This is a very simple recipe to make white bread from scratch.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup bread flour
- 2/3 cup room temp water
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
Tools:
- Large bowl
- Baking sheet or a cast iron pan
- Plastic wrap
- Dough scraper - if you don't have one, a spatula will work fine
Steps:
- Add water, yeast and salt to bowl. Stir with your hand.
- Add flour to the bowl and mix it in with your hands. At first, it will be sticky and messy. Just keep working it until the dough becomes more cohesive. You will be able to tell when the gluten is forming because the dough will stick together more and will not tear apart as easily. If it's still too sticky after a couple minutes of mixing, you can add a little bit more flour, just don't overdo it.
- Once the dough is somewhat cohesive, move it from the bowl to your working surface.
- Knead the dough for 5 minutes or until the dough is not very sticky. You will know when it's ready because you should be able to form the dough into a ball without the dough sticking to your hands or the surface you're working on too much.
- To knead the dough, use the heel of your dominant hand to press down and forward onto the dough. With your other hand, fold the dough inward so that you press the fold into the dough with each kneading motion. Continue to rotate the dough as you knead.
- Make the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes. This will allow the fermentation process to happen.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and place it so that the part of the dough that was face up in the bowl is now face down on your working surface. Fold the outer edges of the dough into the center. Rotate the dough and do this on all sides.
- Place the dough back in the bowl. Make sure it has the same orientation as when it was in the bowl last. The part of the dough that was face down on your working surface should once again be face up in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 430 F. Put the baking sheet into the oven so it heats up.
- Lightly dust your working surface with flower. Remove the dough from the bowl (do the same thing with the orientation of the dough as last time). Repeat the folding motions from step 6. Be gentle with the dough as you do this. You don't want to push out the gases that formed during the fermenting process.
- Instead of putting the dough back into the bowl, just flip it over and leave it on your working surface. Place the bowl upside down on top of the dough and let it sit for another 30 minutes. You won't be flipping the dough over any more, so leaving it like this will make it easier to move it to the baking sheet.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and lightly sprinkle some flour on it. Place the dough onto the baking sheet.
- Use a knife to score the bread. You can make one long cut across the top of the bread about a half inch deep. The bread will expand as it bakes, so if you don't score it, it will break open at the weakest point. Scoring gives you control over where the bread will expand and ensure that the end result will look the way you want.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- After baking, put the bread on a cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 20 minutes before eating it.
Notes:
- This recipe makes a small loaf of bread. If you want a larger loaf, you can double the ingredients and bake it for 45 minutes. If you decide to do this, you can also use half bread flour and half whole wheat flour for a healthier bread.
- You can put grains and seeds (like oats and sunflower seeds) into the bread if you want to make it healthier. After you mix up the water, yeast and salt, stir your grains/seeds into the mixture. Always add the flour last.
Pictures:
Result of following the basic recipe
Doubling the ingredients, using whole wheat flour and adding oats and sunflower seeds
