Homemade Bread

Simple pleasures: Bread and Pate

Homemade bread is one of the most comforting and rewarding things to bake. I first learnt to make bread when I was 12 in my first year of high school and ever since I have used the same base recipe. Baking bread is one of my guilty pleasures when I am stressed out as kneading the dough is an outlet of any stress and  ultimately leads to better bread (win-win situation).

Ingredients

500g Strong White Flour

7g Dried Yeast

1/2 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp salt

25g Parmesan

50g Sun-dried Tomatoes

30ml of Sun-dried Tomato Oil

1 tbsp of dried mixed herbs

330ml Warm Water

1. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the dried yeast to one side of the bowl. Place the sugar with the yeast, and the salt on the other side. The sugar feeds the yeast allowing the bread to rise more whilst the salt will flavour the bread. The only trouble is that if you mix your dried yeast with the salt, the salt kills the yeast and your bread will be like a brick.
2. Mix in the grated parmesan and diced sun-dried tomatoes (it is easier to do it at this stage and ensures the filling is distributed easily).
3. Mix the Oil into the mixture. This will add flavour and help the bread to rise more.
4. Gradually add the warm water mixing it until it forms a sticky dough. 
5. Turn out onto a clean oiled work surface. I use oil on the work surface as opposed to flour as this helps to ensure the bred maintains its right consistency. If you use flour you will work more into the dough and it will be too dry and won't rise as well
6. Lightly flour your hands and knead for 10 minutes. This will stretch the gluten in the flour allowing the dough to become more elastic and will cause it to rise and be lighter when baked.
7. Leave to prove/rise for 1 hour in a warm place covered by a damp tea towel.
8. Knead for 5 minutes and place on a baking tray.
9. Let it rise for 15 minutes before putting it in a preheated oven at 160'C for 45 minutes or until the bread is golden. 
10. You can test whether the bread is cooked by tapping the bottom. It should sound hollow. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before cutting into it.

Bon Appetite!