Making bread is easy!

Making bread is easy!

Making bread is easy!Bread is a simple and natural food. It is healthy in many ways.

It helps to balance our diet thanks to a high starch intake and provides many minerals, vitamins and plant proteins.

Its fibre content is also an asset for healthy bowels.

Bread ingredients
Bread ingredients

Get to know the different ingredients used to make bread.

Flour, water, yeast or sourdough and salt are the 4 ingredients used in bread-making:
  • Flour is rich in gluten which makes bread light.
  • Water wets the flour. With water, the starch swells and gluten becomes soft. Its temperature should not exceed 30°C.
  • Salt is the ingredient that gives bread all its flavour. It is indispensable in bread-making.
  • Yeast is a microscopic unicellular fungus called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This is the ingredient that makes the dough rise.
Get kneading
Get kneading

With all these ingredients, just follow this easy recipe step-by-step to make your own bread!

Utensils:

  • 1 large mixing bowl
  • 1 plastic bag
  • A baking sheet
  • 1 cutter

Ingredients:

  • 500g strong flour
  • 1 x 5g sachet of instant dried yeast = 1/2 cube of fresh yeast (21g) = 25 ml liquid yeast
  • About 30 cl lukewarm water
  • 1.5 teaspoonful salt (10g)

First mix all the ingredients in your mixing bowl.
You need to dilute dried yeast beforehand in a little lukewarm water.

Then knead the dough by hand until you obtain a smooth dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl.
Here is a tip for easy manual kneading: just knead the dough rapidly with a spatula, let it rest for 10 minutes then work it for a further 1 minute.

Then let the dough rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the temperature in your kitchen. You should cover the dough with a clean towel then place it in a plastic bag to prevent it from drying.
Here's a tip to guarantee more flavour: let the dough ball rest all night in your refrigerator. Before you divide it up, let the dough warm up for an hour at room temperature.

Then divide the dough into two and reshape the balls.

Place the balls on a baking sheet covered in baking paper and leave to rise for 1 1/2 hours under a clean towel then in the plastic bag. The dough should double in volume.
During this time, pre-heat your oven to 250°C (thermostat 7-8). You just need to snip the top of the loaf with the cutter. Then put the whole tray in the oven and bake the balls for 10 minutes at 250°C then 35-40 minutes at 200°C.
Once the bread is baked, leave to cool before tasting.

For a golden and crusty loaf, spray the dough with water just before putting it into the oven.

Enjoy!

If you like making your own bread or brioche (sweet bun), visit the www.club-paneo.com website which features lots of tasty recipes.