Ingredients 

300g strong white bread flour

100g wholemeal bread flour or wholemeal spelt

8g table salt or flaked salt

7g sachet dried yeast

25g sunflower or other plant oil

265g lukewarm water (to a jug add 65ml of just boiled kettle water, then add 200g of cold tap water)

Sunflower or plant oil for loaf tin greasing

Utensils

Clean tea towel

Oven

2lb cake or bread loaf tin

Mixing bowl x2 (or use 1 and wash in between)

Measuring jug

Kitchen scales

Wooden spoon

Kettle boiled with a little water

High sided oven tray

Method

Measure your flours and tip them into a large or medium mixing bowl. In a jug add the yeast to the water and give the mixture a stir with a wooden spoon. Let that sit up for 5 minutes.

Add the chosen oil into the flours and add the lukewarm water and yeast mixture. Mix it all together with your hands or spoon – it’s ok to get messy! When it is a rough looking dough, add the salt and work it in to the dough with your hands or wooden spoon. When mixed, tip it onto a lightly floured work surface.

Knead for 5 to 10 minutes – stretch it out and push it together basically. If you have a mixer you can use this with the dough hook for 5-10 mins. It will be wet at first and then get smoother. Have fun with it. Sometimes its fun to stretch it out and then slap it on the counter!

Then put your dough into a lightly greased, clean mixing bowl. Cover the top with a clean tea towel and leave it to rise for 1 hour. On a cold day it may take 90 minutes It should be doubled in size. If it isn’t then just give it a bit longer.

Grease your tin sides and edges with sunflower or plant oil.

When the dough is ready, push the air out of it by kneading it in the bowl a few times. I often pull up the sides and push them down into the middle. Lightly flour the work surface and tip your dough out, with the smoother side touching the worktop. Open it out into a thick square or rectangle shape. Then make it into a long shape by pulling each side outwards, folding into the middle and gently rolling it into a large sausage shape. Put the dough into the loaf tin with the join underneath.

The dough needs to prove before baking, for roughly 1 hour. Place a tea towel over the top and leave it in a warm room, but not on direct heat. When it’s ready the dough will spring back when prodded, instead of keeping the finger mark there.

Preheat your oven to 200C fan/220C/gas 7, with a high sided oven tray on the bottom shelf. Boil the kettle.

After the proving time, remove the tea towel or bag and put the dough filled tin in the oven. Carefully put the boiled water into the roasting tin – to make steam and then shut the door. Bake for about 35 minutes. If it is browning too much you can turn your oven down by 10 or 20 degrees. Check if your tin loaf is cooked after 35 minutes. To do this, use oven gloves to turn the loaf out of the tin. When you tap the base of the loaf it will sound hollow. This sounds like a ‘knock, knock’ instead of a ‘thud, thud’. If it is ready, keep it out of the tin and place on a cooling rack. If it isn’t ready, replace it back into the tin and bake for 5 more minutes. Test it again, when the 5 minutes has finished. Let it cool out of the tin on a cooling rack.

Enjoy your freshly baked loaf in any way you choose. Wrap it tightly when first sliced, for freshness and it will keep for at least 3 days. Once cooled you can freeze the whole loaf or half of the loaf, wrapped tightly, for at least 1 month. To defrost, remove from the freezer and leave at room temperature for at least 4 hours.

Let me know if you give this a try. Share with @thedoorstepbaker on Facebook or Instagram. If you enjoy making it, you can use the recipe to try out different flour varieties. Or give the focaccia a go on my recipe page.

If you enjoyed this recipe and want to try more, you can order a copy of my recipe book here.

Copyright The Doorstep Baker, Catherine Lloyd-Williams