While we are in the midst of autumn (and a second national lockdown pending), homemade bread is one of those simple pleasures. That’s why I’m sharing my recipe for a super simple wholemeal bloomer.
If you’re not sure what a bloomer loaf is, it’s a loaf of bread thats baked on a baking tray rather than in a tin. It’s shaped but finds its way into the perfect bloomer shape while proving – it’s not complex at all, it’s very simple.
Wholemeal bread for me just gives more of an autumnal feeling, in the strangest way it’s ‘warming’. A couple of thickly sliced bloomer with some soup – what a winning combination – give it a try and tell me otherwise.
If this sounds like something you’d like to make – grab your ingredients and have a lazy afternoon as you make this.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
500g Wholemeal flour.
8g Salt.
25g Fresh yeast.
30g White shortening.
10g Granulated sugar.
310ml Water.
Method:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up the ingredients, lining your baking tray with parchment paper and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer.
To start on the recipe, grab a mixing bowl and place in the wholemeal flour and salt – whisking the two together until they are well combined.
You can then go ahead and add in the fresh yeast, white shortening, granulated sugar and water.
Mix the ingredients together on a low speed to start with for 2 minutes, followed by 6 minutes on a medium-high speed. Once finished with the mixing process, the dough should be easy to work with (maybe a little soft/sticky, this will go away).
Now sprinkle flour onto your work surface with a small amount of wholemeal flour and place the bread dough onto it and knead until it has become smooth and elastic.
Bring the dough back into a ball shape and place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave somewhere warm to prove for around 60 minutes or until it has doubled in size.
Once the dough has finished its first prove, you can go ahead and flour your work surface and knock the dough back. This is the process of removing the gases that have built up in the dough during the first prove.
After the dough has been knocked back, bring back into a ball shape then roll out into an oblong shape – cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to prove again for a further 45 minutes or until it has pretty much doubled in size.
While the dough is proving, you can get tidied up and preheat your oven to 230˚c/445˚f. You’ll know the dough has done proving as you’ll be able to gently press the dough and it’ll spring back.
After the second proof, you can remove the clingfilm from off of the dough and make score the dough. I think more traditionally its around 7 cuts but I went with 6 – if you’re making this for home, you can make as many or as few cuts as you’d like. Bake in the preheated oven for around 30-35 minutes.
To test if the bread is done, turn it upside own and tap the bottom – if it sounds hollow, thats a good sign and shows the bread is baked, remove from the oven and take off the baking tray and place onto a cooling rack to cool down fully.
Once cooled down, you can then go ahead and slice the bread to your desired thickness and enjoy it however you like.
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.
Leave a Reply