European-Style Bread (AKA Not Toast)

no-more-ramen:

This is a recipe for baking your own bread. Note, this will not give you “toast” bread, but a proper loaf of bread – which is why I call it European-style, as AFAIK most US-Americans think of toast when they hear the word bread. This ain’t that! It’s better. 😀
Baking bread can seem intimidating, but it’s actually very straightforward. It’s about 15min of work in total and 3h of waiting. There are actually only three steps (mix, rest, bake) but I detailed them as much as possible below, because I prefer very detailed recipes with clear instructions.

Ingredients:
– 660g flour or about 23,3oz. (I use white flour specifically for bread, which is cheap where I live; you could try with other kinds, it should work fine, but I can’t vouch for it)
– 12g or about 0,42oz. salt
– 8g or about 0,28oz. dry yeast (or one of the small packages, depending on what you buy)
– 35g or about 1,23oz. oil (I use olive oil, other kinds can work too) + additional oil for your baking form
– 350g or about 12.34oz. warm water (not hot, warm; the yeast likes warmth)

Tools:
– a bowl large enough for mixing in
– a scale for weighing
– cloth for draping
– a kneading device if you can’t knead it manually (optional)
– an oven
– a baking form
– a knife (optional)

Instructions:
1. Measure ingredients in the bowl, dry first, wet last.

2. Mix well with your hands or your kneading device (I have never tried this but in theory it should work; DO NOT USE A BLENDER! The dough will not mix in that! It’s way too sticky and heavy). You don’t even need to put a lot of strength into it; just keep mixing the dough for ten minutes and it should be fine. Don’t pull it apart while mixing, but rather squish it together and roll it over; you want it to be a dense mass. After about three to five minutes you should have one solid lump of dough, and after ten minutes it should be smooth. If it’s silky smooth and does not stick to your hands anymore, you are done. Note, do not put flour on your hands before mixing, and do not mix it on a floured surface; this adds more flour to the mix and makes it too dry. Just mix it in the bowl you measured the ingredients in.

3. Rest the dough in the bowl for an hour in a warm location (e.g. on top of or nearby your heater), covered with a cloth. Make sure it is warm but not too hot; the yeast can’t stand too much heat. During this hour the dough should about double in size.

4. Knead again after the time is up to get rid of the air bubbles inside the dough. Just a minute or two will be enough, you only want to get it back down to its original size.

5. Prepare the baking form by oiling the inside so the bread won’t stick to it while baking, then transfer the loaf into the baking form. Make sure there are no air bubbles left inside by squishing down on it a bit.

6. Rest again for another hour in a warm location, again covered with a cloth. It should once more double in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 170°C (about 340°F) if using circulatory air and 180°C (about 355°F) if using upper and lower heat at least 10 minutes before the resting time is up.

8. (Optional) Slash the top of the bread diagonally or along its length, about 1cm or half an inch deep just before you put it in the oven. This makes for a nicer crust that is easier to cut in my opinion, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

9. Bake for 40 minutes, then let it cool. Would recommend eating the first crust piece when it’s still warm, though, for maximum awesome.

And bam, you just made bread! And bread that keeps pretty well, too. Enjoy your air hole-free, tasty bread.