I love baking bread, nothing tastes better than a fresh loaf of bread, and nothing smells better than the taste of one baking.
I do have a bread maker which makes things easy, but sometimes you can’t beat a good old knead. And when you are making something like a cottage loaf, then you will need to assemble it before baking.
It can be a family affair making a fresh loaf of bread as the kids love to help with the kneading too
The recipe I used was a basic white loaf recipe.
Ingredients
500g bread flour
25g butter
1tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp of salt
1tsp dried yeast
320 ml of warm water
Method:
rub the butter into the flour
add the sugar, salt and yeast,
mix in the water a little at a time until you have a firm dough
knead the dough for 10 mins and leave in a bowl covered with cling film, or a tea towel for about 1 hour
knead the dough again and shape into two rounds, one slightly bigger than the other
Put the smaller mound on top of the larger one and push two fingers all the way through both rounds from the middle of the top round.
leave to prove, covered lightly, for a further 30 mins.
Bake at 180 C for 40 mins, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
