Mrs Green’s homemade bread recipe

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Mrs Green's favourite simple homemade bread recipe

It’s taken me a long time to master the art of bread making and it’s not through lack of trying.

I’ve made all sorts of loaves in my time, just nothing that’s edible. Back in the good old days of having a menagerie of animals even my DOG wouldn’t eat my bread – and he had a penchant for anything that smelled remotely of wheat.

Not being one to give up, I single mindedly decided to change the way I talk to myself this year. You see I’d got in the habit of walking into the kitchen with the wrong attitude. I told myself I couldn’t make bread, was rubbish at it, was bound to fail and there’s something pretty magical about being careful what you wish for 😉

Thought is energy which can manifest so I decided to change my beliefs and I kept the words of Drunvalo Melchizedek in my mind while I worked – “Trust in the process”.

I remained, positive, cheerful and upbeat even when my hands were covered in the most sticky, gloopy dough I had ever seen, but the instructions said a reassuring “don’t worry if your dough is sticky – you want your dough to be sticky. Your fingers will get covered in dough – don’t worry! The stickier your dough,the softer and better your bread.”

Phew!

Don't worry if your dough is sticky

After kneading sticky dough for 8 minutes a bit of alchemy started to take place and I ended up with a gorgeous ball of dough as soft as a baby’s bum cheek. After a while it had risen into frothy goodness and before long I was taking a perfect, I mean perfect loaf of bread out of the oven.

Now bread making is like sowing seeds in the spring time to me. It doesn’t matter how many times you do it, there is a complete sense of wonder and excitement when your seedling pops through the soil or you take your loaf of golden bread from the oven.

Homemade bread recipe

Ingredients

450g strong white bread flour

2tsp salt

7g fast action yeast

50g sunflower oil (pop a jug on the scales and weigh the oil in)

300ml warm water

Method

Sift flour and salt into a large bowl then stir in yeast.

Add the oil and water to your bowl.

Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it forms a dough then put onto a very lightly floured work surface.

Knead for 10 minutes and like I said before “Don’t worry if it’s sticky, really sticky” Just keep kneading and working that dough and if it helps pretend your two years old.

After 10 minutes you’ll get to the baby’s bottom stage with your dough – if you don’t add the tiniest, I mean tiniest amount of flour to the dough and watch a miracle take place in front of your eyes.

Put the dough into a lightly floured bowl and cover with that piece of polythene you’ve saved specifically to reuse for making bread 😉 Put the bowl in a warm place and leave until it is doubled in size (about an hour)

Take the dough out, give it a couple of thumps with your fist to knock out the air bubbles and form the bread into whatever shape you like – a big cob works for us; it’s simple and fuss free.

Put the loaf into the tin or on the tray you want to use for baking, loosely cover it and leave to rise in a warm place again – for about 1/2 an hour

Preheat the oven to 200/gas 6 and bake for 20 – 30 minutes depending on shape. When the bread is ready it will look browned and will make a hollow sound when you tap the bottom. I like to put a roasting tin of water into the bottom of the oven to create a steam oven as this adds a nice texture to the crust.

I’m so proud of this loaf I’d even serve it to my favourite master baker, Kristen from the Frugal Girl 😉

Homemade zero waste bread made for pence!

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