Bread!

Yes! Of course the first recipe is Bread!

So off we go on our journey into our future archives where no loaf fears to tread. To go boldly (sic) (yes it's Dad here) Where No Loaf Has Been Before.

All our loaves start with this recipe. Changing quantities and shapes and adding and changing ingredients will make all kinds of different baked breadness but this is essentially where I always start from. And the reason is that I am safe here. If I make this 65% white dough it will be a tasty loaf. Keep it simple and start here first. Get a tasty loaf right and then you can build on it. Get a random recipe out of a book and you are on your own. It might and should work but it is surprisingly difficult to get one good, reliable recipe. I suspect that people all over the world have their own safety fallback dough recipe that works for them but we live here and this is one that works round here. The reason I think it is a good idea to have one working recipe as a basis is that all kinds of things affect the outcome (believe me I know - I've tried it a lot) but once you have a working method you'll leap in confidence, your toast will be fantastic and you'll find that all your bread is gone long before you expected it. This is the situation to aim for.

65%? It's a technicality worth knowing. It's called the 'Baker's Percentage' and it means 65% water by weight of the total flour added. No I am not saying that this is the only way to make bread. anywhere from 60- 90% will work apparently. But honestly there are billions of ways. This is our one.

Things that affect your dough:
The type of flour. You really do have to use flour from a packet labelled 'Strong White'. Even if you want brown bread or wholemeal or rye or parsley-flavoured bread this recipe still HAS to be made with mostly strong white. You can add a ton of other stuff but your base has to be strong white to work.

Water temperature. It will work with ice cold water but why make life hard for yourself? When you measure out the water at the beginning just check it is as warm as your fingers (35 deg C ish). I mix a bit of water out of the kettle with cold water.

Add salt. Certain members of our family think that salt is in some way evil but without it you will not get good bread. You can leave the salt out and still get a loaf but if you've got some then add it. No it won't kill the yeast. Salt will only kill yeast if you pour salt directly onto fresh live yeast. This recipe uses dried or insto-yeast, not live, so the salt can't do any harm.

Knead. You have to knead the dough. For ages. So preferably in a food processor of some kind but the best result are by hand-kneading. You can only stop when pinching the dough upwards reveals a cloth-like texture that stretches into a very thin 'window'. For some reason we call this 'Paul Hollywood's pants'.

Rising time. This is the big one. If you don't have patience you will not get good bread. So on the face of it is there any point trying? How are you going to leave the pesky stuff alone long enough for it to work? Well actually it's easy. Set a timer and get on with everything and anything else that you need to do. A bit of forward planning helps. This recipe is super-ultra-friendly too so you should be fine to do the first bit and then go out clubbing/shopping/skiing/revising/whatever and do the second part afterwards.

Ingredients:
340g warm water (weigh it - don't waste time with measuring jugs).
500g Strong White Flour
10g Salt
15g Sugar
10g Yeast

Yeast can be any type you want but follow the instructions. If it's fresh then just mash it into the water, If it's dried yeast then add it to the warm water and sugar and leave for 10 minutes to go frothy before adding the flour and salt. If it's dried instant then just add it to the flour and forget it. Personally I like dried yeast that needs to be added to sugar and water and brought to life. Or Fresh. Or instant I don't really care because they all work if you follow the instructions. Sourdough is also good but see me later for the other ten thousand pages on getting it to work.

Ye Olde Telco Family Method (using Allinson's dried yeast (Yellow tin)):

Weigh out the warm water and dissolve the sugar in it. Add yeast and cover for 10-15 minutes so it can go frothy. 340g is actually 68% of 500g. Just checking you're still awake.

Add the flour. You don't have to use exclusively white flour, I like to use 400g Strong White and 100g Spelt. But be cautious here. If you go mad and start using weird flour it might not work at all so get a mostly 100% white working first and then make up your total 500g from a mixture of other things like Rye or Einkorn or ground sprouted barley flour or whatever.

Knead. Preferably in a mixer with a dough hook for at least 20 minutes. Scrape down the bowl at least once. This makes the washing up easier and is less wasteful.

When you have a stretchy dough that passes the 'window pane test' then you just cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in a warm place (25 deg C ish) for an hour or until it is double the size.

Now you can either put it in the fridge and forget it for 12-24 hours which will improve the flavour a lot and give you time to do a bit more clubbing or shopping. Or go straight to the next stage.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead all the air out. Flatten the dough and fold it over on itself then roll up and stretch and form into a ball. (You've seen me do this). you want to end up with a smooth ball with a taught surface or a log shape if you are going to do a tin loaf. Rest the loaf on the worktop for 5 mins (patience!) which helps the base close up.

Now put the whole thing into a well greased tin with the stretched side upwards and cover loosely with oiled cling film (to stop it sticking) and rise for about an hour. It should double in size again.

Bake in a preheated oven at 210 deg C for 30 mins. Turn out of the tin onto the oven shelf and cook for another ten minutes.

It's ready when the base sounds hollow when you tap it. If it sounds a bit dull and not really hollow then it isn't properly cooked and can go back in for five minutes at a time until you're happy with it.

Leave to cool on a wire rack (oven grill pan works for this). Do not cut it while it's hot!