Basic Bread
A basic white bread recipe – – for use as pizza bases (5), bread rolls (7 -8), loafs (1) and more. The perfect way to relax or vent your anger on a good kneed!
Servings Prep Time
1loaf 30minutes
Cook Time
12-40minutes
Servings Prep Time
1loaf 30minutes
Cook Time
12-40minutes
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Place all the ingredients (except the water) in a large bowl.
  2. Add 3/4 of the water, reserving the rest if needed.
  3. Mix by hand or with a fork to form a dough, add the extra water if needed to form a soft but not sticky dough ball.
  4. Knead (see tip below) for 10 minutes.
  5. Leave in a bowl covered with a damp towel somewhere warm to prove (rise and double in size) – like an airing cupboard or on a high shelf above an oven (approx. 1 hour).
  6. Knock back (punch all the air out of the dough) and knead again for 2 – 3 minutes.
  7. Use as pizza base (9), or as bread rolls (12) or as a large loaf or two small loaves of bread.
  8. Mould or roll in to the shape you want, place on a greased tray and leave to rise again until doubled in size or if rolling in to pizza bases use straight away.
  9. Egg wash the rolls or loaf and bake on the middle shelf in a pre-heated oven gas 7 / 210* until cooked. Rolls will take about 10 minutes, a small loaf 20 – 25 and a large loaf about 30 – 40. Tap the bottom it should sound hollow when cooked. Pizzas take between 8 – 10 minutes to cook while a calzoni will take about 10 – 12, always cook on the top shelf or if cooking a few swap over after 5 minutes.
Recipe Notes

Tip – To make luke warm use 1/3 boiled from the kettle & 2/3 from the cold tap.
How to Knead – Push, get mean and pull back the dough with the heals of both your hands, so push it away, pull it over back on it’s self and repeat – the elasticity, the proteins in the flour will get softer and the dough will get less sticky and more springy. You should be able to stick your finger in the dough and see the dough spring back up when your finger is removed.