My weekly loaf

Baking every Sunday morning has become a regular routine for me in the last few years, unless I was away from home. I just loved playing with flour in pastry, bread, cakes, dumplings, noodles etc…. The smell of bread and cakes in the morning is wonderful.

For the basic I normally bake a white loaf and any other kind of bread and cakes that I fancied at the time. This week as usual a large white loaf, with the following basic recipe:

Basic white loaf

450g of white strong flour

280 ml of lukewarm water

1 tsp of quick yeast

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of olive oil

a small lump of butter for greasing tin (though I use non stick pan, I find greasing the tin gives a lovely flavour to the crust)

tin size = 2 lb tin

Method:

1. Mix the dough in a bread machine for 10 minutes. You can mix by hand if you want to.

2. Leave to prove for 40 minutes. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured working board. Give it a quick knead again. Rest for 5 minutes. Stretch it out into an oblong shape, fold forward and backward into 3 folds like an envelop. Shape and put into a greased 2 lb tin.

3. Leave it to rise in a warm area (quicker) or just on the worktop (longer), with a clean tea towel over it. The dough will rise to 2 – 2 ½ its original size in about 40 – 75 minutes. If the temperature is cooler this will take a bit longer.

4. Preheat oven to 220 deg C (fan oven). Put the bread in and bake at 220 deg C for 5 – 6 minutes, then turn the heat down to 190 deg C and continue baking for another 25 minutes. Take the bread out of the tin and keep the bread in the oven for another 12 – 15 minutes at 160 deg C, till the crust is hard. Leave to cool on a rack.