I have finally found the perfect bread recipe. I thought I was cursed with making bread – doomed to never get my loaves to come out right! It turns out maybe it wasn’t me that was the problems but it was the other recipes all along!

After I tried this one, my loaf of bread came out perfect the very first try! Now, I make a loaf every single week, and my family loves me for it.

Once you make fresh bread, you never want to buy loaves from the store again. Your house will smell amazing when you bake the bread too.

 

Ingredients:

2tsp sugar
2tsp active yeast (the kind you have to reactivate in water)
200ml warm water
500g flour (white or brown, plain or strong bread)
3/4tsp salt
1tbsp oil (I use olive oil)

 

Instructions:

Combine the sugar, yeast and water and set aside until it froths up (just a couple of minutes should do the trick). Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, if you don’t have a sieve you can get the same effect by whisking the flour for a bit.

Add the oil and yeast mixture to the flour and then get your hands dirty. I do all the kneading in the bowl itself (pressing it from one side to the other with my knuckles and then folding it back on itself), mostly so I can watch tv while I do it. There are lots of techniques on YouTube, but just make sure you keep going until it is smooth and has a bit of a shine. I would say around 5minutes is a good bet. Cover with a tea towel and put in a warm spot for about 45minutes or until it has doubled in size (how quickly this happens depends on how warm it is so just keep checking the first time you make it).

Now for the best bit of the entire adventure – punch that sucker in the middle of its bloated belly. Then kneed it again for a little less time then before. Pop it in the loaf tin or tray that you are going to cook it in/on. Cover and pop back in the warm place for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 220C (fan bake). Put the dough in and cook for ten minutes, turn the oven down to 180C and cook for another 20 minutes. You know it is done when you tap it and it sounds hollow.

Take out of the oven and out of the tin straight away (otherwise it will get all sweaty).

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Quick Tip: Don’t let the warm water get too hot. If you see steam, the yeast will die.

Recipe and image courtesy of: Runaway Kiwi