Homemade Bread

We don't like to buy bread in France as to our taste it has far too much salt, so each weekend we make and bake a couple of loaves.  We took the recipe from one of the monthly Waitrose magazines but we have modified it to our taste.

Bread Recipe

To make your own bread, our recipe is:

• Put 150ml of lukewarm water in a jug;
• Add a 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar;
• Add 10 grams of Allinson's dried active yeast
• Stir until the yeast is dissolved and then leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes while a head develops on the yeast.

While the yeast is activating, put the flour in a large mixing bowl.  For 10g of yeast, you will need 500g of flour, which we make up form 400g of chapatti flour and100g of strong white bread flour.  Of course, you can alter the ratio of brown and white flour and you can also change the brown flour to wholemeal or similar.  Add as much or as little salt as you want.

Kneading homemade dough for bread and pizzas

For a different taste, add about 50g of seeds to the flour so that it gets mixed in to the dough.  Our favourites are poppy and sesame, both of which give a lovely delicate flavour to the bread.

When there is a good head on the yeast stir it well and then add another 200ml of lukewarm water.  Pour  the yeast into the flour bowl and knead firmly but gently for 5 - 10 minutes.  We find that with lots of chapatti flour the mix can be quite solid so we add a good splash of huile de pepin.  This vegetable oil makes the dough a lot more elastic but doesn't affect the flavour.

Homemade bread dough rising

Creating Your Loaf

When you have finished kneading the dough, cut it into two equal sized chunks and form it into the shape that you want.

In the picture we have made ours into two baguettes that have been left to rise for about 2 hours.

Because the chapatti flour doesn't rise very well we tend not to knock it back, but the beauty of this recipe is that it is very forgiving so you can do what you prefer and see how it turns out.

There will be some disasters along the way but it won't take you long to be making perfect bread to your own unique recipe.

Homemade bread on chopping board in front of bread crock

Finished!

Finally, put the bread into a pre-heated oven at gas mark 4 for 20 minutes.  When it is cooked pop the loaves onto a wire tray to cool down and then eat with cheese or jam.  Delicious!

Please make sure that you let us and all our readers know how you are getting on with making your own bread.