Another week means another bread recipe and today I’m keeping it really simple. I’m showing you how to make a simple homemade white loaf.
This loaf is honestly one of the easiest breads to make. You only need a handful of ingredients, some time and a loaf tin… That’s all you need.
The recipe I’m about to share is the exact same one that I used for my very first loaf of bread. Back in 2013 I started a bakery college course and in the very first bread practical lesson we made a simple white loaf from scratch by hand… I was thrown in at the deep end.
I’m by no means Paul Hollywood but I know a thing to two about bread baking.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
500g Strong white bread flour.
8g Salt.
10g Fresh yeast.
10g White shortening (Trex or Crisco works well).
300ml Water, warmed (blood temperature).
Methods:
Before you get into making this loaf of bread, you’ll want to do some simple preparation. Start by weighing up all your ingredients, grabbing your load tin and getting any other bits of equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer.
Into your mixing bowl, place the flour and salt and give them a brief mix, just to incorporate them.
Then you can go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, white shortening and water and start the mixer on a low speed to start and mix for approx 2 minutes, then crank the speed up to a medium-low and mix for a further 6 minutes and by this point the dough should be smooth and leave the bowl almost perfectly clean.
Give the dough a brief knead on a lightly floured surface, just bring the dough into a smooth ball.
You can then transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm to proof for around an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Once the dough has finished its first proofing period, you can lightly flour a work surface and place the dough directly onto it. Push the dough to remove the gasses that have built up during the first proof.
Next, you’ll want to bring the dough back into a ball shape, then you can roll it out slightly into a fat sausage shape (only roll it out to the size of your loaf pan). Once you’ve done that, you can go ahead and loosely cover the dough with some clingfilm and leave to proof for about 30-45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
While the dough is proofing for the second time, you can go ahead and preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f.
Once the dough has finished its second proof, you can go ahead and remove the clingfilm from the top of the dough. Place it in the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the bread has become well coloured.
To check if the bread is fully baked, turn it out of the loaf pan and tap the bottom. When you tap the bottom, it should sound hollow. If it doesn’t, place it back in the oven to bake for a little longer.
Otherwise, you’re done! If you can resist cutting into the bread while its warm, wait until its fully cooled down and then enjoy it as if it were a loaf of normal bread.
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
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