As hard as things are for everyone at the moment, it is giving me the opportunity to go back to basics in a lot of areas of the home, especially in the kitchen.
For years we only ate home baked bread, then life got busy for me, working long days and also evening shifts as well as weekends. This is when i turned back around and was buying more baked are ready made foods for convenience because i was so time poor.
I thought today i would share my easy bread recipe. I use a bread machine to do all the hard work for me but i always make the dough into loaves, rolls or pizza etc and bake it in my oven.
This basic recipe can be used in so many ways; Once the mixing cycle is almost complete add in some ingredients to turn it into something else, Cheese & Bacon works great so does some mixed spice, cinnamon and mixed fruit. Its only limited to your imagination.
Here is my recipe below.
Sharon Homemade Bread
4 Cups of cheap plain flour, i use 1 cup of wholemeal flour and 3 cups of white. You can use any plain flour you choose. 1 teasp of sugar 1 1/2 teasp of salt. 1 teasp of bread improver, available at the supermarket near the flour and yeast. Put all dry ingredients into the bread machine and add: 1 tbsp of oil 2 teasp of dry yeast 1 3/4 cups of water at room temp. During the mixing process just check that the ingredients have combined and that the dough is not to dry. It should have formed a nice looking ball that is not to sticky to the touch, If you find it a bit dry add a little more water, if its to sticky add a little more flour. Be sure to add these extras while the mixing process is still going. Start your machine on either the dough setting to the full settings to make the loaf in the machine from start to finish.
I only make the dough in the bread machine so i can shape it my self into loaves or rolls. If you using the machine for dough the process will take aprox 1.5 hours, after the cycle has finished remove the dough and make loaves etc. Let it rise again in a warm place (cooler days i put it in my oven with the light on for warmth) until it doubles in size and bake in a moderate around 180 oven until golden brown aprox 30 mins keeping an eye on it.
This can also be made in a stand mixer. Just remember to give it a good kneed, then rest in a warm spot in a oiled bowl covered in plastic to double in size before forming into what shape you like and letting it rise again.
This dough is great made into pizzas. After the first rise roll out half to fit a pizza tray then add your toppings. No need to let it rise just cook straight away
I also roll dough flat and spread a mix of butter, oil, garlic & herbs to make a focaccia.
