top if you’re feeling fancy.

Normal oven 220C/fan oven 200C/Gas mark 7

Put the loaf in the oven.  Wait 10 minutes.  Turn the heat down to 190C/170C- fan/gas mark 5.   After 30 minutes, the loaf should be ready.  Either test with your thermometer  (at least 90C) or tap to see if it sounds hollow when tapped.  If not done, go for another 5 minutes and then check again.

Tip it out of the tin when ready and you’re off. Wait a few minutes so you don’t burn your mouth and then get out the butter and enjoy fresh white bread with butter.  Nothing finer than that.

More on ‘low knead’

If you want to knead bread and reduce your gym time by 15 minutes go right ahead.  But it’s not necessary.  A quiet revolution has been going on out there for what I call low knead bread. It’s called ‘no knead but  ‘no-knead’ bread is like a ‘no iron’ 100% cotton shirt – marketing over reality.  Low knead takes more elapsed time but produces the same outcome for most bread.  Knead away if you want to save time but understand it’s really just exercise.

Equipment

Equipment (really helpful): If you’re going invest in a bit more equipment here’s my list; a dough scraper, a cheap plastic shower cap, a baking mat or work surface protector, a thermometer. And loaf pan liners are fairly cheap and save a lot of time.   If you stay in hotels there’s almost always a cheap shower cap in the bathroom – no one actually uses it to shower, they take them home for their favourite baker.  Or you can buy 50 on line.   The baking mat is like one of these:  baking mat.  The dough scraper is much better for mixing and blending dough than a spoon or spatula.  And the thermometer takes the guess work out of ‘is it done’.  If it’s more than 90C, it’s done.

Equipment (not much use): a proving drawer, a special proving basket, special covers for the special proving basket, a bread machine.

I had a bread machine and I sold it on eBay.   I’ve got lots and lots of storage, I had room for it but it annoyed me.   Why – it sat there on the counter and looked sullen most of the time because I wasn’t using it.  I love the feel of the dough in my hands and watching the dough become bread.

A proving drawer just forces the prove and makes your bread rise faster.  This is good on the Great British Bake Off when you’re cooking against the clock but not in real life.  Proving baskets and covers are for free form bread – mostly sourdough.  Doesn’t do anything a bowl doesn’t do and is harder to clean – even with the liner and or cover.

Good luck and happy baking.