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This is our favourite white bread. It has nice tall slices which are perfect for breakfast toast and sandwiches and a good flavoursome crumb. This is good old-fashioned bread at its best. Flavoured and fancy loaves have their place, but you can’t really dunk brioche in soup, can you?
For the loaf pictured above, I adapted the recipe to use the sponge method as used in almost all of Rose Levy Berenbaum’s bread recipes. Alas, this was not an improvement on the normally excellent loaf. I used honey instead of sugar (doubling the weight to make up for the water content) and ended up with a burnt and overly chewy crust instead of a lovely light golden one. The crumb was still good though thankfully. Not one of my successful kitchen experiments. I’ll be sticking to my tried and tested recipe in future….
Farmhouse White Bread
Tried and tested….
750g unbleached white bread flour (I use Doves Farm)
2tsp fine sea salt
30g unsalted butter, diced
2tsp caster sugar
10g (1 1/2 sachets) easyblend/instant yeast (NOT dry-active)
450ml lukewarm water
1kg loaf tin, greased
Gently warm the flour before you start. Leave it in a low oven for a few minutes, or in the microwave for 15 seconds.
Mix the salt with the flour and rub in the butter gently until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar and yeast well. Make a well in the flour and pour in approx 3/4 of the liquid. Using a wooden spoon, start mixing in the flour. Add the rest of the water if necessary. The mixture should be a soft but not sticky dough. If the dough seems dry or there are crumbs at the bottom of the bowl then add a little more warm water.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface – don’t worry if it looks a horrible mess at this point. Using lightly floured hands, knead for approx 5 minutes. The dough will feel firmer, very smooth and pliable. Return the dough to the mixing bowl (wash it out and lightly oil), cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for about one hour until doubled in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead gently on a lightly floured surface to expel all the over-large bubbles of air. Using plenty of flour on your hands and the work surface, flatten the dough to a rectangle with the short end the same width as the tin. Roll up tightly (from the short end) and place in the prepared tin, seam side down. Lightly dust with flour. Cover the tin with clingfilm (leaving enough room for rising) or place in a large food-grade plastic bag. Leave to rise until almost-doubled in size. Do not let the dough rise any further or it may collapse in the oven. (This will take about 40-60 minutes depending on the heat in the kitchen and the vigour of the yeast.)
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas8.
Remove the clingfilm (or take tin from bag) and bake for 30-35 minutes until the bread is a dark golden brown and sounds hollow when turned out and gently rapped underneath. Return the turned out bread to the oven, placing it directly on the shelf, and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the crust is really crisp all over. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Keeps for 4 days and freezes well!
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Try adding desert spoon of caraway seeds(used a lot in Poland paticularly for their sweet and sour bread)I have found a very reasonable site for, carawayseed, if anyone is interested.
I use a breadmaking machine(cookworks £23.99)Argus, which does a pretty good job, for those with less time available.
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You always have the greatest posts and beautiful pictures. You should def. get a book deal. Everytime I come to this blog, I feel the urge to jump into an apron, bake delicious loaves of fresh bread and then butter the slices up and eat them immediately. I still haven’t baked bread yet but I’m going to next weekend and this site is the first place I’m going to turn to. Thanks!
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Thanks Nia! *blushes* This is a nice easy bread to start off with. Good luck!!
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Can you explain why you say to NOT use dry active yeast? I have looked for other types and have never been able to find them. In my store they have regular and quick acting yeasts, available in packets or jars, but it’s the same stuff in either, just dry granules. (I live in Kansas City, Missouri.)
I love your site, and I visit often! Thanks for many many great recipes over the past months.
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Hi China. When I say not to use active dry yeast I’m talking about the regular stuff (large-ish granules). I find that it is very tempermental, goes off quickly, and is really hard to dissolve.
I use what I’m guessing is labelled quick-acting in the US. Tiny granules (significantly smaller than the regular stuff) and suitable for mixing directly with the flour rather than dissolving it. Usually it’s sold in 7g sachets which suits most recipes. They are both technically dry-active yeasts, however in the UK we only refer to the large granules as dry-active.
This fast acting yeast gives consistently great results. I’ve never had _any_ problems with it; whereas I could complain for hours about the regular stuff.
Fresh yeast (if you can find it) is even better but has a very short shelf-life in the fridge. Hope this helps!
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Angela — Thanks for the clarification! I think you’re right, the stuff I’m using is just like your easyblend/instant yeast, with very fine, almost powdery granules. I’ve never tried mixing the yeast into the dry ingredients before adding liquid, though, so I’m looking forward to it — especially since your recipe is tried and true (: The photo is lovely, I can only hope my loaf rises so impressively! Thanks again.
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Just wanted to report back that this is a FABULOUS recipe! I made it last night and I’ve never had bread rise so high before.
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Hi China! I’m so glad the bread turned out well! Hope it tasted good too
made the bread it was fab
Used this recipe a couple of times now, works well (I always had issues with bread before) but I find it’s a dense bread. First time I thought I’d kneaded it a bit too much, but now I suspect it may be how it’s ment to turn out?
Is there any chance of getting the pics on the older articles fixed so I can compare?
Thanks!