‘Basic Loaf’ recipe from L. Collister in “The Bread Book”.
Ingredients.
- 350 g white bread flour
- 350 g wholemeal flour
- 15 g salt (I used only 9 g or one teaspoon)
- 15 g yeast
- 430 ml water
The recipe is nicely detailed in 22 pictures,
1. Mix flours and salt in a bowl. No picture above this instruction, searched for some minutes where the salt was added.
Cream the yeast in a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of the water.
Make a well in the flour, pour in the yeast mixture. Usually I would leave out the small bowl part. Less washing up.
Pour in the remaining water. Mix the liquid and draw in more flour until you have athick batter. Cover the batter with a thin layer of flour.
Leave the batter to rise/sponge for about 20 minutes.
2. The sponge should be frothy or broken through the flour layer. Mix the remaining flour into the batter. If all is well mixed turn out on work surface.
Recipe advises to have some flour ready to add to the dough if too sticky or not firm at all. I added some flour but kept a rather soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes and form into a ball. Did not complete the entire 10 minutes.
Leave to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
3. test if the dough is well risen by inserting a finger. If the dough does not spring back : OK. Good test also for the 2nd rise. This dough was already OK after 1 hour.
Turn out on work surface and form into an oval loaf. Put on a greased tin. Forming the loaf is nicely illustrated. As his dough was very soft hesitated to make a free form loaf.
Leave to rise, no exact timing given ‘until doubled in size’.
This took about 30 minutes. The recipe slashes the dough at the start of the 2nd rise. I only did when going into the oven.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 220 C for 15 minutes and 20 minutes at 190 C. As the 2nd rise went a lot faster than expected, started the baking in a cold oven. Always better to do this, if you wait for the oven to heat dough could over-rise and collapse.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
In the possible problem list of the recipe:
Loaf spread during baking : dough was too soft or warm when it was shaped. 100% correct.
Very good bread, well explained (also the kneading, forming part). 5 pages lots of illustrations and advice.
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