Day 28 - bread

Last time, I shared a recipe for rye bread with seeds, this time I voted for a more regular one.

BREAD
makes: 750 g

500 g flour + 200 g flour
pinch of salt
42 g yeast
sprinkle of sugar
500 ml hot water


Sift 500 g of flour into a big bowl (with a cover) and sprinkle with salt. Make room in the middle of the flour for the sourdough, creating a hole.

In another bowl prepare your sourdough: Crumble the yeast, sprinkle with sugar, just a bit, and add hot, but not boiling water, quickly mix the yeast to dissolve it, cover the bowl with a napkin and leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.

When the water turns bubbly and rises, pour the sourdough little by little into the hole in the flour and with a fork, proceed to mixing, gradually adding more sourdough as you proceed.

When you have used all the water and the flour, mixing roughly (don't bother creating a smooth dough), just cover your bowl and set aside for 1 hour. Remember, to keep your kitchen draft-free and warm the whole time!

After one hour, it's time for hand-kneading. Your dough should have risen to double the size by now. Just bury your hands in the dough and knead away, adding more flour as needed, until you achieve a smooth dough that no longer sticks to your fingers. You can do this best on a counter or table, not in the bowl, because you need room for kneading. So, place your dough on a working surface, covered with flour, knead away, and then top the bowl with flour and insert the dough back in, cover and set aside for another hour.

After an hour, knead your dough one last time, this time shaping it in a desired form. I made a loaf. Grease your baking tray, top with flour as well, and then place the dough onto the tray. Cover with napkin and set aside for yet another hour.

By this time the only thing left to do is to bake your bread. Uncover the bread, place it in a cold (!) oven a heath the oven to 180°C. Heating should take about 10 minutes and the bread should rise further more in the oven. After this 10 minutes, just leave the bread to bake for another 30 minutes.

When the bread turns a golden color, remove from oven, brush with some water (use a cooking brush) and then with regular oil (just a bit). Wrap in cloth and leave it to cool down. You can remove the bread from the baking tray to cool it from bottom as well.

The water will render the bread soft, leaving only a hint of crust (so if you like crust, skip this step), and the oil will keep the bread moist longer.

Serve warm for dinner (sandwich) or breakfast the next day (we did both!) :)