My sister Jen sent me this recipe and it has been such a hit in my house! A loaf never lasts past breakfast anytime I bake one. I find myself baking at least two loaves at a time, just to get the change to have a slice myself!
There are only 3 ingredients plus some warm water, which makes this a simple and also frugal bake.
You can use strong white bread flour or plain/all purpose flour, which means you will probably always have the ingredients for this bread in your cupboard. The only other ingredients are Yeast – I used fast acting, salt, and as I said warm water.
I have linked a video above, where you can watch me making the bread, and I show the folding technique. That is the only thing that I really think is important to watch as it would be difficult to explain in words.. but it really is a very simple bread to make!
Recipe
- 3 Cups of Strong white flour OR Plain Flour (all purpose)
- 2 Packets of Fast action Yeast
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1.5-2 cups luke warm water (too hot and it will burn the yeast)
Method
- Into a large mixing bowl place your flour, yeast and salt. Give it a good mix with a spatula.
- Add 1 cup of the luke warm water to the dry mixture, and mix together with the handle of the spatula. Then add a little at a time of the remaining cup of water until you notice the mixture coming together as a dough. It should still look a little stringy, and should be sticky to touch.
- Now cover the bowl with some clingfilm, or even a tea towel. Then place the bowl in a warm place for 1 hour. I am lucky enough to have a warming feature in my oven where it stays at 40 degrees Celsius, but if you have a hotpress that will work great too!
- After 1 hour, you are ready to shape your bread! First sprinkle a generous dusting of flour on your counter. Then take the bread out of the bowl and let onto the floured counter.
- You are going to start folding the bread, if you need to see how, see the above video.. but you essentially fold one end in, and then the opposite, then fold the side in and then the opposite, and keep going about 10-12 more times. It should start to feel less sticky, and more bread dough-like. It should also start forming into a loaf shape.
- Next you are going to flip it over, and start shaping and tucking the dough so that it forms the classic round loaf shape, and becomes firmer.
- Next place the rounded dough into a bowl lined with grease-proof parchment paper, and leave to rise for 15 minutes.
- While that is rising, place the container that you will bake the bread in, in the oven at 235 degrees Celsius. This is to heat up the container so that it reaches temperature before you put the bread in it. Ideally you would use a dutch oven, however I use a casserole tin every time and it works great!
- After 15 mins, sprinkle some flour on top of the loaf and score the top. You can use a scoring blade if you have one, but if not a sharp knife also works great.
- Then take the container out of the oven ready for your bread, open the lid, and lift the bread in by the parchment paper. Pop the lid back on and place in the oven for 30 minutes.
- After 30 mins, take out of the oven. You are just going to take off the lid and slide out the parchment paper, and pop back into the oven for about 10 more minutes, or until golden. This will held your bread to become crusty.
- Once golden brown, take out of the oven and tap the bread underneath to make sure there is a hollow sound. Leave to cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour, and enjoy!!
If you try this recipe let me know below, and I really enjoy any pictures of your bakes, so please do tag me on instagram if you make it!