Mmm the smell of bread!

We ran out of bread yesterday and I realised I should just bake my own, Kieran has baked us bread plenty of times but never have I taken up such a role, I'm more of a bake-a-cake kinda girl. The start of the recipe said to leave it 2-4 hours or preferably overnight, so I thought 'oh yeah, do that and then I can just finish it off in time for breakfast' erm... no. It wasn't ready until 3pm, a very late breakfast! This recipe is for a plain white loaf, keep an eye on it towards the end of cooking it, every ovens different and your want your bread nice and soft.

Easy Farmhouse Loaf

For the first bit:
225ml warm water
1tsp easy blend yeast
175g stong white bread flour

For the second bit:
175g strong white bread flour
1tsp salt
25g butter


1. Scald your big-boy mixing bowl with boiling water from the kettle, after that chuck in your yeast and warm water.


2. Add the flour and mix it up well with a wooden spoon, cover the bowl with cling film and leave 2-4hours or overnight.


3. After all of that, put the second batch of flour in another bowl, with the salt and rub the butter in with your fingers til its like crumbs.


4. Add that to the other mix, scrape your fingers off then cover the bowl with a tea towel for 10mins.


5. When then 10mins is up, knead the dough and put it back in the covered bowl for 10mins, repeat this every 10mins over half an hour, then leave for 30mins.


6. Flour the work surface, roll the dough into a rectangle slightly smaller than the length of the loaf tin and put in your buttered floured tin, cover the tin with a tea towel and leave for an hour and a half in a warm place.


7. Heat the oven to 220'c and put a deep baking tin in the bottom, when the oven is heated, tip boiling water from your kettle into the baking tin to make a little steam.


8. Turn the oven down to 200'c, slash the bread across the top to make your print, then chuck in the oven, get a spray bottle full of water and open the oven door a little, stick the nozzle through and spray to create a little more steam.


9. Cook for 20-25mins then cool on a wire rack. Took a while, but its done!