Nothing much else beats the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the house. Freshly baked bread is also pretty tasty too not to mention much healthier than its shop bought equivalent. There are less additives in homemade bread and you may be surprised to learn that you only need 2 store cupboard ingredients. So here is a very easy homemade bread recipe which will make you a delicious loaf of bread.
Easy Homemade Bread Recipe
There are lots of myths around homemade bread, such as it’s time consuming and you need lots of fancy ingredients. But the truth is if you’re organised it needn’t take up your whole day. Yes you do need to prove it a couple of times and yes the kneading can take 10 minutes. But in all honesty the more you make bread the quicker you will get at the process. You can do other things while the bread is rising which means the bread may take a couple of hours to make but you’re not in the kitchen with it the entire time.
A lot of people think that you need proper bread flour to make bread but in actual fact regular plain flour works too. It’s may not be as ‘good’ as when you use bread flour but I’ve never tasted a difference. Neither has anyone I’ve fed it to. You could experiment with other flours as you see fit. The truth is bread baking (and cooking in general) is all about experimenting and finding out what works and what doesn’t. There is no right or wrong way with cooking it’s all just trial and error.
Here is my easy simple bread recipe which you can use to experiment with as you please.
Easy homemade Bread
Here is my easy homemade bread recipe. It's a great basic recipe which can be experimented with as you please.
Ingredients
- 500g Flour (You can use plain or strong flour here)
- 2 tsp yeast
- 175ml water (adjust to suit the flour your using some need more some need less)
Instructions
- Pop your flour and yeast into a bowl and give it a stir.
- Add enough water to create a soft dough. Some flours need more water than others. If you end up putting too much water in just add a little more flour until you have the correct consistency.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a good 10 minutes. This can take some time if you have never done it before. The idea is to move and stretch the bread as much as possible. You will get better at this the more times you make bread. This process stretches the gluten and helps the bread rise.
- You know when to stop kneading when the dough is springy to touch. If you gently press on the dough it should spring right back.
- At this stage we need to prove the dough. Pop it in a lightly oiled bowl for 30-45 minutes or until it has doubled in size. Ideally you need to leave the dough in a warmish draught free place.
- After proving the dough we need to knock the dough back. We do this by giving the dough a good punch and knocking all of the air out of the dough.
- We can now shape the dough and place it on a baking tray or in a loaf tin. You can get as creative as you like here by making different shapes or loafs of bread. You could create a plait or just a simple loaf shape.
- Prove the dough for the final time until doubled in size. This will take around 30-45 minutes.
- Once you have done the final prove you can now bake the bread at 180c for around 35 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Short of time? You may also like these easy homemade flatbreads.
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