Dee's Basic Bread
500 grams flour or 4 cups and 2 tablespoons
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ¾ teaspoons dry yeast
3 teaspoons sugar or 1 tablespoon honey
toppings like rock salt, olive oil or olives
Place flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
430 ml hottish water ( a bit hotter than lukewarm) mix with the 3 teaspoons sugar or 1 tablespoon honey
Add the water and sugar to the dry ingredients.
Mix firmly together, mix should be a dough that is still a bit wet, add a little more water if you need to.
Just incorporate roughly, then set to rise for four hours in a warm place or overnight.
Should be double the size, slightly tip onto a baking tray covered with baking paper. Make any topping additions like rock salt, olive oil or olives etc. Then bake in a cold oven set to 220 degrees Celsius (428 Fahrenheit) for about 45 mins. If the top cooks too quickly place some foil over the bread. Cooking time varies from oven to oven so keep an eye on it. It should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom when done. You can also check by using a cake skewer, it should come out mostly clean, this is a moistish loaf so a bit of clinging crumb can be ok.
Notes:
This is the quick country style loaf round in shape.
If you want to experiment more, try adding seeds or nuts or what ever just substitute the same amount of the flour for the other ingredient.
If using seeds you can soak them in warm water for an hour or two before you bake, or sprinkle some on top.
More traditional bread would use the same ingredients but often has two risings. Lots of recipes on the net for variations so experiment and play.
Follow the steps as above to rising and doubled in bulk, then turn dough out onto a floured board and knead adding flour so that it is not too sticky. Knead about ten minutes then set to rise again. When doubled in bulk again turn onto baking sheet on oven tray and bake as above.
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ¾ teaspoons dry yeast
3 teaspoons sugar or 1 tablespoon honey
toppings like rock salt, olive oil or olives
Place flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
430 ml hottish water ( a bit hotter than lukewarm) mix with the 3 teaspoons sugar or 1 tablespoon honey
Add the water and sugar to the dry ingredients.
Mix firmly together, mix should be a dough that is still a bit wet, add a little more water if you need to.
Just incorporate roughly, then set to rise for four hours in a warm place or overnight.
Should be double the size, slightly tip onto a baking tray covered with baking paper. Make any topping additions like rock salt, olive oil or olives etc. Then bake in a cold oven set to 220 degrees Celsius (428 Fahrenheit) for about 45 mins. If the top cooks too quickly place some foil over the bread. Cooking time varies from oven to oven so keep an eye on it. It should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom when done. You can also check by using a cake skewer, it should come out mostly clean, this is a moistish loaf so a bit of clinging crumb can be ok.
Notes:
This is the quick country style loaf round in shape.
If you want to experiment more, try adding seeds or nuts or what ever just substitute the same amount of the flour for the other ingredient.
If using seeds you can soak them in warm water for an hour or two before you bake, or sprinkle some on top.
More traditional bread would use the same ingredients but often has two risings. Lots of recipes on the net for variations so experiment and play.
Follow the steps as above to rising and doubled in bulk, then turn dough out onto a floured board and knead adding flour so that it is not too sticky. Knead about ten minutes then set to rise again. When doubled in bulk again turn onto baking sheet on oven tray and bake as above.
Dee and I taught together in Zhuhai, China. She is from New Zealand (hence all the metric) and is a wonderful baker. We had a typhoon day at school, so she invited me, another co-worker and her young daughter over to teach us how to bake this bread. I was about 7 months pregnant at the time, and when I brought my bread home to Eric, I think I ate most of it. It was too good and I had been missing really good bread.
Dee also recommended the above cook book as a staple in Australian and New Zealand kitchens.
Dee also recommended the above cook book as a staple in Australian and New Zealand kitchens.