Bake your own bread: the classic white loaf

Amanda's Homemade White Bread

What’s the quickest way to make a visitor to your house think you’re a domestic goddess?  Fill your house with the smell of baking bread.  And no, a ‘freshly baked bread’ scented candle doesn’t cut it.

Mmmm, the smell of baking bread.  Enough said.   To really get this smell, you have to really bake bread. Yes, actual, homemade bread.  No, don’t run away yet. It’s easy!  And you’ll be so impressed when it comes out of the oven (as will the neighbors who will ineviatbly stop in to investigate the delicious smells wafting from your kitchen…)

But can’t I just buy a loaf at the store?

Have you noticed how long bread lasts without going off? How is that possible? Preservatives!

Check out the ingredients on the package. It’s a long list.  With unpronounceable words.  In your fabulous domestic-goddess homemade bread there are just a few ingredients: flour, salt, water, yeast … maybe some fat or some sugar.  Ok, so the loaf doesn’t last as long as the one from the store … but considering how good it tastes, it won’t stick around that long anyway.

Here is a small, easy to handle loaf that I make almost every weekend.

[Note: nowadays I tend to make artisan herb loaf or homemade sourdough, no baking tins needed!]

Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe.

Domestic Goddess White Bread

adapted from Nigella Lawson How to Eat

Makes 1 small loaf

300g bread flour

10g yeast

10g salt

5g sugar (or 2 sugar cubes)

170ml tepid

10g fat (I like olive oil)

Put the flour in the tepid water and let sit.  Put the salt, sugar, flour and fat in a mixing bowl.  Stir in the water/yeast mix - this will make a mess at first but then will come together into a sticky dough ball.

Turn this out onto a floured surface. I use a floured pastry cloth (you can also use a thick smooth tea towel that you save just for this purpose).  You can also just flour your countertop.  Knead the bread for 5-10 minutes.  (Knead bread by forming it into a dough ball on the counter, then, with the heel of your hand, smoosh it away from you.  Then pull it back into a dough ball, and smoosh it slightly at a different angle.  Basically just work the dough around a lot during these 5-1o minutes, we’re trying to develop the gluten into a nice, elastic ball).  You may have to add a little bit more flour if the dough is sticking to your hands.

Place in a bowl, cover with a tea towel, and set it in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until the ball has doubled in size.

Now the fun part – punch it down. Literally punch your fist into the inflated dough, and watch it deflate! Poof! Take it out of the bowl, shape it into a loaf, and put it either in your loaf pan, or just as a round loaf on a cookeie sheet.  Cover and let rise again for 1 hour in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Bake for 35 min.  You know if it’s done when the top is golden and the loaf sounds ‘hollow’ when you knock it with your fist.

Try to resist cutting until it’s slightly cooled (it will cut easier this way).  Serve with salted butter, jam or honey.  Yum.