Nigella Lawson is one of my favorite writers/presenters. We are both British and love to cook so we're probably sisters, separated at birth. Nigella has written many fabulous cook books but my favorite is "How to be a Domestic Goddess". My bread recipe is adapted from her recipe on page 296.
Ingredients:
2 and one quarter teaspoons of active dry yeast or one tablespoon of fresh yeast
1 and two third cups of warm water (or 1 and one third cups if using store-bought white bread flour)
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
Half a tablespoon of salt (omit this is using salted butter)
3 tablespoons of wheat gluten
3 and one half cups of bread flour and/or wholewheat flour
Optional extras:
Quarter cup of teff
One half cup of oats
One eighth cup of flax seeds
2 tablespoons of honey
I begin by placing my yeast into a large mixing bowl and adding the water. I am not scientific about the temperature but I like to be able to hold my finger in the water for a few seconds to ensure that it isn't too hot.
I mix the yeast into the water and then add the butter and gluten. Another mix to help the butter melt and then add the salt and one cup of flour.
Here's a little side note on flour and water: You may have read my previous post about grinding our own flour. I use soft white wheat and hard winter wheat. I tend to ratio my bread 2:1 so two cups of soft white wheat flour to every one of hard winter wheat. Any optional extras (teff, flax seeds or oats) will take the place of some of the flour). If you were using store-bought white bread flour you could get away with using slightly less water.
Now I add the extras and they can change depending on how I'm feeling. I love teff in bread and often add a quarter cup. Teff is a fabulous ancient grain which gives my bread a light nutty flavor although this flavor could also come from the flax seeds which I often throw in too. So in go the oats, teff and flax seeds. You could add pretty much anything you wanted: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins.
Once my extras are mixed in I continue to add the flour, half a cup at a time, mixing it all in before adding more. If you have a Kitchenaid mixer (or similar brand) you can put everything in the bowl, in the order mentioned above, and let the dough hook do the work. I have always made bread dough with a fork. It's just how I do it and it's what I'm used to. Once the dough starts to come together, I ditch the fork and use my hands.
You can either turn your dough out onto the counter or you can continue to mix in the bowl. I usually turn out at this point. You may have used all of the original three and a half cups of flour by now or you may have some left. I find that the amount of flour I end up using changes with each loaf. I always have extra on hand and you'll be able to feel when your dough has enough flour. It will be a bit sticky but holds a ball shape. Now it's time to knead.
I sprinkle a little flour onto the counter-top and onto the ball of dough itself, then I knead until that flour has been incorporated. I will quote Nigella's words about kneading: "Kneading is easy to do but hard to describe. Basically, what you do is press the heel of your hand into the dough, push the dough away, and bring it back and down against the work surface, for at least 10 minutes. You may need to add more flour as you do so; if the dough seems stickily wet, it means you do want a little more [flour] and often a lot more [flour]. When you've kneaded enough you will be able to tell the difference - it suddenly feels smoother and less sticky. It's a wonderful moment."
Once your dough has been kneaded to that wonderful point, you can put it back into the bowl that you did your mixing in and leave it to rise. You can cover it with anything from Saran-wrap to a damp cloth. I have reuseable plastic covers that I pop over my bowl. You want to leave the dough until it has risen to about two-thirds of its original size. The time this takes will vary for each and every loaf of bread your bake. There are lots of factors but the heat of the day or your home play a huge role.
Once your dough has risen to two-thirds it's original size, you knock the air out of it and shape it into a ball, loaf or whatever shape you would like your bread to be. If you're baking your bread in a loaf pan, now would be the time to pop it into that pan. Cover it again and let it rise again, until it is puffy to the touch.
Preheat your oven to 425 Farenheit. Slash your bread three of four times across the top with a very sharp knife. This is not just to look good. It actually helps the gases escape from the loaf as it is baking. If you don't slash the top, your dough will decide where to split by itself which can lead to mishappen loaves. Nothing wrong with that but if you would prefer a uniform loaf that is easy to cut, I suggest the slashing.
Pop your bread into the oven and bake for 35 minutes. I usually check my bread around the 25 minute mark and if I've used a bread pan, I remove the bread from the pan and finish cooking straight on the oven rack. When your bread is cooked, it should sound hollow when knocked with your knuckles on the underside.
Leave your bread on a cooling rack for at least an hour before you cut into it. Honestly, it's worth the wait.
This method of bread-making is certainly more time consuming than the overnight bucket method, but the resulting bread is just fabulous. I would love it if you give it a try and let me know how it turns out for you.
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