Well I have this week off and I’m not the sort to sit around doing nothing. It’s too cold to toddle around outside so here goes! I’m using Delia Smith‘s “Plain and Simple White Bread” recipe because anything more complicated would be beyond me. Master Baker Richard Elliot could probably tell you an amusing story about the time I tried to made pizza dough… he had to come and rescue me!
Midday: I’ve made the dough and it looks plausible, it took about half an hour from raw materials
13.45: It looks less impressive after having the air knocked out of it
14.20: I fear this may not have risen enough but it’s about to go in the oven anyway
15.15: the finished product! I think five minutes overdone to be frank, the crust is *very* crusty. Tastes wonderful though!
You can buy a loaf for £1.25 !!
I can buy a fresh loaf in Tesco for £1, you are getting ripped off buddy.
It’s a wonder that someone with your vision and intelligence isn’t leader of the free world. What went wrong Paddy?
Great result Blues! Mine was a disaster a few months ago, and Mrs S decided that it was safer to buy those plaited ones from our local baker.
The idea is that you have to pull off chunks, not cut them, and the usual upshot from the jerk needed to do this, is a violent sideways elbow, which can shatter a wine glass several feet away, and chuck crumbs, cutlery and broken china all over the carpet…
I can picture the scene!
I cut my thumb with the bread knife the other week as I tried to slice into a particularly crusty baguette…
“a particularly crusty baguette…”
Why were you trying to stab Yvette Cooper…;0)
Use a sawing action with a saw edge knife for crusty old bags! You’ve just given me a taste. So I’ll get one out the freezer and I’ll have some slices, lightly heated/toasted with butter and raspberry jam on top for snack time, later.
Surely not while listening to this Paddy…?
Now, now, look who the poor lass is married to, and don’t be so mean.
Well done. The first bread I ever made my father froze in a chest freezer. It sank to the bottom but he still managed to get it out to show prospective boyfriends who dared call. No kidding. I think your loaf will impress though.
Brilliant!
Thanks, it will have to impress quickly though because I’ve eaten half of it already.
Looks great BE. There’s a simple joy in baking bread I find.
Depends how you knead it !
Good job, SAOT once tried making bread, which was not only inedible, it was declined by the half-starved local ducks (sic).
Re: Delia’s recipe “warm the flour”, “hand hot water”, “golden caster sugar”, “30-40 min at 230C.
Good grief!
Even easier: 1 single sachet (i.e. one side of the double sachets in which it is supplied) fast-acting dried yeast, 400g. strong white flour, 5ml. salt, 15ml. sugar, 280ml. water. Place in bread making machine in that order (for Panasonic machines; other way around for inferior machines). Press start button. Do something else while waiting for timer to reach zero.
For “rapid bake” option, first dissolve salt and sugar in 100ml. hot water from just-boiled kettle and make solution up to 280ml. from cold tap.
Of course, then you’ve got to clean the bread machine afterwards (and the hole where the kneading blade fits onto its spindle is a complete pain in the behind) :/ But it’s still nicer than bread from any supermarket …..
I too would go with the bread machine option unless physical labour is your thing ( I get enough of that in my job) the bread comes out perfect, it is quite fun to watch and smells amazing.
Congratulations!
Now to get all hipster and start on sourdough…