What You'll Need
There are thousands of bread recipes out there. Different flours, fresh yeast, dried yeast, no yeast. It's overwhelming. So here's the most basic one — the one you need if you've never made bread before.
- 650ml tepid water (warmish, not hot)
- 1 sachet of dried yeast
- 1kg strong flour
- Pinch of salt
- Optional: pinch of sugar or honey
Step 1: Wake Up the Yeast
Pour the warm water into a large bowl. Add the dried yeast and mix with a fork. If you want, add a pinch of sugar or a little honey — it helps wake the yeast up. Leave it for a couple of minutes and you'll see bubbles starting. Those bubbles are carbon dioxide, and they'll become the little air pockets in your bread.
Step 2: Mix the Dough
Add most of the kilo of strong flour to the water, holding a little bit back. Mix with a fork first — keeps your hands clean. Add a good pinch of salt. Then get your hands in there.
It'll get sticky. When your hands get covered, just take some of that reserved flour and dust them down. Keep moving the dough around and you'll clean the sides of the bowl too.
Step 3: Knead
There's no right or wrong way to knead. Move it apart, stretch it, fold it, pick it up and throw it down. Do it for about 10 minutes. You'll feel the yeast working — the dough will warm up from your hands.
You can tell it's done when it feels smooth and elastic.
Step 4: First Rise
Dust your work surface with flour from a height. Cup your hands underneath the dough and tuck it into a ball. Put it in a clean bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and leave it for about an hour to an hour and a half.
It'll double in size.
Step 5: Knock It Back
Punch the dough. It'll collapse like a balloon. Take it out and give it another short knead — you'll see all the little bubbles. This batch makes two large loaves, so cut it in half.
Step 6: Shape It
Dust a baking tray. Shape the dough however you want — round loaf, rustic slipper, whatever. I like stretching it into an oval and leaving it rustic. The flour on top makes it crack and puff up nicely.
Step 7: Second Rise
Leave it to prove again for about 30 minutes to an hour. It needs to at least double in size. Put it somewhere draft-free.
Step 8: Bake
Preheat your oven to 180°C. Bake for about 35 minutes. You'll know it's done when it sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
The Result
Spongy, simple, nice thin crust. And if you've got no bread in the house, you've got this.
