When I tell friends that I bake my own bread, the first look I get is normally one of astonishment. People find it strange that I have the skills and time to make bread in my own kitchen. These days people seem surprised to learn that bread does not have to be bought from supermarkets or made in machines.

What you will need (equipment):

A Mixing Bowl
A loaf tin or a flat baking tray.
An oven, preferably fan-assisted.
Some aluminum-foil.

What you will need (ingredients):

Bakers Yeast - This is usually obtained in sachets of granules.

Flour - You cant use any flour, make sure it’s “Strong” flour. Strong flour has more gluten in it, that’s the substance that gives good bread it’s crunchy texture. It’s best not to use plain flour or self-rising flour. Those are for cakes and biscuits, not bread.

Warm Water - (About body temperature)

Oil or butter - Some recipes suggest lard. I don’t much like the sound of that, and neither do my vegetarian friends. I prefer to use olive oil, althaugh corn oil seems to make bread crunchy - I use that in pizza bases.

A pinch of salt - Even in dessert breads, a pinch of salt enhances the bread’s flavour. wertperch informs me that "The salt also strengthens the gluten, and this makes the dough less likely to drop back when you prove it.".

Method:

1. Put the yeast granules in a large jug or cup. Add 3/4 pint of warm water. Stir or swirl the mixture until the yeast is mostly dissolved. Althaugh you can add granular yeast directly to the flour, I find that dissolving it in water first seems to make it more active and dispersed thorough the flour. The bread rises quicker and more evenly.

2. Add flour to a bowl. Usually, a 1 kilo pack is good for about four or five loaves of bread. Feel the weight of a shop-bought loaf. If you want to make a loaf that big you will need to add slightly more than it’s weight in flour. The reason for this is that home made bread tends to be more dense than commercial products.

3. Add a pinch of salt, and a few tablespoons full of oil or butter. This helps the consistency of the bread as it is rising. It’s possible to make bread without any oils or fats, but in my opinion it does not taste as nice.

4. With one hand, knead the mixture as you add in the water. Soon it will become a thick pasty dough. If you used mainly brown flour you might want to add a little bit extra yeasty water because brown flour has a tendency to absorb water more slowly than white. You need to find a compromise between dough that’s too watery and dough that’s too dry. Watery dough will be too moist after you have baked it, but dry dough wont rise properly.

5. Once you have mixed in all the ingredients you can leave it in the mixing bowl to rise. After about half an hour the mixture should have puffed up to twice its volume.  At this point you should knock as much of the air out as you can and re-knead the dough. This rising process may seem pointless, but it helps stretch the dough into a nice texture. Bread that isn’t left to rise has a bland texture and an insipid crust.

6. Leave it another half an hour and repeat the process, knocking all the air bubbles out of the mixture. This time transfer the mix into a baking tin or a tray. Most ovenware will do as long as they are made of heatproof conductive metal or glass. If you are using a try that isn’t specifically designed for bread you might want to line it with a layer of foil. In any case you should smear some butter around the tin. That will help prevent the bread sticking when you try to remove it.

7. At this point you should think about pre-heating the oven. Bread needs to cook on a high heat. About 220 Celsius is good for most recipes. If you have an older oven you will need to let it pre-heat for longer.

8. Once the bread has risen again (twice it’s original size is a good amount) put it in the oven. It’s best to keep regular watch the first time you do this. You need to take it out once its become golden brown. If your oven heats un-evenly you might want to turn the bread around in mid-bake.

9. After less than 25 minutes of baking your bread should be ready. Once you take it out of the oven, you should leave it to cool for a few minutes before eating it. Put it on a raised wire tray: you need to allow the air to circulate around - there is a lot of moisture that is still evaporating. If you want to keep the crust crunchy you need to make sure that water does not re-condense on the bread. If you dont have a wire tray you can just put the bred down upside-down.

Enjoy!

PS. You can add flavourings after stage 4. One of my favourites is chopped dates and walnuts. Also, in my opinion, the nicest thing you can spread on a freshly baked loaf is Marmite!