Mamta's Kitchen

Bread Loaf Using Traditional Method

Traditional Bread Loaf

Mamta Gupta

Vegetarian

Making a bread loaf is so easy, I sometimes wonder why I did not learn to make it sooner! It is fresh, with no additives and lot more tasty than factory made, ready sliced bread. Amounts of ingredients for basic white bread vary a little; I have reduced the salt and not added any sugar in mine. It still works very well. Once you have perfected the basic bread, you can add many optional extras, see below.

As I get older, I often make the dough in a bread maker. Once the dough is ready, I take it out, knock it back, shape it and bake on ordinary oven. I find that I have more control over its shape and when it is ready to bake .

Makes 2 small loaves or 1 large bloomer** or 1 small loaf plus 4-5 bread rolls with this amount.

Ingredients

  • 500gm.strong white flour (high gluten bread flour) plus a little extra flour for shaping the dough. Indian maida works just as well. You can replace 100 gm. plain flour with strong, whole meal flour.

  • 30 gm. olive oil or sunflower oil

  • 7 gm. (1 1/2 tsp.) dried instant, fast acting yeast*

  • 7 gm. (1 1/2 tsp.) salt

  • 320 ml. tap/filtered water

  • A little olive or sunflower oil to work the dough

  • Optional additions

  • A handful of raisins/ chopped apricots/dates or any chopped nuts/melon seeds, deep fried onions, garlic, herbs, chillies etc. Add these after the first rising of the dough.

Instructions

  1. Place flour in a large mixing bowl (dough needs room to rise). Add oil, yeast and salt in each corner of the bowl.

  2. Add the water slowly, mixing it with your fingers. Add more water a little at a time, as you mix it with the flour, until you have all the flour from the sides of the bowl incorporated into one rough lump or ball and the bowl sides are clean. Amount of water can be a little more or a little less than you have measured. The dough should be soft.

  3. Grease a clean work surface. Turn the dough out onto it. Stretch the dough with the heal of your hand, fold it in. Turn it 45 degrees. Stretch and fold it again. Continue this until the dough is smooth, approximately 5 minutes. Kneading makes the dough elastic by stretching the gluten in the flour. It is not sticky any more. Kneading can be done in a food processor, if you have a dough hook.

  4. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a tea towel. I often use the shower caps supplied in hotel rooms to cover the bowl. Keep it aside to prove. Room temperature is fine, it does not have to be a warm place. In fact, you can leave it in the fridge for an overnight, slow rise.

  5. Shaping the bread: When the dough doubles in size, roughly 1-2 one hours, it is ready for next step.

  6. Prepare your baking tin or tray. I use silicone bread bin for loaf and a silicone liner for a free-form, bloomer bread. You can line any bread tin or a tray, lined with baking paper.

  7. Turn the dough out onto a clean, lightly floured surface.

  8. Knead it firmly to knock out the air, rolling the dough out with your hand a few times.

  9. Stretch it out in both horizontal and vertical directions.

  10. For a loaf, stretch it out flat, fold the both sides in. Tuck in the top and bottom ends to get a loaf shape. Place it in the bread tin or a tray, with seam side down, so the top surface is smooth. For a bloomer, turn it into a round shape by pulling all the edges into the centre. Place on a baking sheet, again with seem side under. For bread rolls, break into 50-75 gm. dough portions and shape same as a bloomer, by tucking the edges under.

  11. Sprinkle some flour or bran on top of your bread and gently rub it in very gently.

  12. Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove until it is doubled in size, about an hour or longer, depending upon the temperature of your kitchen.

  13. Preheat the oven to 220 C (200 C fan assisted) Gas 7. Lower temperature will give you a harder bread.

  14. Using a very sharp knife (I use an old fashioned shaving blade for this), make 2-3 shallow slashes (about 1cm/1/2 inch deep) across the top of the loaf, in a pattern of your choice. This stops the bread from developing large air pockets/create an odd shaped loaf by creating intentional weak spots, so the bread can expand evenly. Do this just before you put the bread in the oven.

  15. Bake the loaf in the middle of the hot oven for 30 minutes. Smaller loaf or bread rolls will take less time.

  16. The loaf is cooked when it has risen and golden. To check, take it out of the oven and tap it gently. It should sound hollow. Turn onto a wire rack to cool.

Notes

  • *Activating Yeast: If you do not have instant yeast, or you are not sure how good it is, activate it as follows; place the measured amount of warm water in a jug. Dissolve the sugar in it. Stir in yeast. Do not worry if it does not mix fully. Leave to work until it has good foam at the top.

  • **Bloomer: A Bloomer is a type of crusty loaf with rounded ends, with several parallel diagonal slashes across its top.

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