Simple Bread

Ingredients

695g of plain flour

7g of quick action yeast

1 teaspoon of sugar

400ml water

Olive Oil

(Optional) Salt

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Step 2

Add all 695g of plain flour to a large mixing bowl.

Adding the flour to the bowl

Step 3

Add 7g of quick action yeast to the bowl. This is generally equal to 1 sachet of yeast.

Adding the yeast to the bowl

Step 4

Add 1 teaspoon of sugar into the mix, this will help to feed the yeast.

Step 5

Make a small hole in the middle of the flour using your hands.

Step 6

Slowly add 400ml of water to the mix.

Adding the water to the mixture

Step 7

Stir the mixture with a spoon until all the ingredients have combined and the resulting dough can be picked up with your hands.

Mixing it all together

Step 8

Lightly dust a board with flour and knead the dough. To knead the dough, stretch it out, fold it over, and push the dough down. Repeat this process until the dough has a slight elastic property.

It is important that the dough is kneaded enough so that air pockets can form during the baking process and the bread doesn't collapse.

Kneading the dough

Step 9

Place the kneaded dough in a bowl and cover it with a tea towel or clingfilm. Leave the dough to prove for around 45 minutes.

Step 10

Move your dough to a baking tray or tin. I have lined my baking tray with grease proof paper.

If your dough has lost some shape during this process you can let it rise around another 20 minutes.

(optional) Score the dough.

Scoring the bread

Step 11

Place your dough in the oven at 200C and leave to bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top has started to brown.

Step 12

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Step 13

Bread!

The finished product