Using the same recipe as the pizza dough I often make my own bread and I’m getting to the point where I refuse to buy in mass produced rubbish, although Mrs Pizzageek picks the odd loaf up and she prefers granary anyway.
Behold… bread.
The difference between making the pizza dough and this is just that you do a second rise in a loaf tin (covered with a shower cap / cling film) for 30 minutes before it goes in the oven (gas mark 5 or 6 ish for 30 minutes – centre shelf). Do remove the covering before it goes in the oven won’t you? Oh, and dust it lightly with a little flour -see photo as I’ve also added a few poncey cuts in the top. Oooh get me.
But I have a bread machine, wouldn’t it be a lot easier to do it that way? Well yes, of course but I want it to look and taste nice – bread machines are wonderful for the mixing bit, but that’s about all in my opinion.
I’ve just had 2 slices of that very loaf as toast for breakfast and believe me, it was absolutely delicious.
We’ve become so used to this convenience bread in the UK that it’s a real culture shock travelling just over 30 minutes under the sea to France. Every village has a bakery… and I’ve yet to be dissatisfied with a single one. I’ll let some properly-educated culturalist do the talking when it comes to the differences between the French and the English but rest assured, we should emulate at least this part of their système and get back to eating real bread.
Local bakeries within the UK – rise up! (an irresistible pun, sorry)
