Christmas has come and gone and I received about 8 or so cookbooks maybe a couple more? I lost count. I've been in my GBBO era and my husband went with this theme with some of his cookbook selections, and one of those was Paul Hollywood's 100 Great Breads. I've already been making all of my bread from scratch, but I tend to revert back to my go to recipes. I want to try some new recipes so I hope to work my way though this book. I have noticed with at least this one recipe that Paul's instructions are a bit presumptive. He says to knead the dough without telling you what signs to look for to tell you it is kneaded enough, or how to properly shape a loaf. I didn't mind, but more novice bakers may find this frustrating.
I decided to start at the beginning. I did skip the wheatsheaf bread, because I didn't want that much bread on hand, but I'll give it a try some other time.
The sprinkling of flour on top reminded me of the crust and flavor of a Cobs White Farmer's loaf. I served this bread fresh with some soup, which my children refused to eat, but at least there was some bread, bread is always a win.
Below I have added notes that I found helpful to the recipe as well as the North American names for certain ingredients.
Paul uses fresh yeast, and reccomended using 25% less if using instant yeast, so I calculated a new amount for the yeast as well. Don't fret about the 1/4g it won't make a difference.
Ingredients
500g bread flour
10g salt (I used fine sea salt)
60ml olive oil
11.25g instant yeast (my scale doesn't do decimals so I eyeballed the 1/4g)
270ml water
Instructions
- I prefer to disolve my yeast in slightly warm water to ensure it is active and will incorporate smoothly. I disolved my yeast in the water and set it aside as I weighed the rest of the ingredients.
- In a seperate bowl I weighed the flour, I weighed the salt separately in a small bowl and mixed together thoroughly. I weighed the oil as well.
- When the yeast is ready, add to the flour mixture and add the oil as well. I used my swedish bread whisk for mixing it until it came together. I then began to knead it in the bowl until it came together.
- I tranfered the dough to an unfloured surface and kneaded for about 10 minutes until it was smooth and elastic and passed the windowpane test. I also poke my dough and if it quickly fills in the hole that is another sign it has been kneaded enough.
- I shaped the dough into a ball and returned it to the greased bowl and allowed to rise for about an hour (doubled in size).
- Grease a loaf pan and set aside. Punch down your dough and shape into a rectangle the same width as your pan. Tightly roll up the dough into a sausage and cinch the seam shut. Place into greased loaf pan and allow to rise about 30-45 minutes until it is slighly above the edge.
- Preheat the oven to 450 and sprinle the top of your loaf with white flour.
- Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes. I found I had to cover the top of my loaf to prevent overbrowning so check on that at about 20 minutes. I always temp my bread. A white bread like this is done when it has reached 190 degrees.
- Once fully baked, remove from tin immediately and allow to cool completely on cooling rack.